"@Ukr_Che: ОТРК "Искандер" ВС РФ на Хмеймиме " Russian Iskander missile system spotted in Syria.
BTW...nuclear capable......
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"@Ukr_Che: ОТРК "Искандер" ВС РФ на Хмеймиме " Russian Iskander missile system spotted in Syria.
BTW...nuclear capable......
Reference the posted here video of the T90 being hit by a TOW......
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ampaign=buffer
BTW...that T90 did not reenter combat serivce and never did show the right side of the turret that took the hit......the recently posted here single photo seems to indicate the tank was not moved from the position where it was hit...Quote:
Last a month, a video surfaced online of one of Russia’s more advanced tanks facing off against a small team of Syrian rebels armed with a U.S.-made anti-tank missile in the suburbs of Aleppo.
Such short videos have become common in the nearly five-year-old conflict, where the absence of media on the ground has given birth to a view of the war stitched together by YouTube videos. The Feb. 26 footage of the Syrians aiming at the Russian tank stands out, however, because it is likely one of the first instances of a Russian T-90 tank encountering a U.S. anti-tank missile in combat.
Now a photo has emerged of what happened after the Syrian rebels fired. The BGM-71 TOW missile appears to hit the right side of the tank’s turret, and as the smoke clears a crew member — likely a Syrian soldier — bails out.
According to a post on the site War is Boring, the above image was circulated on Russian military forums before getting picked up by the Research Institute of Steel, a company that makes specialized armor for Russian tanks. The picture shows the tank from the right side, and the missile impacted the left side of the turret. The only thing that appears broken from this angle is the Shtora counter-measure system beneath the tank’s main gun.
The Shtora is a system that is designed to electronically disrupt missiles like the TOW. The two boxes affixed to the turret glow red when active, but in the February video it appears that the system is either turned off or not working. In the case of this strike, however, the tank’s crew was saved by the tank’s armored plating — known as Kontakt-5 reactive armor. The oddly shaped square panels are meant to defeat incoming projectiles by actually counter-detonating and disrupting the missile’s main charge from penetrating into the tank.
The T-90 is one of Russia’s most advanced tanks, although the version in the video is an older variant from the early 1990s, according to War is Boring. The T-90 started to appear in Syria shortly after Russian forces arrived in northern Syria in September alongside a sizable detachment of aircraft. In November, the tanks debuted on the front lines around Aleppo after a small number of the vehicles were handed over to a Syrian armor unit. The Syrian Army also operates a wide array of older Russian tanks, including the T-72, T-62 and T-55.
http://thefederalist.com/2016/03/28/...able-quagmire/
BTW...this article is far harsher than what I post here if you ask me as he has at least a reputation to defend in his articles...I just sit in Berlin and watch the ground reality tell me [B]what reality is these days and ask the simple question WHY....again the Obama WH is a bunch of cats being herded towards 2017 and his legacy....AND Obama simply has again and I will repeat it...not a single coherent strategy for anything......
How President Obama Made Syria An Unfixable Quagmire
With nearly half a million dead and U.S. proxies fighting each other, Syria represents a failure of U.S. strategy and a lack of presidential leadership.
Tom Nichols
By Tom Nichols
March 28, 2016
For over two years I used a HP video "Herding Cats" in order to depict the decision making processes inside a BCT Staff and it is no different inside the Obama WH right now.Quote:
It didn’t have to be like this.
The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that Syrian opposition forces backed by the CIA and the Pentagon are now fighting each other. (Buzzfeed’s Mike Giglio actually wrote this story more than a month ago, with the simple but true headline: “America Is In A Proxy War With Itself In Syria.”) The Syrian conflagration has entered the phase where pretty much everyone shoots at everyone else: “Any faction that attacks us,” an officer from the one of the CIA-supported groups told the LA Times, “regardless from where it gets its support, we will fight it.”
Well, of course they will. Every group in Syria is now in a Hobbesian free-for-all. The death toll is now climbing toward the half-million mark. No one has any incentive to do anything but kill or be killed.
There will be no settlement. The recent “cease-fire” is the Russian variant of that term—used the same way by the Russians in Ukraine these days—meaning “a period of combat in which the Russians help the Americans pretend that no one is fighting.” The Russians, of course, claim they’ve left Syria, when they mean they’ve flexed enough muscle and killed enough of Bashar Assad’s enemies that they can now leave a smaller force in place. Assad remains in power, and likely will stay there.
