The big battle is coming for Idlib, Syria It really is a big deal

HTS has been gaining much ground recently. They also have possession of tanks.

Just a pic of #Jihadi #HTS militants standing on the #SyrianRevolution flag. The revolution failed in #Idlib. #Terrorists stay in control of the province.

In the same thread above the linked one in the image there has been a document alleging to be an agreement for the disbandment of one group to cede their authority to HTS.

SMM Syria
‏ @smmsyria
Jan 9

❗️HUGE! #Hama/#Idlib
#HTS-#Ahrar_al_Sham (AaSh) agreement:
- AaSh pass #Ghab valley, surrounding mountains and towns to HTS
- AaSh pass all heavy weapons to HTS, leave small arms only
- AaSh pass all HQ to HTS, than disband
- HTS pursue no one, let people go and stay if necessary

Recently there have been a convoy spotted of FSA affiliate groups heading towards some towns to prevent HTS expansion; as well as some found footage of an engagement from the NLF defending against HTS expansion Jan 05, 2019.

SMM Syria
‏ @smmsyria

#InCaseYouMissedIt
📹#Exclusive footage dated January 5: #NLF Nour al Din al Zenki militants defend #Aleppo's #Atarib town from #HTS terrorists


SMM Syria
‏ @smmsyria

#InCaseYouMissedIt
📹 #Exclusive: the footage allegedly demonstrates #FSA convoy heading towards #Atarib to defend the town of #HTS

originally posted by: worldstarcountry
a reply to: 727Sky
There is sooo much Turkish armor and heavy weapons inside Idlib now it is difficult to quantify. They have also parked them right along the front lines where the Syrian army plans to assault first. Certainly this has caused them to have to rethink their strategy.

So NATO took East Syria for its European and American hegemony, but it seems to me Erdogan plans on taking Idlib for Turkey itself. Well Russia got Crimea, East Ukraine, and Abkhazia and South Ossetia since 2009. I guess we are all just adding land to our empires again. And who said colonialism is dead?

NATO forces wont be in East Syria forever. Its rather laughable how MSM still prefers to call the groups in Idlib Rebels. When in fact they aren't rebels never were.

a reply to: AtlasHawk

Forever, 99 years, either way they will be there longer than the average life span of a human.

Trump threatens to ‘devastate Turkey economically’ if it attacks Kurds amid US withdrawal from Syria

www.rt.com...

Donald Trump has warned its NATO ally to beware of the devastative wrath of US economic pressure if Turkey dares to attack the Kurdish allies America is leaving behind in its “long overdue” pull-out of troops from Syria.

The US military, Trump promised, will still use an “existing nearby base,” apparently in Iraq, to attack the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants if the terrorist organization re-emerges in Syria. Using his typical mode of communication to reaffirm the withdrawal of American troops from the ground, the US president warned Ankara against seeing this as an opportunity to stage any military campaign against Syrian Kurds.

“Will devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds,” Trump tweeted, urging Ankara to create a “20-mile safe zone.”

Turkey's response..

Turkey, however, remains firmly committed to removing what they call a Kurdish “terrorist” threat coming from the Euphrates River valley, and is actively preparing for a possible cross-border operation. “Our preparation continues intensely,” the Turkish defense minister said Friday.

a reply to: 727Sky
There has been some good footage coming out from the last week of the successful expansion of HTS (Al-qaeda in Syria) against the NLF (Turkey backed rebel faction under the FSA umbrella) in the Idlib de-escalation zone. As a result, Russian forces have moved closer into the Idlib de-escalation zone border region. HTS has openy stated they would support a Turkish intervention into northern Rojava to attack the Kurds. The counter build-up of forces by the Syrian army trying to deter cross border aggression against the Kurdish YPG/SDF alliance gave HTS the opportunity to make these gains while the Syrians were redeploying their assets.

HTS is exempt from the cease-fire agreement, and this consolidation would make it simpler for the Russian/Syrian/Iranian axis to advance their operation into Idlib proper as the chance of collateral damage of advisors or assets embedded with their proxy groups is now reduced with their absence. I firmly believe we are going to see this go hot and ready by Spring Break. All of this information is gathered from the following two days South Front reports.

Also, Israel continues not giving a # and doing whatever it wants striking Syria at its leisure. Iran continues to suffer those consequences.

a reply to: OneArmedBandit
Not even close, you should be so lucky to have it all end.

This is as far from WW3 as can be, in fact it may not even be a footnote in the history books, depending on whos writing the history books some many years from now.

