Posted on 02/04/2016 6:52:18 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Syrian rebels battled for their survival in and around Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on Thursday after a blitz of Russian airstrikes helped government loyalists sever a vital supply route and sent a new surge of refugees fleeing toward the border with Turkey.
The Russian-backed onslaught against rebel positions in Aleppo coincided with the failure of peace talks in Geneva, and helped reinforce opposition suspicions that Russia and its Syrian government allies are more interested in securing a military victory over the rebels than negotiating a settlement.
After two days of what rebel fighters described as the most intense airstrikes yet, government forces had succeeded on Wednesday in cutting off the rebels’ main supply route from the Turkish border to the portion of Aleppo city that remains under opposition control. On Thursday, the government captured several more villages in the surrounding countryside, prompting fears among residents and rebels that the city could soon be entirely surrounded.
The loss of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and the most significant urban center to fall, at least partially, under rebel control, would represent a potentially decisive blow to the nearly five-year-old rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The rebels have maintained control of much of Aleppo since they surged into the city in 2012, prompting U.S. intelligence assessments that they eventually would topple the government in Damascus.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I wouldn’t give this scum the honor of being compared to the south.
Outnumbered 2 to 1 with almost no munitions factories at the beginning of the war and still almost won.
Since when does the Russian military fight for a settlement when a warm water port is at stake, and there is an opportunity to undermine the US and open up more military sales?
Or Obama's Bay of Pigs.
The “rebels” appear to be Islamists. It’s difficult to be sympathetic.
Al-Qaeda backed rebels are about to be vanquished. There’s still ISIS around to fight on another day, though.
This is great news for people who don’t want a wahabbist theocracy to replace Assad. Very good news for Syrian Christians.
What a concept.
This is great news for people who don’t want a wahabbist theocracy to replace Assad. Very good news for Syrian Christians.
Western backed Rebels (Nusra Front)
At least they're not as radical as ISIS!
Bad news for the pro-ISIS white house.
Only the west has the nutty idea that only official card carrying “isus” members are bad.
The CIA will now pull out their ‘we really didn’t want to do this, but now we have to’ plan.
Expect major events, specifically aircraft. And soon.
Only the west has the nutty idea that only official card carrying “isis” members are bad.
I envy the authors' innocence. "Negotiated settlement" isn't exactly prominent in the Russian military tradition, and anyone who thinks otherwise is encouraged to ask the Germans. "Wait! But...you mean they intend to win?" Uh...yeah...
What? One side wants to win? What kind of strategy is that? /sarc
McCain, Graham and Rubio are going to be so broken-hearted that their jihadists friends are taking a beating.
And their spiffing new fleet purchased Toyota (with Desert Package) that Western Superpowers "fighting ISIS" just can't seem to find! It must be the super-secret ISIS cloaking device - the same one used on the endless oil tanker convoy to Turkey. But apparently Vlad knows how to defeat this cloaking device.
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