Syria in 2016 (January-March)

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia airstrikes on #Hayyan
#Aleppo cs #Syria JAN 2

Russia airstrikes on #Bayanoun village,2 martyrs (woman & child)
#Aleppo cs #Syria JAN 2

SCD rescue operation aftermath #SAA shelling mortars targeting #al_Shifouniyah village
#Damascus cs #Syria JAN 2

ASSad main target; civilians and popular markets.
#Douma #Damascs cs #Syria JAN 2

Airstrikes on #Hamouriyah
#Damascus cs #SYria JAN 2

SCD - 3 martyrs and dozens wounded aftermath airstrikes on #Hazat village
#Damascus cs #Syria JAN 2

Aftermath #SAA shelling using #Russia Cluster Bombs targeting a popular market in #Douma
#Damascus cs #Syria JAN 2

More #Russia airstrikes on #Lahaya
#Hama cs #Syria JAN 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVzD0LYzF0s …

Russia airstrikes on #Lahaya
#Hama cs #SYria JAN 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUAuAhmvU6s …

RUssia airstrikes on #Morek
#Hama #SYria JAN 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ47M-7KsvY …

SAA barrel bombs on #Darayya
#Damascus cs #SYria JAN 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPRt8zOBDPI …

32 barrel bombs so far ONLY in #Darayya since morning..
#Damascus cs #Syria JAN 2

3 martyrs including #SCD HERO Hassan AlHadj,victims of #Russia airstrikes on #Maarat_al_Alortiq

[OUTLAW 09]

Clashes ongoing between rebels & regime forces/militias after rebels regained control today of Burj al-Qasab in Jabal al-Turkman, #Latakia

Official Repression of Salafis in North Caucasus Seen Radicalizing Other Muslims There
http://www.interpretermag.com/offici...muslims-there/ …

[OUTLAW 09]

And the famous Wehrmacht Anti-Tank Lehrfilm
"Men vs. tanks" from 1943 .
https://youtu.be/k6rdydaJ1Xs

Close Combat vs. Tanks 1942
WW2 German Wehrmacht Training film
https://youtu.be/FcsXLXTDLGY

A Wehrmacht Lehrfilm
German Snipers - Der deutsche Scharfschütze 1944
https://youtu.be/78-lF7nlB4c

This roundup from battle tactics of the Vietnam war cld still offer some ideas for the rebels despite differences.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLF_an...battle_tactics …

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat---what do you think of these numbers from this commenter.....

Any guesses on the number of #Assad's imported foreign shia fighters allowing these multiple offensives?
25-30k?

My guesstimate for #Assad's mercenaries:
5-7k #Hezbollah, 5k Iran, 10k Iraqi Shia, 5k various shia (afghan Hazara & others)? @VivaRevolt

[OUTLAW 09]

A #Nusra combat vid from the failed #Handarat OP
https://youtu.be/UhxxYpGKpBo

Guess you know this. Even JN's Wolf unit might still learn something here, not to speak of the avg. FSA marksman.

[davidbfpo]

The latest ISW map via the BBC:

Link:http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35166971

[OUTLAW 09]

Interesting from one of the ex colonial powers that has basically caused this mess in Syrian YET refuses to accept their responsibility in that mess.........

French ambassador to USA @GerardAraud defends burning of Saudi embassy, says "Iran was obliged to react." https://twitter.com/HillelNeuer/stat...16245438418944 …

Iran reacts with fury after Saudis execute Shi'ite cleric
http://reut.rs/1NYrbUC
pic.twitter.com/3yzJTb3XKq

If one reads the sermons by the executed Shia cleric then in fact if a Sunni had said the same thing it would have happened to them as well.

One might go as far back as Jesus and say the same thing...meaning if one decides to speak truth to power one might end up dead if the power bear does not like what is being said ie the Romans...

The West would do well in fully understanding this in the ME---the Syrian civil society did just this and are still paying the genocidal price for it....BUT at least they made a choice......

[OUTLAW 09]

When Obama is pushed for a decision on anything--all we hear is we need more time..........hoping to outlast the problem and the chatter will disappear thus not needing a decision.....

White House: more time needed for new Iran missile sanctions

http://reut.rs/1NYig5q
pic.twitter.com/HiTuIUHw0z

[CrowBat]

CrowBat---what do you think of these numbers from this commenter.....

Any guesses on the number of #Assad's imported foreign shia fighters allowing these multiple offensives?
25-30k?

My guesstimate for #Assad's mercenaries:
5-7k #Hezbollah, 5k Iran, 10k Iraqi Shia, 5k various shia (afghan Hazara & others)? @VivaRevolt

IRGC-QF (incl. Afghan Hazaras, Pakistanis, Mars People etc.) + Hezbollah/Iraq = 30,000
Hezbollah = 3,000 (they're rotating their units in and out a lot).

BTW, my calculations for NDF (incl. whatever was left of the SyAA) is 'down to 70,000' and I simply can't understand how can nearly everybody babble about 'SAA' around, when all the photos are showing either NDF, SSNP, BPM, PFLP-GC or IRGC (and Hezbollah)...

...it's the same like all of these maps circling the internet: majority are entirely useless, because drawn by pro-regime idiots, who are constantly understating insurgent-controlled areas... (@David; please send my warmest regards to the BBC and ISW, and ask them to close their shop; at least until they discover there's a battlefield in eastern Idlib province too - and then the one with biggest concentration of Shi'a Jihadists in Syria... BBC was always awful in regards of 'precise' reporting about the Middle East, but meanwhile they're just BS-itting).

In that sense, look at this: seems that this offensive in south-eastern Hama became possible only thanks to deployment of that recently-established 'Ba'ath Brigade' (the first photo is from their graduation and establishment ceremony, back in mid-December)... gauged by the look of their combatants, this is nearly 'Hitler's last 15 from Volkssturm'...