Quote Originally Posted by CrowBat View Post
BTW... since we (well, at least you Outlaw and me) are wondering where is the JAN going...

After asking around a lil bit, it turns out there is quite a big concentration of JAN - or allied - units in southern Aleppo. That is: west of Khan Nassir, where the Daesh recently cut off the regime's supply links (according to regime-fans, these were re-established this morning, i.e. Daesh forced to withdraw; but, this remains unconfirmed).

Namely, west of Khan Nassir there should be the following JAN, JAN-allied, or defected-from-JAN Jihadist gangs:
- Jund al-Aqsa (well-known Chechen group)
- Harakat Fajr ash-Sham al-Islamiya (Salafists-cum-Wahhabists from Aleppo; together with Moroccans from Harakat Sham al-Islam, this gang is part of the Jabhat Ansar ad-Din, which is allied with the JAN)
- Quwwat al-Qawqaz (Chechens, Daghestanis etc., part of the JAN)
- Hizbi al-Islami at-Turkistani (Turkistan Islamic Party; something like 'al-Qaida from China', and allied with the JAN).

So, no 'insurgents/rebels' but only 'Jihadists' there, and then quite a concentration of them.

Of course, none were bombed by Russians so far: there are no civilians left in this area to bomb. There are only few plantages and scattered villages...

Anyway, this means two things:
- Jund missed an opportunity to link-up with Daesh. Reason: unknown.
- There's a significant concentration of some of most hard-core JAN groups there... should that be an indication the JAN is withdrawing into this part of Syria?

If so, why there?
Makes no sense to me either unless they actually missed a linkup opportunity an are simply hoping the RuAF will ignore them and go after the FSA during the so called CoH....which it seems they will actually do using the JaN as their excuse but JaN is literally sitting in no mans land so to speak.

BUT and here is the BUT...if little population left.....tons of places to pull back and hide forces from bombing raids.....which I have heard some chatter about.