...to 'complete' (well, almost) the story about flight of regime troops from Wadi ad-Dayf, here the IDs of some that didn't manage it:
https://twitter.com/archicivilians/s...09845831766016

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...further to my critique of that WINEP-article about Syrian Arab Air Force's supposed 'offensive' against the Daesh, here a list of actual targets of most of air strikes:

About 3000 air strikes by al-Assad air forces in 60 days
SOHR documented 2973 air strikes by regime warplanes and helicopters around Syria since 20th of October/2014 until yesterday’s midnight in the 10th of December/2014.

...warplanes went in 1611 air strikes targeted areas in Damascus, Dar’aa Aleppo, Idlib, Reef Dimashq, al-Quneitra, Homs, Hama, Der-Ezzor, Lattakia, al-Hasakah....

...helicopters dropped no less than 1362 explosive barrels on areas in Damascus, Dar’aa Aleppo, Idlib, Reef Dimashq, Homs, Hama, al-Hasakah, Lattakia...
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...another issue that rose quite a few eyebrows the last few days was article An influential, unpublished report looks to radically revise notions of how to achieve peace in this war-torn country
Written by somebody who is unlikely to have at least even went through the customs at Damascus IAP, this is full of entirely misguided conclusions, like:

Rosen... attempts to partially rehabilitate the image of the Syrian regime. “While the Syrian state was not the most attractive one even before the 2011 uprising, it also was not the worst regime in the region,” he writes. “It has strong systems of education, health care and social welfare and compared to most Arab governments it was socially progressive and secular…. It had a solid infrastructure and a relatively effective civil service.”
Such are making me wonder about what Syria is he talking? The one on Earth or perhaps some on Jupiter....?

'Not the worst' = has detained and/or murdered most of political prisoners in the entire Middle East
'Strong system of education' = that's why everybody who only could was sending kids abroad for education
'Health care' = yup, if one could pay for it
'Social welfare' = in what form? Employing thousands in useless jobs to keep them loyal?
'Socially progressive' = sure, if one is either Alawite or Ba'athist
'Secular' = while even Bashar 'converted' (pro-forma) to Sunni Islam, his followers - and they are those making the 'regime' - consider him a 'God'...
'Solid infrastructure' = guess, Rosen never travelled any of the highways in Syria, or saw all the construction sites that remain unfinished for decades...
'Effective civil service' = if this means 'all the intelligence/security services' responsible for maintaining regime in control of population... then yes, he's finally right.

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...Russia continues providing new armament to Syria. Between others such like BM-27 Uragan MLRS, some of which can be seen in action against insurgents in Jobar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHQiKGGCNwQ

...while the future of Iranian ability to continue providing aid for Assad is anything but certain:
Iran's support for Syria tested by oil price drop
If it had not been for Iranian support we could not have survived the crisis," a senior Syrian trade official said from Damascus, requesting anonymity.

"It was Iranian support that has been the most important. In return, we are promising them more and more, and opening more and more doors for them to invest in Syria," he said.
...

“The 50 percent steep fall in oil prices will break Iran’s back, not just the level of support for Assad,” a prominent member of the Damascus Chamber of Industry said, also requesting anonymity.

Iranians have delivered turbines for power plants and have been promised contracts to rebuild housing, roads and other infrastructure destroyed by the war on the understanding that Tehran would finance them in return for equity shares.
...
Growing power cuts have hit government-controlled areas as more gas fields go out of action, forcing the authorities to rely even more on imports of fuel for its power plants.

Islamic State militant control of some of the border crossings with Iraq has disrupted the flow of tens of thousands of barrels of crude from Iraq that were delivered overland by oil tankers, an oil trader based in the region said.

Four Iranian tankers have discharged cargoes of gasoline products in the last two months in Syria's ports, traders said. But they did not end shortages accentuated by higher demand in the winter season, prompting small protests in Alawite villages near the port of Latakia, the heartland of Assad support.
There are already rumours about some sort of rift between Rouhani and Khamenei, with the former insisting on stopping deliveries of crude and cash to Assadist regime.

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On the other hand, a Daesh-operated UAV was shot down by regime forces over Dayr az-Zawr, and an Israeli UAV over Qunaitra:
Unmanned reconnaissance aircraft crashes near Syrian town of Quneitra, Syrian state-run news agency reports
...
An Israeli drone was 'brought down' near the Golan Heights town of Quneitra, Syrian state TV reported Sunday night.
...
The report described the drone as a Skylark.
...

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Not everything is milk and honey for the Daesh any more:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f1705...#axzz3MOAiWEPe
Morale isn’t falling — it’s hit the ground,” said an opposition activist from Isis-controlled areas of Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province. “Local fighters are frustrated — they feel they’re doing most of the work and the dying . . . foreign fighters who thought they were on an adventure are now exhausted.”
...
Analyst Torbjorn Soltvedt, of Verisk Maplecroft, a UK-based risk analysis group, said morale may be taking a hit as militants grapple with the shift from mobile army to governing force.

They feel they are the ones going to die in big numbers on the battlefield but they don’t enjoy any of the foreigners’ benefits- Activist in Deir Ezzor

“Before they were seizing territory, forcing armies in Iraq and Syria to retreat,” he said. “Now they’re basically an occupying force trying to govern.”

After flocking to Syria and Iraq during Isis’s heady days of quick victories, some foreigners may also be questioning the long, gruelling fight ahead.

Mr Solvedt said his organisation has had many reports of foreign fighters, including Britons, contacting family members and state authorities seeking ways to return home.

Isis members in Raqqa said the organisation has created a military police to crack down on fighters who fail to report for duty. According to activists, dozens of fighters’ homes have been raided and many have been arrested. Militants told a local journalist that they must now carry a document identifying them as a fighter and showing whether they are assigned to a mission.

An opposition activist in close contact with Isis fighters in Raqqa showed the Financial Times a document listing new regulations restricting jihadis’ behaviour. The paper, which could not be verified and which did not appear to have been issued in other Isis-held areas, warned that those who did not report to their offices within 48 hours of receiving the regulations would be punished.

“In Raqqa, they have arrested 400 members so far and printed IDs for the others,” the activist said.

The identification document for one fighter from the Gulf consisted of a printed form stating “name, location, section and mission assignment”, with his details filled in by hand.
...
Activists in Isis-held parts of Syria said many fighters in Raqqa were angry about being sent to Kobani, a small Kurdish town near the Syrian border with Turkey that has become a focal point for coalition strikes. The fighters argued that the town was not strategically important enough to justify the losses they were incurring. According to a December 7 report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group with a network of activists across Syria, Isis lost about 1,400 fighters in 80 days of fighting. The US official said many Isis fighters have been killed in the town.

Foreign militants have often been the most active in major battles but opposition activists said as fighting intensifies, more demands are being made on local fighters who do not have deep-rooted loyalties to Isis.
IN that sense: IS said to execute 100 foreign fighters who wanted to quit

Rumours have it that the CENTCOM is claiming up to 1,000 killed Daesh in Ayn al-Arab/Kobane alone; YPG/PYD is claiming another 1,000, plus the FSyA about 500. That would make this the costliest Daesh battle so far. No wonder there isunrest.

Anyway, the YPG/PYD and FSyA are meanwhile in control of about 75% of that town.