It’s easy to read about this situation—best described by a compound noun that includes the word “cluster”—and reach the conclusion that the U.S. intelligence and military establishments have no idea what they’re doing. The problem, however, is not with American tactical and operational excellence: we have that in abundance. Rather, Syria represents a failure of U.S. strategy and a lack of presidential leadership.
Failing to Act Is to Act
Of course, this kind of story fuels the critics who believe President Obama made the right decision to stay out of the Syrian conflict. This, however, represents a fundamental error of logic. The situation in Syria today is not a vindication of President Obama’s decision, it is the result of that decision.
The situation in Syria today is not a vindication of President Obama’s decision, it is the result of that decision.
Or, more accurately, it is the result of the president’s lack of a decision. Remember, Syria looks as it does in 2016 because the Obama administration’s response to the use of chemical weapons was to outsource U.S. security management to Vladimir Putin. We will never know if Assad could have been toppled, or by whom; the Russians rendered those questions moot when they intervened.
They continue to do so at will, and Assad will now exterminate every rebel of any stripe. (Killing anyone involved in ISIS is just a coincidence at this point, at least for Assad and the Russians.)
Meanwhile, in the absence of a clear strategy, U.S. national security institutions are doing what they think they’re supposed to be doing. What we’re seeing in Syria is what happens when large organizations, lacking direction from a strategic center, continue with their organizational priorities. They will do what they’re good at, whether it makes strategic sense or not. Without coordination and an imposed strategy, they will default to trying to keep alive the people they know and to protect the assets they have in place.
This is what happens in a strategic vacuum: operations take the place of strategy.
We’ll Allow a Disaster, Then Use It to Justify Our Inaction
Critics of any proposed intervention ask: “Well, what would you do now,” always posing the question as if the previous three years didn’t happen. As I note regularly, this is like driving a car off a cliff and then handing the steering wheel to your screaming passenger and saying: “Fine, you drive.”
It’s too late for a coherent strategy of intervention, but it is the zenith of hypocrisy to allow a situation to deteriorate into utter disaster and then to point to that same disaster as the justification for never intervening. It is not only circular logic, it is dishonest and intentionally so.
A wiser policy three or four years ago might have averted this mess. I count how I and so many others called for a better U.S. policy not in months or years, but in deaths. By that measure, I was arguing for a more active approach to Syria more than 450,000 deaths ago. Among the measures that should have been taken: creating safe havens, no-fly zones, and destroying Syrian air assets and airfields.
Had these actions been taken with strategic clarity—that is, with the clear intention of destroying the Assad regime’s ability to commit mass murder and averting the opening for a Russian intervention—I do not believe a ground invasion would have been necessary (or wise).
But we’ll never know. Syria is a charnel house now, and Russia is ascendant in the Middle East (as John Schindler and I predicted three years ago), precisely because the White House refused to make any substantive decision at all. Mostly, our policy in Syria seems aimed at protecting the president’s legacy: perhaps his future library will have a display of the Syrian catastrophe with a plaque assuring visitors that Barack Obama, for eight years, held firm to a course of “not being George Bush,” or “not doing stupid ####” or some of the other deep thoughts that have emanated from the Obama foreign policy shop.
Now It’s Too Late to Do Much of Anything
These quips might be good guidance for the team worried about the president’s standing on the bookshelves of academic historians, but they aren’t much help for soldiers and intelligence operatives trying to keep people alive in a country undergoing a savage meltdown.
No campaign can or should promise to fix Syria: that time was hundreds of thousands of deaths and a million refugees ago.
Speaking of books, the administration’s United Nations ambassador, Samantha Power, wrote an entire volume—an excellent one that I assign in my classes at Harvard—about crises like this one. It had lots of helpful advice about how to see such catastrophes coming and how to respond to them.
Apparently, no one listens to her, including the president. She did try, apparently, to raise such issues with Obama. The president’s response, according to Jeffrey Goldberg? “Samantha, enough. I’ve read your book.”
So, without a strategy, Power does what UN ambassadors do. She goes to New York and makes speeches. The rest of the government, likewise set on autopilot, does whatever it can do. The various groups of the Syrian opposition, facing annihilation, do whatever they can do.
