Mind: as next, we'll hear all the possible stories about 'high effectiveness of Russian air power in Syria' etc.Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
Asking insurgent sources it turns out there's still none. Their casualties reported so far are actually 'minimal'. And, sure: it's too early to know all the details or talk about totals.
But, what is available indicates that it's not something like 'Russian precision' that would be murderous or something. It's the sheer number of bombs they're dropping.
It's like when Luftwaffe bombed Sedan on 13 May 1940, or USAF carpet-bombed the 21st Panzer Division and the 1st SS Panzer-Corps in Caen area with 600 bombers, in July 1944: casualties were minimal (all together, perhaps a battalion in total), but it was sheer shock that was decisively massive. French troops couldn't raise their heads for hours, and when they did, their nerves were 'finished'. They began running away. When the first run away, the rest saw them running away and began running away too. When officers began asking why are all the troops running away, troops began babbling about 100 German tanks, then 1000 German tanks, then 10,000 German tanks - although there was not a single German tank on the western side of Sedan until the next morning (military historians often talk about Sadan of 1940 as the biggest victories of both, the Luftwaffe and Panzerwaffe - but especially the latter, and especially because not one German tank was involved).... Similar in 1944: although really battle-hardened by then, entire German units were so bedazzled by US bombardment, all the artillery and cannons on tanks had to be re-synchronised etc.: it was really so that entire divisions were 'out of order for days' alone from the shock of massive bombardment, although they've lost minimally.
...plus, high-intensity carpet-bombing (even if 'by only' 4-6 bombs per single Sukhoi) is combined with SS-21-strikes: it seems that these are much more effective than air strikes.
On the ground... when I ask insurgent contacts, they complain about numbers, not about firepower or else. They say regime troops are neither better supplied or anything else, but there are so many of them.
So it seems the IRGC is rushing 'thousands' of Afghan Hazaras into assaults and doesn't care about their loses.
Hand on heart: who cares about 400-500 Afghan refugees from Iran killed somewhere between Rityan and Zahra the last four days?
Nobody cared about millions of Afghans that fled to Iran already from Soviets in the 1980s...
Sure, from time to time their IRGC officers are killed too: for Tehran, they're just a good PR-show, and a very cheap price for gains in return.
Cummulative effect is: constant bombardment is stressing nerves, massive quantitative superiority of the IRGC on the ground - even more so. Just for example: the 13th Division FSyA might have lost but 20 combatants the last four days; they are sure they've killed up to 500 in return (this is likely to be exaggerated, but even if not: we'll never know because the battlefield is not under their control any more). But all of this was in vain...
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Another piece of news - especially important in regards of increasing Russo-Turkish tensions - can be seen on this video showing a VKS Su-35S at Hmemmem AB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjHMaIOsDKc
Pay attention at inboard pylons - carrying AKU-170 launch rails and R-77 (aka RVV-AD, aka 'AA-12') ARH MRAAMs.
That is 'big news', sort of. The only question is: where and when has the VKS got any R-77s, then last they ever reported about them was about a contender to buy some, back in August last year...
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