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Syrian government forces, led by the 800th Commandos Battalion of the Republican Guard, repelled ISIS attempts to capture al-Sukhnah town and re-taken Al-Taybah village and Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi Castle near it.
The ISIS advance on the pumping station also resulted in a failure. With this al-Shula and Bir Ghabaghib remained they key areas where ISIS achieved some success. Clashes are ongoing there.
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies are working to restore security in al-Qaryatayn town that has been at least partly captured by ISIS sleeper cells. Government forces have encircled the town and all sort of communications inside it are jammed. This explains a lack of photos and videos from the area. ISIS supporters inside al-Qarytayn have almost no heavy weapons and equipment. So, the key SAA problem is to conduct an operation avoiding major civilian casualties.
Inside the ISIS-held pocket east of Salamiyah, government forces captured Rasm Abaykah, Rasm Abd and Soha and continued advancing on Akash. The army is seeking to establish control over the road separating the northern and southern parts of the pocket.
Separately, the SAA pushed towards the ISIS-held town of Mayadin in the Euphrates Valley. Government forces advanced about 10km and outflanked Muhassan where clashes erupted. The goal of the advance is put additional pressure on ISIS and to force it to redeploy forces from the Palmyra-Deir Ezzor highway area to the Euphrates Valley. If ISIS avoids dong this, government troops would threaten to capture this key ISIS-held stronghold.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) used the fierce fighting between the SAA and ISIS to develop momentum on the eastern bank of the Euphrates and seized the Jafra oil field and nearby processing facilities.
SDF units also engaged ISIS units south of the recently captured al-Suwar village northeast of Deir Ezzor as well as captured Kubar village and advanced on Harmushiyah village northwest of Deir Ezzor.
In Raqqah city, the SDF further advanced against ISIS but no major breakthrough in the military situation in the area was reported.
On October 1, Omid Kabar a SDF commander said at a funeral for SDF fighters killed in Raqqa city that the SDF will not handover al-Tabqah town or any other area to the Syrian government. He also claimed that over 300 SAA soldiers defected to the SDF during the “last period”. However, Kabar did reveal no details or proofs.
Kabar’s statement reflects the SDF public policy aimed to show the difference between US-backed forces and the so-called Assad regime. However, behind the scene the SDF is pushed to cooperate with the government closely to manage the economy of the SDF-held area.
I found this summary and analysis of Syria interesting:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-01/pax-syriana-neither-vanquished-nor-all-conquering
“……..The Syrian Army has consistently bridged the gap and eased the friction between the rural and urban centers of Syria and the rich and the poor. It is first necessary to take a closer look at some of the ethnicity and religious affiliations of key figures that have shaped the Syrian Army in the run up to the takeover by Hafez al Assad. Colonel Haydar al Kuzbari was a Sunni who played a key role in ending the union between Egypt and Syria. General Abdel Karim Zahareddine was a Druze Chief of Staff of the military and took over after affairs settled once Syria had firmly established itself, out from under Egypt’s grasp. Ziad al Harriri was a Sunni head of the army and defense minister in 1963. Amin al Hafez was another Sunni head of army and presided when the Baathists crushed a Sunni uprising in Hama in 1964 through aerial bombing, including mosques.
Here, it should be noted, almost twenty years before Hafez al Assad’s raid on Hama (1982), is a Sunni head of army and state crushing an Islamist uprising. Furthermore in 1952 a prior Hama rebellion was crushed by Sunni officers under a Sunni from Hama, Adib Shishakli. Mustafa Tlass also testified to the non-sectarian nature of the crushing of three Hama rebellions by the Syrian Army spread over three decades. Abdel Karim al Nahlwai, who was also an officer in the army and instrumental in its decision to draw Syria out of Egypt’s clutches, was also a Sunni.
The Baathists took on the mantle of educating the army officers throughout the 1970s. The Syrian military ruled through a praetorian-patrimonial model rather than as an outright parliamentary executive power. The army had to adapt itself from not just being a military force to becoming the political guardian of the country. Assad turned the army into a unified force and set about professionalizing it. Ironically, it was also him who oversaw the chaos of Lebanon which was completely riven along sectarian fault lines. There were as many inter-Alawi intrigues as non-Alawi. The Syrian army lost political power during the regime of President Hafiz al-Assad, as he himself was a former officer and knew how to control the armed forces. …..”
“……As we saw the Syrian Army battle its way to victory in key towns such as Qusayr and Yabroud in 2014, along with this year’s major strategic victories in Aleppo and the suburbs of Damascus, it is once again important to look at how and where the Syrian Army honed its fighting skills.
The above is a taste of the full article.
The US Army will install Israel’s Trophy active-protection system on its third-generation main battle tanks, M1A2 Abram, making it the first foreign army to use the system which is designed to detect and neutralize incoming projectiles.
