Massive Russian blanket air bombardment is flattening Raqqa

Debka ^ | Nov. 21, 2015

[rickmichaels]

Russia has launched a merciless blanket air campaign, backed by Kalibr cruise missiles fired from the Caspian and Mediterranean Seas, for the object of wiping the Islamic State's Syrian center of Raqqa off the map, DEBKAfile's military sources report.

Western and Middle East sources tracking the campaign since Friday, Nov. 20, report that at least 75 air sorties have been conducted and are systematically razing the town of 200,000 inhabitants 160km east of Aleppo, district by district, irrespective of civilian town dwellers.

Moscow wants the entire Middle East and Muslim world to see the price exacted for launching a terrorist attack on Russia after the downing of the Metrojet airliner that killed 224 people over Egyptian Sinai on Oct. 31.

Russian bombers and cruise missiles rained death and destruction on the ISIS administration center after the jihadists claimed responsibility for that disaster and published photos of a soft drink can claimed to have been rigged as a bomb for blowing the plane up.

When the Russians are done, the town will be a pile of rubble, an intelligence source told DEBKAfile.

The Russian defense ministry ran photos Friday of Russian technicians loading bombs on the Tupolev 95 bombers (dubbed "Bears" in the West). Ground crews marked the bombs "For ours," and "For Paris."

Last Tuesday, our military sources first revealed that the Tupolev's were taking off from Morozovsk air base in the Rostov district of southern Russia instead of from the Russian military enclave outside the Syrian town of Latakia.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported Friday that 15 Syrian oil facilities seized by ISIS had been destroyed this week and 525 of their trucks, costing the jihadists $1.5 million a day in revenue.

As for casualties, the published figure of 600 jihadists killed in one day is probably far below the real figure. Our sources report that the Islamist terrorists' death toll most probably runs into thousands with many more injured.

To sustain the hectic tempo of its aerial war, Moscow has doubled the number of bombers assigned to Syria from 34 two weeks ago to 69 by Saturday, Nov. 21.

Our military sources add that this augmented air power allows the Russians to expand their targets to other parts of Syria. On Friday, they renewed sorties against Syrian rebel forces holding the southern town of Deraa near the Jordanian border.

[JPX2011]

Finally, after 40 replies we at last encounter someone who lifts his gaze a few degrees toward the horizon.

I've given this some thought and find myself uncertain about the paradigm that suggests support for Russia in its fight against ISIS is bifurcated between the myopic, "short-termers" and the long term, "visionaries."

When I look out at the horizon I don't see Russia's offensive as a minor actor in a grand geostrategic move to alter the balance of power in the world. I see a nation that says if you hit me I hit you back, harder. It's binary. Furthermore, when one looks beyond the fight against ISIS and Islam it's a hard sell to think that after everything is over we will find ourselves in a position where Russia, China and the remaining BRICS nations will have reduced the United States to a second or third world power. If that does happen, it will be our own doing.

Secondly, if one wants to consider long term I think the existential threat that Islam poses to civilization the fight to be had. There seems to be this suggestion that Russia is fundamentally at odds with Western civilization in much the same way Islam presents. I haven't seen that case presented here. Sure the Russian people and culture seems hardwired for authoritarian forms of governance but that doesn't equate to being diametrically opposed to us.

Which is why I don't necessarily agree with the position held by those who ask, "and what happens after?" This is a war of peoples and cultures, not so much governments. So I find the references to recent history i.e., Post-WWII and the Cold War to be lacking. Particularly for the times we find ourselves.

So the short-term fight is the long-term fight. What will occur in the "mid-term" will be determined by what we do. Not what Russia does. And right now the mid term calculus doesn't look good for us. If one takes a 15-20 year time horizon and looks at a variety of categories, whether it be demographically, socio-culturally, politically, morally etc., the prognosis is not good. 2016 is not going to fix these things. We might get a reprieve but its doubtful that it will alter the trajectory.

We all talk about a return to Judeo-Christian principles and constitutional governance. The thing that is not often asked, "is that likely?" If we fall it will because we, as a nation, have abandoned those ideals. Of course, there will be some who will refer back to a narrative that goes along the lines of something like, "this is all because of KGB infiltration and subversion of a whole generation of 60's kids on the college campuses." It might even be true, but are we prepared to hang the hat of national survival on that? Did the Russians actually deliver a fatal blow and did we actually lose the Cold War and our nation as a result?

If that is the case all I can say is, "well played." And if so, then we better pray that the mid-term view is that Russia rises with its autocratic nominally Christian society.

[mumblypeg]

I, too, had a Russian history professor who said we would become like Russia, and they would become like us.
He called it the “convergence” theory, and he was referencing a particular book, the title and author of which I’ve strained my noodle to remember, to no avail.
If you know it, I’d sure appreciate a clue.

[bunkerhill7]

About time someone revisits old tactics, suppose the world has forgotten about Japan`s 60 cities flattened.

http://www.wired.com/2011/03/0309incendiary-bombs-kill-100000-tokyo/

March 9, 1945 Burning the heart out of the enemy

1945: In the single deadliest air raid of World War II, 330 American B-29s rain incendiary bombs on Tokyo, touching off a firestorm that kills upwards of 100,000 people, burns a quarter of the city to the ground, and leaves a million homeless.

The raid also represented a tactical shift, as the Americans switched from high-altitude precision bombing to low-altitude incendiary raids.

