Posted on 08/24/2014 12:46:05 PM PDT by Sparklite
The Base Was the Last Government-Held Outpost in a Province Dominated by Islamic State
BEIRUT—The extremist group Islamic State captured a major air base in northeastern Syria, marking another strategic gain and an end to any presence of Syrian regime forces in the province of Raqqa.
Several opposition activists based in the Raqqa area said Islamic State fighters were able to pierce the defenses of the Tabqa air base earlier Sunday and take it over. The capture came after fierce clashes with regime forces for five days at the gates of the military installation located near a town and a dam on the Euphrates River that bear the same name as the Tabqa air base.
The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group tracking the conflict through its own network of activists inside Syria, said Islamic State militants captured most of the air base. A contingent of regime forces that had been stationed there withdrew to the town of Athraya to the southwest on a major supply route controlled by the regime, the Observatory said.
The regime's state-controlled news agency SANA described the withdrawal from the air base as a tactical one, an apparent attempt to soften the impact of the loss on regime supporters.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I don’t understand. Where’s Assad’s army?
Yeah, we are in for a fight.
Damn lucky we have President who is commited..........to playing golf.
Thse are some of the same “Freedom Fighters” Obama and McCain wanted to supply with more weapons.
Saturation bomb this airbase... now.
“I don’t understand. Where’s Assad’s army?”
Fighting elsewhere. Assad apparently made a decision a couple of years ago to let ISIS do pretty much whatever it wanted because he knew it eventually would force the hand of the West. So, here we are, bombing ISIS, and thereby helping Assad - who we swore we would never work with.
Assad might be much smarter than any of us gave him credit for.
If the wind is just right - Assad should spritz it with mustard gas.
Target of opportunity....
As there is a clear shot from the Mediterranean, exercise from a carrier group or even from Italy seems a doable task.
Bomb the place to rubble, and blow the rubble to dust. Denial of facilities to the enemy is as effective as, or perhaps even more effective than, frontal confrontation on the field of battle.
Great piece of video. He seems to look more and more faggotish (is that a word?) with every passing day. I expect he comes out of the closet right after he is run out of office while being chased by people with a bucket of tar and a plume or two of feathers.
This base is a candidate for a massive ordnance air blast with penetrators as appropriate. Let the folks a few miles a way see what one C130 and one B52 can do. If the Obama military doesn’t feel confident about our planes’ safety, the Israelis can handle that.
There is an earlier post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3196513/posts done by UK’s Daily Mail which also cites this base’s remote location within a province which is not an Assad stronghold located by the cost. That report does mention military hardware but seems to be written by a reporter unfamiliar with equipment nomenclature and application or if that hardware was left to be seized by ISS Which would be very bad news for everybody concerned..
It would be usefull if maps were furnished along with more detailed commentary so that what’s going on here could be more closely followed. Also that posters would refrain from posting dancing prancing golfing Obozos ...Gratzie
That’s a must see video. LMAO
He is such a freakin’ homo.
I’ve said this before... there’s something very disturbing about that video of Obama taking a move or two. Usually, he’s got the cool mask on. Something is slipping out, but the video is too brief for me to tell exactly what.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.