The US army is likely to use the tanks equipped with Israeli active protection systems in the Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq and Syria where it has deployed thousands of troops purportedly to fight against Daesh terrorists.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/10/02/537241/US-Army-to-install-Israeli-equipment-on-tanks
“It is now clear that the unexpected counterattack that ISIS militants launched near the Deir ez-Zor and Palmyra, forcing Russia’s air group deployed in Syria to take urgent measures to repel it, that almost overran positions occupied by Syrian forces was staged by the US and its Kurdish SDF allies along with a number of local Sunni tribes.
As for the death of Russian General Valery Asapov who was struck dead during enemy shelling at his C2 post, it’s curious that the shot that murdered this high-profile Russian officer was made with such deadly precision. There’s no chance that one could land such a shot without access to satellite and air photos. It’s hardly a secret that the Islamic State (ISIS) has no access to this level of reconnaissance assets, but Washington does.
Moreover, a detachment up to 6.000 militants could not approach Deir ez-Zor from the southeast unnoticed. Such a force would be inevitably detected by US-coalition aircraft and satellites. But Washington appear to have been indifferent in transferring this information to the Russian military command, since the United States was pursuing several goals other than fighting ISIS, including:
to ensure that pro-US Kurdish forces would be able to occupy vast oil fields near Deir ez-Zor;
to disrupt the crossing of Syrian army troops to the east bank of the Euphrates via a pontoon bridge built by Russian military engineers and;
to undermine the prestige of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and the forces he commands on the eve of the 2-year anniversary of the arrival of the Russian air group to Syria.”
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/10/03/neo-how-washington-found-itself-in-bed-with-isis/
It’ pretty clear both sides are intent upon killing off unrepentent ISIS fighters, accounting for a certain level of cooperation, especially concerning the elimination of Arab foreign fighters.
At the same time the US controlled ‘coalition’ is doing everything it can to recruit Kurdish and local tribal fighters, bolstering the SDF ahead of the next stage of this war. Should Syria be intransigent concerning coalition/SDF demands for local autonomy then it’s likely the unsteady alliance breaks down and the SAA and SDF clash directly, something neither side would benefit from at this stage.
Barzani’s referendum gives up the game as to the goal which remains the partitioning of Iraq near term and perhaps Syria later on. Erdogan could be hedging hit bets in public but still planning to attempt an emptying of Kurds residing in Turkey, having already forced millions to flee ahead of this war.
Prior to 2011 the Kurdish population of Syria was aproximately 2 million, most of whom were refugees. In the previous Syrian census, I’m forgetting the year, the Kurdish population of Syria numbered roughly 200 000.
So in effect, the plan to partition Syria and Iraq has always included massive forced movements of civilians, especially Kurds. Kurdish fighters are not necessarily supported by Kurdish refugees in Syria, some of whom still appreciate the Syrian government’s relatively welcoming attitude prior to this war.
Erdogan and his vociferously nationalistist supporters, on the other hand, sees Kurds as a major demographic problem for Turkey, although a significant part of AKP support comes from Kurds who approve of and support the Turkification of their brethren, a situation where a brutalized people take on the mantle of their abusers, and come to adopt an attitude of hatred towards those who refuse to assimilate, all together making Erdogan’s position much more precarious than it seems.
Finally Erdogan recently signed a deal with Theresa May whereby the UK will provide significant assistance to Turkey via it’s own aerospace industry, for the design and manufacture of an indigenously produced 5th
generation fighter. The UK has been perfidiously organizing a coalition of Turkey, Iran and Qatar, in league with the Muslim Brotherhood, to develop a new alignment and to partially displace Russia as the sole major supplier of gas to the EU, from the Pars gas field shared by Iran and Qatar, and transported via a pipeline to Turkey.
Whatever concerns some might have over the Russian sale of S300’s to Turkey, the biggest prize will go to the Anglo-Americans, as Turkey is set to resume it’s historic position as a transit point between east and west, only this time it will be mainly gas, not silk, which will turn this relatively large country into an economic powerhouse. The Russians are themselves the single largest investor in Iraqi Kurdistan, so they are banking on a peaceful future, which includes an at least partially redrawn social, political and economic of the region.
So, as I said above, this is how frenemies cooperate, and make a bundle in the process.
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SAA has approximately 1.400 km active battle front and 800 km not active.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DH9GoHrXoAAEayd.jpg
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East Hama pocket split in two and almost done.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLPHcj6UMAAtAyO.jpg
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SAA currently 60 km from Al Tanf border crossing.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLOrrpIWkAEIUTn.jpg
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SAA & allies apparently pushing from Deir Ezzor to Mayadeen on both banks of the Euphrates.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLOVh-wVYAA4piN.jpg
Race to Mayadeen in fact happening on three routes:
– East bank of Euphrates
– West bank highway
– West bank desert road through Ad Hamirah
Current battle front close to Sillu.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=35.146301&lon=40.410461&z=11&m=b&gz=0;401529693;351235591;0;780272;2087402;0;1840209;1621453