Things might have been different had a more engaged chief executive been in charge of an actual policy. But that time has passed. Worse, there is no hope for the next president, almost certain to be Hillary Clinton at this point, to rescue any of this, no matter what she says on the trail. No campaign can or should promise to fix Syria: that time was hundreds of thousands of deaths and a million refugees ago.
We can all disagree on what to do next. Whatever it is, it won’t be enough; this is foreign policy as triage, not elective surgery. But we should never let the blame shift away from where it belongs, from a president and a national security team who refused to create a strategy, and left everyone else—in Washington and in Syria—with no option but to improvise in a situation that should never have been allowed to get this bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_MaJDK3VNE
More confirmation of Russian troops involved in the ground fighting.....in Russian.
Герой Пальмиры. Сириец из Латакии по имени Гайдар. Родился в России. Воюет в "Ястребах Пустыни".
#Сирия #Пальмира
Damascus: Heavy fighting between #ISIS and #Nusra in Palestine #Yarmouk Camp ongoing. Many killed, most from Nusra.
Russia|ns dropped 4 weapons parachutes over #Assad's controlled areas in #DeirEzzor; #ISIS got 2 of them..
CrowBat..anything on this on your end......??
This has been now photo confirmed and a serious threat to Israel......and Turkey and the US and NATO pulled out their Patriots.......
So now there are reports confirming that Assad received loads of Iskander-E 300 km range missiles from Russia
QUESTION..Erdogan is visiting now Obama and this just "leaked out".....??
BreakingNews A very recent photo for #ISIS prominent leader al-Shishani who was reportedly killed by #USA weeks ago
Homs FSA Jaish al-Tawhid statement of merging with Jabhat al-Asala wa al-Tanmiya (Authenticity & Developmet Front)
Reports that Jabal Turkman & Jabal Akrad in rural #Latakia, #Syria is under Assad heavy artillery & MLRS attack
Weapons & ammo seized by #ISIS at the captured Assad Tank Battalion near T4 airbase in east rural #Homs, #Syria
ISIS captures Assad’s Tank Battalion NW of T4 airbase in east rural #Homs, #Syria following clashes & VBIED attack against Assad Forces
Heavy US Coalition Air Strikes over Manbij City and its surroundings in its preparations for the YPG Offensive on it,to soften the ground
CrowBat............
It is in fact the Syrian SS-26. Russia reportedly sold Assad 26 units of the Iskander-E variant
http://www.military-today.com/missiles/iskander.htm …
Looting is a wide spread phenomenon in #Syria. That's what happens when militias and corruption are dominant.
https://twitter.com/palmyrapioneer/s...52002958065665 …
North #Aleppo updates:
-#FSA lost Tuqali again.
-Turkish artillery attacks on #ISIS-held Tal Battal.
-Failed attempt to storm Azaz by #YPG.
If you were also looking for the "liberated" ppl of #Palmyra.
Here they are (fled via Raqqa to ISIS/Assad-free land)
https://twitter.com/khalidi_4_sham/s...83203227938816 …
Two mountain peaks facing each other, regime controlled Nabi Yunis, & opposition controlled Kbanah. Who ever controls both controls all.
Syrian regime seeks symbolic victory in Palmyra @AJENews
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/0...091927305.html …
The Daily Star @DailyStarLeb
West puzzled by Russia game plan in Syria
http://bit.ly/22Vr9DT
Beyond The Levant @TheRealBTL
Russian SF w/Iranian Revolutionary Guard Persian license plated Saffir 4x4 with in #Syria.
بصمت
✔ @Raqqa_SL #Raqqa big Military Reinforcement for #YPG enter #TalAbyad city north of #Raqqa
Assad troops attack rebel defensive positions around #Bayanoun since some hours.
Assad forces targeted #Houla (#Homs province) with mortars and light arms tonight.
No reports of casualties.
Palmyra-n recently displaced people taking a masque as a shelter in #Izaz (Rebel held area) #Aleppo.
Mahmoud Khodr Abadi from Joura district in Deir ez-Zor was tortured to death by the regime in Sednaya prison
Breaking
#Assad media indicates resumption of fight vs. Syr rebels after #Palmyra victory.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article...ating-palmyra/ …
CrowBat...have you heard anything on this infighting???