Believe it or not most people world wide would not even be able to point to Syria on a map. This is all just business as usual. I think there once was a country and nation in that spot, now its just a free for all grab, and when the smoke clears the corps will come in and have cheap labor. Syria will become the mexico of Israel, complete with big ol Wall as well.

This is what happens when you can not protect yourself but thorough the promises and words of others. I mean they dont even have a first amendment. Like a gazelle that's limping on the Serengeti, its picked apart first by the scavengers like hyenas ie militant Islamist, then when the lions come ie Corps and special interests, they scatter as they lay on the carcass to finish the deal.

If anything this should be on the history channel and Morgan freeman should narrate it. Along with a video on Libya as well.

a reply to: galadofwarthethird
Countries were born and torn apart in each of the last two world wars, and so have they been in this third one raging ten years strong. Most humans on Earth couldn't point to most any other nation on Earth on a map if it does not directly border them.

And like the previous two world wars, unless you lived in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East or Pacific Islands most people on Earth went about their lives as usual, much like today. Its even better today, most people don't even know what is happening because they gladly jump into the fray of fabricated reality TV that is the current dog and pony show of Trump theater and Congressional antics. There is a reason it is being designed to be so irresistible to invest so much time and emotion into the latest weeks absolute media nonsense. It is so people can just be like "dur, you call this a world war? I been playing the VR in the park racing drones and then Instagram the whole thing! Theres nothing going on!"

Keep telling yourself that. Right now Six major military powers are facing off with arms mere kilometers from each other. You can see many flags from one position in some places. France, USA, Turkey, Russia, Iran and Syria. With them on either side are forces from allied nations such as Lebanese Hezbollah, Britain, Netherlands and many other NATO members, Israel, volunteers from Mauritania and the occasional Egyptian just to name a handful.

Can you cite another time in recent history where a number of major military powers, two of them global super powers, were officially within standoff distance in a war zone with their arms and flags within line of sight in some places?? Everybody ready to shoot at everybody? It may have happened in Korea or Vietnam right? Afghanistan and Iraq were pretty much just the NATO and their member states flags flew mostly unchallenged by any regular forces.

Believe it, this is the third major global conflict in the last century, and many other prophetic occurrences from the interstellar to cultural are happening in tandem with the activities of this conflict.

a reply to: worldstarcountry
I am quite sure that this is of great importance to the people living in those nations. But that is all. So no, this is as far from WW3 as can be. So you got a bunch of countries in the middle east staring at each other from across lines.

Nothing new there.

In fact here in the US they will still likely be arguing over a wall which would do not that much, and would be but a drop in the bucket, that the only solution would be just to get it over with already, so everybody can go on to actual important things. And they will likely be arguing and prostrating and ego thumping like a bunch of retarded goats, for the past coming few months, if not years.

I personally don't see what you all are fighting about in the middle east, and dont think the US should have gotten into it from the get go. As for Israel, let them handle it. I mean they cant come crying to daddy every time they have a hiccup, over whatever the hell there trying to do, and considering they have been provided more then enough to handle this, its just becoming tiresome.

So you got Israel on one side with there expansion, the Saudis on another side with there expansion and fighting the other brand of Islam, Russia in the middle, doing what ever it is there doing there, and the US finally realizing that maybe they should not waste so much time on nonsense because the nonsense they got at home may take longer then the whole middle eastern wars to get through.

But like you said, everybody else is busy with there Instagram following to even notice. And politics being politics, its just likely to end up nowhere. We all like to think were the center of the universe, but were not. And this is all just a hiccup. And instagram will still be up and running many years after all this in the middle east is either dust, or settled. Let that sink in for a while, while I go watch some cat videos.

The so called rebels are being supplied with more chemical weapons and plan a many pronged attack in the near future. It would appear someone does not want the USA to pull out all their support troops.
youtu.be...

There was an agressive campaign of bombardment today by the Syrian and Russian forces into North Hama within the buffer zone after Jayish al Islam or whatever hit on of the Syrian positions with an ATGM killing two.

Saw heavy artillery shelling targeting the town of Kfar Zeita, north of Hama, by Russian forces

Syrian Army unleashes large-scale attack across northern Hama

BEIRUT, LEBANON (7:00 P.M.) – The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) unleashed a large-scale assault along the northern axis of the Hama Governorate, today, targeting Jaysh Al-Izza’s positions inside the designated buffer zone.

According to a field source, the Syrian Arab Army began targeting Jaysh Al-Izza’s positions with a wide variety of missiles, hitting several sites inside the front-lines towns of Tal Huwayr, Sukeek, Tal Aghbar, and Kafr Zita.

The source added that the Syrian Arab Army launched this big assault in northern Hama after Jaysh Al-Izza targeted their positions at the Zaleen Checkpoint with a Kornet anti-tank guided missile (ATGM).

