Originally Posted by
CrowBat
Yup, there are first videos/photos of them around the internet too.
Actually, four days ago (5 April), the YPG in Sheikh Maqssood District (northern Aleppo City), and the PFLP-GC's Liwa al-Qods (they consider themselves 'commandos') attempted a simultaneous attack on Castello Road. Mind: the YPG is no part of the UN-negotiated cease-fire, but it had a cease-fire agreement with Fateh Halab (Aleppo Operations Room) - a coalition of FSyA and AAS units holding eastern and southern Aleppo City. This was stipulating that Kurds would stop attacking Castello Road - the last supply line for insurgent-held eastern and southern Aleppo City.
Palestinians attacked Hindarat Camps (Palestinian refugee camps, held by the FSyA) on the northern side of the road, Kurds the southern side. This attack - apparently the first-ever assault by the PFLP-GC on any FSyA-held positions (so far they always fought the Daesh in central Syria, usually acting as a 'tail' of the BPM's Tiger Force) - was beaten back with quite serious loss. Worse yet, it seems the FSyA then launched a counterattack that collapsed PFLP-GC's positions in Hindarat and gained quite a lots of ground.
The YPG didn't fare any better. Suqour al-Jabal FSyA TOWed four of their technicals plus a 107mm recoilless rifle. Meanwhile, infantry of the Ahrar ash-Sham, the Levant Front, Northern Division FSyA (the latter is including the Sultan Murad Brigade, Sultan Fatih Group, Fastaqam Kama Umrit Brigade, 13th Brigade, 116th Brigade and 1st Regiment), Noureddin az-Zenghi Movement, and Abu Amrah Brigades - advanced deep into Sheikh Maqsood District, supported by at least one T-72AV and one BMP-1. Under this pressure, Kurds then began crying about civilian casualties, about attacks with chemical weapons, and that they are 'fighting al-Qaida' (aka JAN) - although no CWs were used against them, and there is absolutely no JAN in that part of Syria.
Finally, when one of Ahrar's COs ordered his BM-21 battery to plaster Sheikh Maqsood, he was publicly reprimanded by Aloush, who prohibited the use of such weapons against build-up areas full of civilians.
The RT then jumped the train by declaring that Aloush - though his intervention against the use of BM-21s - actually prohibited the use of chemical weapons against Kurds... :rolleyes:
PRBS-warfare of the finest.
Anyway, Russians eventually appeared on the scene: during the night from 7 to 8 April, they flew about a dozen of air strikes on Castello Road (note: VKS is now operating exclusively over the night - at least over the Aleppo-Idlib-enclaves held by FSyA and Ahrar, because of the MANPAD threat). These hit nothing at all (at least none of their intended targets: they might have killed a few Kurds though), but they did have the effect of forcing insurgents to disperse and stop their assault on Sheik Maqsood. Six other strikes were 'much more effective': they killed about a dozen of civilians in Atarib (3 times) and Sarqib (3 times), both of which are held by insurgents...
And overall, this Russian intervention came much too late: not only is the YPG's position in Sheikh Maqsood much weakened, but the Castello Road is safe again.
That aside, their air strikes are a blatant breach of cease-fire: insurgents were not fighting the regime' (say: NDF, of which there is none in this part of Syria, if at all), but the YPG (which is no part of the cease-fire), and the PFLP-GC (which is an IRGC-surrogate, and no part of the cease-fire either).
Of course, I doubt anybody is going to complain...