Regime militia attacks police in #Latakia #Syria
http://mme.cm/13AW00 via @NOW_eng
Will go back to the statement that yes indeed the CIA and CENTCOM backed Kurdish YPG with SDF are in fact fighting the FSA the "other" US proxy......
Azaz: #YPG is preparing a huge offensive to capture the town of #Azaz from the #Syria|n rebels. #Aleppo
YPG is trying to link the entire northern provinces into Afrin to created the northern Kurdish federated area they have called for....regardless of whether there are Arab Sunni majorities in most of those locations which they then ethnically cleanse when they capture Arab towns.....
BreakingFootage
Syrian rebel (Sultan Murad) TOW destroys #SDF/#YPG tank during offensive on #Azaz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIqwwK9Og3A …
Reports #YPG/#SDF preparing to attack Rebel-held city of #Azaz, near Turkey, while Rebels fight daily #ISIS few km eastwards. N. #Aleppo
The true linkage between Assad, IS and YPG is extremely clear now in Syria....
ISIS, #Assad and #YPG resumed their simultaneous offensives towards rebel-held areas north of #Aleppo.
Interesting how YPG attack Azaz the same day the regime renews offensive in the north, almost like they knew beforehand
Team Wagner - Fontanka exposes Russian mercenary unit under neo-Nazi commander that fights in Syria
http://www.fontanka.ru/2016/03/28/171/
Ties in nicely to the recent French MP visit to Assad from the French Front National.....
Idlib: Heavy #Russia|n/#Assad airstrikes on town of #Binnish now!
Idlib: Heavy #Russia|n/#Assad airstrikes on town of #Ariha now. 7 civilians confirmed killed, dozens wounded!
New launcher for "Volcano" IRAM #Syria
Palmyra Update.....
Russian/SAA/Hezbollah and Shia militias might in fact be physically inside Palmyra BUT I am not convinced they actually "control" Palmyra.........
Many reports from different sources suggest #ISIS still has sizable force in #Palmyra outskirts and still able to lead skirmishes vs pro-Regime forces
As long ISIS will have presence in E. Homs province (Qaryatayn, etc), roads will largely remain unsecure & exposed to ambushes.
Battle showed what "pro-Regime forces" mean from now on: Assad elite units/Shia militias overseen by Russia & int. #RuAF backing
Syrian activist is still reporting from Palmyra.......
PalmyraRev1
The #SAA elements. Steal the contents of civilian homes after taking control of the city of #Palmyra #Syria , Mar 28
MFA Russia
✔ @mfa_russia #Ryabkov: Demands on Bashar Assad's resignation as a precondition for next round of talks on Syria are unacceptable http://sptnkne.ws/aVBP
"Unacceptable" might also be the non existing cessation of hostilities by either Russia and or Assad.....
Palmyra victory against ISIS makes political transition more unlikely, says @Charles_Lister
http://bit.ly/1RKOYw8
Charles Lister @Charles_Lister
Hearing worrying reports that opposition forces in northern #Syria may be preparing to resume hostilities, after deciding #Geneva will fail.
Iran’s Plan to Seize Damascus Continues With Support From Assad Regime
http://syrianobserver.com/EN/News/30..._Assad_Regime/ …
Might actually be true if you think that Beirut and Baghdad are virtually controlled by Iran ........that would make Iran the controller of THREE Arab nation state capitals.....
Reports of a renewed MLRS attack by Assad militias in Nubl & Zahra targeting Hayan & its surroundings in north rural #Aleppo
Reports Assad airstrikes targeted the town of Abu Dhuhur & Ma’arat al-Nouman in #Idlib today, no reports of casualties
BREAKING
First pictures coming in from #Hayyan.
The #Assad air force hits multiple towns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aj_hNM1XdA …
Another two air strikes hit #Binnish in the same province.
Assad air strike hits school in rebel-held #JistAlShughur.
Syrian regime forces try to overrun #Jobar district of #Damascus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhkfjtbng8s …
7 civilians killed in #Assad air strike on #Ariha.
Regime forces breach the ceasefire all across the country after #Palmyra.
Also dozens of #Assad and #Russian air strikes on #ISIS-held towns in eastern #Homs and #Hama provinces.
Assad regime artillery and helicopter bomb attacks resume on #Hayyan, N-W of #Aleppo.