Syria under Bashir Assad (closed end 2014)

[ganulv]

Via https://twitter.com/green_lemonnn/st...58544115531776.

November 2010

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October 2014

[Bill Moore]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/12...ilot-captured/

ISIS reportedly shoots down Jordanian plane over Syria, pilot captured

Islamic State group fighters shot down a Jordanian warplane on Wednesday over Syria and captured its pilot, activists and the country’s military said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the aircraft was shot down near the northern city of Raqqa, the Islamic State group's de facto capital.



Jordan’s state news agency, Petra, confirmed that the pilot was from Jordan and he has been captured, the BBC reports.

[CrowBat]

The CENTCOM and the Jordanian MoD have meanwhile denied a 'shot-down'. Without revealing any kind of details, they're talking about some sort of 'clear evidence' that the plane came down for other reasons.

Whatever was the case, the F-16AM (ex-Dutch, apparently) came down in a lake 11km east of ar-Raqqa. Lieutenant Muaaz Yusuf el-Kasasbah, its pilot, ejected safely and is now.... a 'hostage' (or 'POW'?) of the Daesh.

Few things are notable here:
- Generally, Coalition aircraft are flying high enough to avoid most of Daesh air defences; but sometimes they do get low to strafe. Whichever is the case, and despite some reports about the Daesh getting MANPADs from stocks captured from the Syrian military, or even from sources in Eastern Europe (see here for details), presently there is no evidence that any of these have been used.

- The RJAF is 'just another' of so many local air forces that de-facto represent USAF-clones: they were trained and are flying the same way, have the same procedures, tactics etc. The only difference between them and the USAF is that they are clocking more hours (they're not grounded for months because of political struggle over budgets though, contrary to the USAF).

- That said, it is notable that the plane in question is probably the oldest type in action against the Daesh: these F-16AMs were manufactured (primarily by Fokker) in the early 1980s. It is also notable that the F-16 has a history of engine-related crashes too...

One thing is interesting, though: the unit that captured the pilot seems better organized than most of the other Daesh units shown so far.

Overall, I'm sorry for the pilot, but somehow....can't put this into proper words (and certainly not into anything like 'politically correct expressions')... I'm not as concerned for his fate as if he would've been from some other state. Jordan is run by experts in turn-coating: the gov there is officially 'strongly against' the Daesh and the RJAF flying strikes against them, but at the same time they are tolerating 'Sunni revolutionaries', although these are openly collaborating with the Daesh. With other hands: the gov is likely to have its links to the beasts, and the pilot to get bought out in one way or the other.

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Harrowing Journeys With Free Syrian Army’s Farmers and Fathers

Abandoned mansions and Al Qaeda amusement parks were among the things Lindsey Snell saw in the fall of 2014, as she and her team spent time with factions of the Free Syrian Army and civilians in and around Aleppo. They chronicle life in rebel-held territories three years into the brutal civil war. The mansions left behind by the rich who fled Syria are now military bases. Abandoned amusement parks are war trophies. Some schools are open, but they’re frequently hit in bombing attacks by the Assad regime, often when students are inside. “The regime is clearly targeting schools. It’s in [Assad’s] benefit to keep the future generation illiterate,” a teacher tells us. Some displaced civilians have spent years in camps that routinely flood. In spite of the hardships, the Syrian people push on.
...

[davidbfpo]

The title comes from an article in The Guardian. We have steadily grown used to the role of foreign jihadis in the Syrian civil war; this time it is the reaction of Syrians - outside state controlled areas - who get quoted:http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...P=share_btn_tw

[davidbfpo]

A WaPo article on a vexed issue here, Syrian regime manpower and the title does suggest the content:

Desperate for soldiers, Assad’s government imposes harsh recruitment measures

Link:http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...33b_story.html

[davidbfpo]

Not by me, rather Professor Joshua Landis, a US academic and IIRC sometimes criticised here:http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/yea...ecember-2014/?

He opens with:

Syria will become increasingly fragmented in 2015. The Somalia-ization of the country is inevitable so long as the international community degrades all centers of power in Syria and the opposition fails to unite.

I found it coherent and sadly realistic.

[davidbfpo]

This thread has run since August 2012, with 81.8k views and 834 posts. It is appropriate now as 2015 looms (in the UK) that it be closed and a new thread started.

The new thread, refelcting my previous post, is called 'Syria: the next Somalia?'.