Tokyo was the first of five incendiary raids launched in quick succession against the largest Japanese cities. Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe were also targeted - with Nagoya getting hit twice within a week. By the end of the war, more than 60 Japanese cities had been laid waste by firebombing.

[Pelham]

A good start. Russia comes to the defense of the West since the pansy in the White House won’t.

[nathanbedford]

A reply of mine from the 18th of this month lays out the case that there are broader geopolitical considerations at play than merely fighting Isis. The probability of the scenario playing out might be small but the damage would be huge and it should not therefore be discounted out of hand.

Here is that reply:

The implications on a strategic level are very frightening.

Consider the whether the Russian raids, especially as they are directed not against Isis but against United States supported rebels, are in service not so much in the Russian grudge against Isis but in service to its new allies, Iran, Iraq and Syria, constituting a new caliphate possessed with Russian might and nuclear weapons and determined to upset the balance of power in that part of the world which still produces the most oil.

Consider whether the participation by France with the Russians and their evident tactical coordination with the Russians suggests that the always fickle French might be the first in a series of European powers to consider forsaking the NATO alliance (and that really means forsaking America) to throw their lot in with the Russians. The same Russians who are supplying Europe with oil and gas and who are bidding fare to take over or at least interdict Mideast oil and its flow toward Europe. If so, could Germany be far behind?

Are we witnessing the formation of a new world power put together with elements from NATO, Russia and China? If so, the implications are utterly catastrophic.

Consider whether such a new strategic alliance would somehow align itself with Islam. Before rejecting that possibility out of hand we ought to consider the extremely high minority in France who support Islam, some large portion of which is "Christian." Could any of these considerations be behind a massive display of firepower designed not just to destroy Isis, against whom apparently they are only partially directed anyway, but to intimidate neighboring Arab nations and, ultimately, Europe? Is this really a tactical or a strategic matter?

All in all, we had better consider who the enemy in the theater really is. Are we being diverted toward shiny objects in our reaction to Isis when the real enemy is more than a bunch of murderous diaper heads but a real nuclear caliphate bent on global dominance? In our obsession with Isis are we enlarging the Obama created vacuum which leaves a perfect opening for very dangerous forces?

[PIF]

Magnesium based incendiaries are being used by the Russians - burns anything, does nice job on arms caches. See Live Leak for vids.

[PIF]

75 sorties by 65 planes (think combination of B52s, B1s, and even larger bombers) each dropping lots of dumb bombs - tonnage (some were smart, but those are used up now) would make a dent in any city of any size. Think thousands dead already, others fleeing to Iraq.

The Russians do not now nor ever have cared about civilians deaths in war, Geneva Convention or not. The key word is ‘systematically’; when they are done, there will literally be only rubble to bounce over the entire former city area.

[PIF]

Debka is also reporting on the story about Iranian fighter jets (F-14s and MiG-29s) escorting Russian Bears on bombing missions with the added bit that these Iranian jets are now protected near Israeli airspace and gathering Intel on Israeli air defenses; without the Russians the Iranians would have been shot down.

But like this post, it is Debka and therefore not true /s.

[eartick]

Hard to burn mud huts. Inciendiares worked great in Dresden and Japan where there was other fuel. Now a MOAB....WOW. That baby would blow some mud huts to pieces.....

Keep going Vlad. You are making Reggie Love work over time cleaning up Obama pissing himself.

They are running out of Scott towels in the White House.

[eartick]

I do not think Vlad is listening to The Donald.

Vlad is pissed and is playing by his own rules.

We may all be surprised what that is when this is all over.

He always wanted a pipeline from the Caspian to the Mediterranean and he may have it.

[eartick]

and the mosques...

What about them? I am sure Vlad is trying to miss them /s

[Bull Snipe]

gotta love napalm & willy peter.

[jetson]

Poor Barry, the Russians are just not playing fair!

[hoosiermama]

Was just being factitious
There was an excellent article about why the property you mentioned was so important to Russia awhile back. TRade-— drug trade. Next to oil it is one of the top economic boosts to the Russian economy. They showed drug routes with and without the area. Both with Europe being the destination. Seems logical that oil products would also flow through the area Ol Putin is all for restoration of the Russian pocketbook. Who can blame him for being “capitalistic”! ;-)

[Smokin' Joe]

As soon as there’s a few dead children to photograph it will be the leading news story.

Will Green Helmet Guy and the Bomb Magnet lady be there, too?

[Retain Mike]

Once again it sounds like media hype to me: merciless blanket air campaign, object of wiping the Islamic State’s Syrian center of Raqqa off the map, systematically razing the town of 200,000 inhabitants 160km east of Aleppo, When the Russians are done, the town will be a pile of rubble, an intelligence source told DEBKAfile.

[Smokin' Joe]

one nuke would have been quicker and cheaper.

Yeah, but that is an escalation which would first, not provide a testing ground for Russian conventional weapons systems and upgrades, and second, crosses a threshold that has remained since WWII. Once crossed, the genie is out of the bottle, and the use of Nuclear weapons in retaliation against not only Russia, but the Western Powers becomes a real possibility, as soon as such can be developed or deployed.

It is one thing to have a rollicking fistfight, but the nature of the fight changes when someone pulls a knife or fires a shot.

So far, this is just shaping up to be a slugfest as far as countries go, even if the sides don't seem even, and don't fight the same.

[Smokin' Joe]

gotta love napalm & willy peter.

It is more blessed to give than to receive.

[Bull Snipe]

Amen

[American Constitutionalist]

Signed “ with Love from Russia “ ....