The Kornet attack by Jaysh Al-Izza on the Syrian Arab Army’s positions at the Zaleen Checkpoint resulted in the death of two soldiers.

Furthermore, the attack resulted in the destruction of the Syrian military’s outpost at this important checkpoint along the Hama-Idlib axis.

originally posted by: musicismagic
My questions is, where do they buy the bullets?

The rebels where armed and funded by the USA. A war by proxy. Read the pentagon papers,

While we may not have been updating this thread recently, there has not been a cessation of activity in the time since, and the last few weeks have seen significant increased Russian and Syrian airstrikes paving the way for ground forces to reclaim land. So far recently the SYrian Army has advanced past northern Hama and now taken a handful of town inside Southern Idlib itself. Turkey has sent reinforcements to their observation posts for what seems like preparation to confront the Syrian army. Here is some footage and analysis from the weekend events by Southfront and R&U war diary project.


The past weeks activities is also available for study on their channel.

I doubt that the Turkish forces will be willing to fight the Syrian army to any significant degree. The Russians are the ones in charge at this point, and I think they have a strategy in place. The Kurds will not be allowed to declare an independent state, and will eventually be forced to accept rule by the Syrian government again. The Turks will withdraw, and the Rebel groups will be left to fend for themselves (which means getting killed or surrendering).

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan
I don't see why they could not declare independence. The truckloads of heavy freight from the Iraqi border to the Kurdish majority forces have been ongoing daily for years straight. Lots of weapons, radar sites, armored vehicles, as well as pieces of infrastructure construction equipment all kinds of machinery. The whole "were pulling out of Syria" was quite laughable the moment it was said.

Afrin and maybe Manbij and all those areas may have to go back to Syria, but it really looks like this is the exact same method that was used eighty years ago when Israel was born, just Kurds instead. I sincerely believe Damascus is not getting that land back between the river and the Iraq border.

I am suddenly in the mood for Cottage Cheese.

Here is an interesting set of images of Russian PMC mortar team surveying the Syrian Arab Army operation over a hilltop with a set of drones. Perhaps we will see more of this soon??

Presumably, Russian PMC mortar team overlooking Ghrab Plain where SAA is on offensive currently.

Some footage of the SAA during a battle on May 10 in North Hama as well as a Golan-2 Missile Strike from the Latakia area days prior to that.

There was a set of images released by a rebel special forces ambush against a Syrian Army position. Based on the images and reports, it was a massacre. Completely caught them off guard from behind. Thats quite insidious.
[Graphic 18+] Jihadist special forces release up close photos of deadly ambush in northeast Latakia

A compilation of yesterday events. Jihadists tried to find a weakness in the front lines, but failed to do so. Syrian army then runs a counter offensive, losing up to 20 guys in the process renewed shelling by both sides, army uses tanks, air force conducts multiple airstrikes.

As promised, some sources for this area of conflict.
Start with Sana the Syrian Arab news Source
Step News Agency covers this area as well, but can be difficult to navigate in the translated version. It is domestic, so they do not offer an English one. Has to be translated with third party.
Al-Masdar News is my primary source for this area of conflict.

Twitter accounts:
Rojava Defense Units covers the area primarily from the perspective of the SDF Kurds.
Cᴀʟɪʙʀᴇ Oʙsᴄᴜʀᴀ focuses on identifying arms from irregular groups. Writes more extensively on his website
XXVII | Military Analyst | Syrian War | Ret. Boogeyman | Phd. Linguist | | Askeri Analist | Suriye Savaşı | Dilbilimci 🇹🇷🇬🇧🇩🇪🇳🇱 |
Woofers "I do Syria stuff. Mostly in the north. Now focusing on reconstruction"
MrRevinsky covers jihadists groups and debunks Russian bull#, but I linked his Syria/Idlib thread which is updated daily it seems.

Theres plenty more, and the key is to look for re-tweets in their feed of other accounts who will add exclusive content and grow the list of regular sources. Sometimes a source will only update like once a week, others daily. Some will have images and videos, others will only have text of breaking events. I tell you this, there is no shortage whatsoever.

If you find a video you cannot find on youtube for an embed, you can just go to www.downloadtwittervideo.com, enter the url and save it. Then you can upload it to youtube, or if you want I can upload it for you if you ask me. The thing is though, many times the video is already there but uploaded in either Arabic, Turkic, Kurdish or some other language that will not show if you search in English. That changed in the middle of me covering Mosul liberation a year and a half ago.

I do check in here now and then, if you need help finding something just ask or send me a PM.