Interesting. Is Jaish part of what Russia alleges to be a US backed rebel group?
Also why isn’t Assad more strategic in his thinking, is he really stupid enough to think he can get by using chemical weapons over and over?
Jaish - sunni jihadis, mostly alqueda, partly pro-Taliban, definitely anti-Assad, they were the jerks that gave us so much trouble in Iraq. So, no, not US backed. With that caveat, there were certain elements of Jaish that temporarily joined the Harakat group, which was backed by the US, fighting Isis. Not that Harakat ever reported their personnel roster to the US.
Assad doesn’t have to be strategic. He’s standing behind Russia and Iran, oblivious that he will disappear when he’s served their purpose. As I said on a different thread, this is how terrorist regimes work - they kill the fighters and their families, whether it’s Isis doing it or Assad or Lil Kim. That is their mentality - wipe the enemy off the face of the earth. In the western world, we’ve long called thinking like this ‘savagery.’ To them, it’s perfectly normal logic that has defined most of the region’s history, most of the world, even.