Guess, the developments in Syria of the last few days are going to make many of those who are trying to track them - cry. Reason: this war really 'went ape'.

Where shall I start...?

Let's try it in this fashion...

The Western point of view regarding Syria is 'simple': 'If you're tollerating al-Qaida, even welcoming it, you're supporting al-Qaida, and therefore: you're a terrorist'.

Syrian point of view is much more complex. Also because of all the isolation that country experienced in the last 60 or so years. Foremost, there is that issue of 'welcoming the guest', mentioned in one of articles I cited above. Traditionalists and conservative as they are, generally, the Syrians can't ignore the guest, or turn against him/her. They must welcome a guest.

Now, they'll not go as far as to offer him their wife, like in some other parts of the world, but a guest is always going to get a cup of tchay or coffee, a place to sleep if needed, and the host is going to patiently listen and talk with him/her. Sometimes the guest might have a diametrly opposite opinion, for whatever reasons, but that's going to be tollerated.

So, from their standpoint, when the AQ - aka ISIS - arrived there and said it's going to fight the regime, it was 'welcome' to do so. When the ISIS began to spread within liberated areas, in turn making insurgent units free to move to the frontlines of the war with the regime, it was 'welcome' too. And when it began to impose its dictatorship to these areas, it was still 'tollerated', although causing much dissent. Many of various native insurgent commanders experienced major problems while trying to get their fighters to move against the ISIS. Not few paid the ultimate price for this, which in turn caused plenty of concern between the others. Eventually, nobody trusted himself to make the first move...

So, now, the Saudis first created that Islamic Front (IF), last October. But, they couldn't move plenty of involved commanders against the ISIS, i.e. people that concluded that the ISIS has 'overstayed the welcome'. Eventually, they had to turn to what was left of the FSyA and various other - say 'moderate to Islamist' - groups, and group these into the Jaysh al-Mujahideen (JAM)...

On 2 January this year, the JAM and the FSyA launched a major offensive against the ISIS (or 'D'ash', in local parlance) in Aleppo and Idlib Provinces, and within the following three days overrun most of D'ash's HQs and check-points there, killing more than 200 (including several top commanders) and arresting around 100 of Jihadists. The ISIS reacted with panic (including complaints about 'excessive jamming of its telecommunications'), withdrawal and plenty of car-bombs (as usually, they can't 'fight'). Most of the IF and its allies spent the first two days just 'sitting and watching' what's going on. But then also groups like Jabhat al-Akrad, Liwa'a al-Tawhid and finally even Ahrar ash-Sham joined the fight - primarily because the ISIS began attacking them (apparently because it couldn't organize a counterattack against the JAM). Although they are not 100% precise, the two maps below are illustrating the results of their work... (hope, the links are going to work)





While this is going on, the regime exploited the near-collapse of the ISIS to rush several of (supposed) 'Syrian Arab Army' (SyAA) units into Aleppo and re-capture large swats of the city from the ISIS. 'Problem': although the units in question used to be parts of the SyAA (especially so various former special forces/airborne/ranger battalions), nowadays they are assigned to the NDF and not wearing their usual designations any more, but names like 'The Shield of Assad' and similar. With other words, and as mentioned several times so far, there is no 'SyAA' any more, rather a conglomerate of ex-SyAA units now run by the NDF and the Ba'ath Party Militia (in collusion with the IRGC, of course).

At the same time... 'in the lands beyond, beyond'...

Well, the JAM-FSyA-IF coalition from Aleppo and Idlib Provinces functions 'quite well'. But, it's limited to that area. Namely, in the Hassakah Province, in NE Syria, the ISIS, JAN and several IF groups or allies (like Ahrar ash-Sham) have launched a counteroffensive against the major Kurdish armed group, the YPG (military wing of the PYD), and have yesterday recovered the town of Tel Hamis. Reason: the YPG/PYD do not want to fight native insurgent groups, so they withdrew.

To make matters more complicated: the YPG's proxy in Aleppo, Jabhat al-Akrad, is fighting with the JAM and the IF against the ISIS (and the regime) and have forced it out of Manbij and Jarabulus...