I doubt that Ankara has any desire to relieve Aleppo. It would provoke Moscow for starters. And overextend their forces overnight.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
I swear, Putin must've painted his judo training dummy with Assad's likeness by now, just so that he can punch the retard in the face. On a slightly more positive side, it seems that even our government is sliding towards the popular opinion of "just shoot Assad in a ditch somewhere."
edited 22nd Sep '16 12:02:37 PM by KnitTie
Could Assad really have conducted such a massive bombing without tacit Russian approval?
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Beware the Crazy Man.
They knew it was gonna happen before it did if thats what you mean. Whether they approve is different. They can't exactly bomb Assad's air force without making their own job harder....and chasing the chinless wonder completely into Iran's camp. That and, obviously, they see the firebombing of Aleppo as militarily useful if otherwise inconvenient.
Some strange news out of Eritrea about Houthi rebels, and I can't verify it (anyone know the veracity of the Sudan Tribune?), but it seems they might have attacked
an Eritrean naval facility, possible due to Eritrea agreeing to be a training ground for Saudi-backed forces.
A procrastination in of itself
If the Russians are going to do anything about Assad they will have to coordinate it with Iran, that means long drawn out meetings while they argue over who to replace Assad with. Still I doubt the Iranians are particularly happy with this development.
In other Syria news the Turks are building up their forces in the buffer zone, apparently the next stage of their campaign is to take Al-Bab, though we will have to wait and see.
The rebel attempt to link up with Hama has been making progress and may become a pincer move, the rebels that have been around northern Homs for the last few years are apparently pushing north.
If Assad pushes hard into Aleppo with his few ground forces he might end up having to pull forces from Hama and Homs and thus hand them over to the rebels. Though he may simply have extra troops on the way due to the Kurds having kicked him out east. I'm not seeing anything new on any of the Kurdish pushes by the way, that the same for you guys?
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Beware the Crazy Man.
Nothing from the Kurds (other than a proposal for the US to arm them directly, without the fig leaf of the SDF), and that pincer could prove interesting unless more reinforcements can be sent from Assad's allies.
Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...
Assad's bombing campaign cut off Aleppo's water supply.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37460849
The law in the night
Good job, chinless halfwit.
Inter arma enim silent leges
Shameful Display
And people call the US and Israel barbaric.
I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.
Oh Jack...
Beware the Crazy Man.
Good way to get his half of the city to hate the rebel half, if they required further convincing...
Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...
So there are reports of a new offensive in Aleppo by the SAA. Is this another one of Assad's idiotic mistakes, or is it actually possible for him to achieve something there this time?
A procrastination in of itself
It's possible, the seige seems to be holding, I suspect due to a combination of Assad getting reinforcements (both from abroad and his troops stranded out east coming home), the FSA being focuses on racing the Kurds to Al-Bab and AQ being focuses on their push south to Hama.
Still if Assad keeps attacking city wide infrastructure and the city at large he may turn either the Aleppo Kurds or the pro-Assad population of the city against him, maybe both. So who knows.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Cross posting from the US Politics thread; el-Sisi of Egypt has a new fan: Donald Trump.
http://www.vox.com/world/2016/9/23/13030302/trump-abdel-fattah-el-sisi-praise
Trump apparently thinks that gunning down 800 protestors and rallying support for terror groups counts is effective counter-terrorism.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Beware the Crazy Man.
That's Donald Trump trying to appease the party more than anything else (not that I don't think, given his Putin love, that he personally disagrees, I just doubt he knew the name of the Egyptian leader until recently). The GOP has very loudly loved el-Sisi since the coup against Morsi in 2013.
Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...
Beware the Crazy Man.
Cross-posted from the military thread:
HSV-2 Swift, formerly contracted to the US Navy and now with the UAE, has reportedly been sunk off the coast of Yemen.
So how are the things on the front?
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
I know the U.S. has formally withdrawn from ceasefire talks. I don't know what good that will do, though, as it just gives Assad and Russia a freer hand in dealing with the rebel pocket of Aleppo. Unless the idea was that the U.S. knew we can't stop them, but we can at least formally disavow what they're doing there.
The U.S. has been acting rather strangely when it comes to diplomacy so far, methinks, with their assumption that, for some reason, Putin actually cares about their approval and therefore will bow to their demands without any appeasement or favour trading.
edited 4th Oct '16 6:57:16 AM by KnitTie
Beware the Crazy Man.
It seems there is about to be a show down in Dabiq, which in Islamic eschatology holds the same significance as Megiddo does in Christian eschatology.
It is my hope that Daesh takes it so seriously that they send everything they have to defend it, but alas that isn't likely. But they are sending more to defend that town than is strictly necessary at least, so...
Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...
Beware the Crazy Man.
So it seems that treaty Russia signed with Syria a bit over a year ago, allowing themselves to keep Hmiemmeem base forever has now had official approval from the State Duma. Interestingly, the naval base at Tartus is not covered by that treaty, and there might be a seperate treaty written to address the issue.
Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Interesting. Though it's not like our Duma isn't in cahoots with Putin 75% of the time and completely powerless otherwise.
edited 8th Oct '16 3:17:39 AM by KnitTie
Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018
Exclusive: Russia builds up forces in Syria, Reuters data analysis shows
Russia has built up its forces in Syria since a ceasefire collapsed in late September, sending in troops, planes and advanced missile systems, a Reuters analysis of publicly available tracking data shows.
The data points to a doubling of supply runs by air and sea compared to the nearly two-week period preceding the truce. It appears to be Russia's biggest military deployment to Syria since President Vladimir Putin said in March he would pull out some of his country's forces.
The increased manpower probably includes specialists to put into operation a newly delivered S-300 surface-to-air missile system, military analysts said.
The S-300 system will improve Russia's ability to control air space in Syria, where Moscow's forces support the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and could be aimed at deterring tougher U.S. action, they said.
"The S-300 basically gives Russia the ability to declare a no-fly zone over Syria," said Justin Bronk, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London.
"It also makes any U.S. attempt to do so impossible. Russia can just say: 'We're going to continue to fly and anything that tries to threaten our aircraft will be seen as hostile and destroyed'."
Russia's Defence Ministry did not respond to written questions. A senior air force official, speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed talk of an increase in supply shipments.
But data collated by Turkish bloggers for their online Bosphorus Naval News project, and reviewed by Reuters, shows reinforcements sent via Russia's "Syrian Express" shipping route from the Black Sea increased throughout September and have peaked in the last week.
The data shows 10 Russian navy ships have gone through the Bosphorus en route to Syria since late September, compared with five in the 13-day period before the truce — from Aug. 27 to Sept. 7.
That number includes The Mirazh, a small missile ship which a Reuters correspondent saw heading through the Bosphorus toward the Mediterranean on Friday.
Two other Russian missile ships were deployed to the Mediterranean on Wednesday.
Some of the ships that have been sent to Syria were so heavily laden the load line was barely visible above the water, and have docked at Russia's Tartus naval base in the Western Syrian province of Latakia. Reuters has not been able to establish what cargo they were carrying.
Troops and equipment are also returning to Syria by air, according to tracking data on website Flight Radar 24.com.
Russian military cargo planes flew to Russia's Hmeymim airbase in Syria six times in the first six days of October — compared to 12 a month in September and August, a Reuters analysis of the data shows.
INCREASED ACRIMONY
Russia sent its air force to support the Syrian Army a year ago when Moscow feared Assad was on the point of succumbing to rebel offensives. U.S.-led forces also carry out air strikes in Syria, targeting Islamic State positions.
Aerial bombardments in the past two weeks, mainly against rebel-held areas in the Syrian city of Aleppo, have been among the heaviest of the civil war, which has killed more then 300,000 people in 5-1/2 years.
Since the collapse of the ceasefire in September, acrimony between the United States and Russia has grown and Washington has suspended talks with Moscow on implementing the truce.
U.S. officials told Reuters on Sept. 28 that Washington had started considering tougher responses to the assault on Aleppo, including the possibility of air strikes on an Assad air base.
"They (Russia) probably correctly surmise that eventually American policy will change," Bronk said, commenting on the analysis of the tracking data.
"They are thinking: 'We're going to have to do something about this, so better to bring in more supplies now ... before it potentially becomes too touchy'."
The Flight Radar 24.com data shows Ilyushin Il-76 and Antonov An-124 cargo planes operated by the Russian military have been flying to Syria multiple times each month. It offers no indication of what the aircraft are carrying.
But the Il-76 and An-124 transporters can carry up to 50 and 150 tonnes of equipment respectively and have previously been used to airlift heavy vehicles and helicopters to Syria.
State-operated passenger planes have also made between six and eight flights from Moscow to Latakia each month. Western officials say they have been used to fly in troops, support workers and engineers.
Twice in early October, a Russian military Ilyushin plane flew to Syria from Armenia. Officials in Yerevan said the planes carried humanitarian aid from Armenia, a Russian ally.
Russia's Izvestia newspaper reported last week that a group of Su-24 and Su-34 warplanes had arrived at the Hmeymim base in Syria, returning Russia's fixed-wing numbers in the country to near the level before the drawdown was announced in March.
(Additional reporting by Hasmik Mkrtchyan in Yerevan and Murad Sezer in Istanbul, Writing by Jack Stubbs, Editing by Christian Lowe and Timothy Heritage)
Budgetary Fight in Moscow Sends US-Russian Relations Into Deep Crisis aka one of the reasons the peace deal and negotiations over the status of Syria collapsed is due to infighting in the Russian military-industrial complex.
Related to the build-up in Tartus and other suff.
edited 8th Oct '16 9:48:18 AM by TerminusEst
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
I wonder if Aleppo's holding out for a Turkish linkup at this point. Probably the only thing that could save them.