Russian involvement in Syrian crisis

[bhramos]

SO, here is the latest situation in eastern Syria.

Syria-Iraq linkup was necessary for the Shia crescent.

that is because its part of Iran & Syria collation road

 

[pmaitra]

@bhramos,

Have a look at this map. The route probably should look like this. The al-Bukamal border crossing is what the SAA and VKS are trying to take control of, along with the entire stretch up to Deir-Ezzor. That entire stretch is the Euphrates Valley, so it would be easy to keep the troops well supplied. Holding ground in the desert means having to transport water in bowser convoys, which adds to the overhead of military operations.

 

[pmaitra]

SYRIAN ARMY, ALLIES SETTING UP FORTIFICATIONS AT IRAQI BORDER, NORTH OF AT TANF (VIDEOS)

A screenshot from the video of the Syrian Defense Ministry

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies are setting up fortifications in the recently liberated area at the border with Iraq.

The Syrian Defense Ministry have released two videos showing SAA troops and fighters of other pro-government factions operating in the area north of the town of At Tanf occupied by the US-led coalition. Government forces are building fortifications in the area and there are little doubts that they are preparing for a possible attack of US-backed militant groups, supported by the coalition’s airpower.

If the SAA and its allies are able to secure this area, they will de-facto win the competition with the US-led block for the Syrian-Iraqi border area. (more about could be found here)

 

[bhramos]

Syria. Homs. North of Palmyra, near the settlement of fights Arak.

 

[pmaitra]

Syria. Homs. North of Palmyra, near the settlement of fights Arak.

In real war, we get to see a lot of improvisations that we do not see in regular vendor marketing literature.

It is good to see they placed a ZU-23-2 on a BMP chassis.

Also, towards the end, the PK user was putting his head down when bullets were flying by him. They should consider using something like this - a machine gun with a periscope.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/ori...erdogan-putin-membership-shanghai-sco-eu.html

Will Turkey leave NATO?

 

[LETHALFORCE]

https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/fai...mp-reluctant-condemn-russia-syria-and-ukraine

Pope Francis, like Trump, is reluctant to condemn Russia on Syria and Ukraine

 

[bhramos]

Russian officers deliver aid to civilians and disabled people in Latakia

 

[pmaitra]

Right now, there are clashes going on between Hamzah Division and Euphrates Shield, both pro-Turkey militant groups, east of al-Bab. Al-Bab is a border town that was once used as a transit for the ISIS-Turkey oil convoys and was bombed by the Russians towards the beginning of the Russian involvement in Syria.

 

[pmaitra]

Ok, folks, here is some juicy news. Recall we have discussed how the US and UK had set up camps to train combatants at al-Tanf (at-Tanf), near Syria-Iraq-Jordan tri-junction, and had attacked pro-Syria groups who were approaching this town. It appears that the people that were being trained here have entered Jordan and clashed with Jordanian border guards.

My suspicions are the Syrians or the Russians must have put on pressure on this garrison at al-Tanf and now they have nowhere to go. If they go into Iraq, the Shia militias would target them. If they get deep into Syria, the Syrians and the Russians would target them. So, they probably chose to enter Jordan.
_______________

JORDANIAN BORDER GUARDS CLASHED WITH LARGE CONVOY OF US-BACKED PROXIES MOVING FROM AT TANF – REPORTS

FILE IMAGE: US-led forces at the border with Syria

The Jordanian military announced on Sunday that its servicemen killed five people and wounded 2 others attempting to infiltrate the Jordanian territory from the town of At Tanf at the Syrian-Iraqi border.

According to the official statement, Jordanian border guards clashed during 72 hours with a convoy consisting 9 cars and 2 motorcycles trying to enter Jordanian territory from Syria.

During the clashes, Jordanian border guards destroyed 2 cars and 2 motorcycles. The rest of the vehicles withdrew towards Al Tanf town in the Syrian territory. The Jordanian border guards also arrested two people who tried to cross the border.

At Tanf town is under a full control of the US-led Coalition and militant groups affilated with the US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) and there are Jordanian special forces in the town.

The people who attempted to infiltrate into Jordanian territory may be a group of FSA who decided to withdraw to Jordan for an unknown reason. It is almost impossible for anyone to move in Al Tanaf without the US-led coalition approvement. However, it is also possible that these people are local smugglers.

The Syrian desert fronts in the Syrian-Iraqi-Jordanian border have been witnessing complete calm since the arrival of the SAA to the Iraqi border. The US-backed FSA has stopped its attacks on the SAA in the past two days. Most likely, this impacted negatively the combat morale of US-backed militants. At Tanf has little strategic value if the US-led forces cannot build a larger buffer zone at the Syrian-Iraqi border.

 

[bhramos]

The fighting in the north-east of Palmyra.

At 1:00 the work of MI-28 Russian VKS, as work on the helicopters 4:29

 

[bhramos]

New 120-mm self-propelled airborne 2S9 "Nona-S" transferred to the Syrian Arab Army

http://diana-mihailova.livejournal.com/707835.html

 

[bhramos]

If the enemy does not surrender - Syrian version

 

[bhramos]

In real war, we get to see a lot of improvisations that we do not see in regular vendor marketing literature.

It is good to see they placed a ZU-23-2 on a BMP chassis.

Also, towards the end, the PK user was putting his head down when bullets were flying by him. They should consider using something like this - a machine gun with a periscope.

you mean this scene? where bullets firing over helmets....

 

[gadeshi]

Russian Forces in Syria commander in charge Alexander Dvornikov has tould how Russian Army has built a powerful military base in the desert from scratch:

4 air defence lines of Kmeymym air base:

S-400 on duty:

Pantsyr-S1 (truly a Pantsyr-S2 : ) ) has hit ISIS MLRS projectiles:

Su-25SM fry ISIS targets:

 

[gadeshi]

Life on Khmeymym AB Part 2:

 

[pmaitra]

Russian Mil-28N provides CAS to Syria forces near Arak:

 

[pmaitra]

Russian Navy Is Beefing up Its Mediterranean Presence
Just about dead a couple of years ago Russia’s Black Sea fleet is now a legitimate player in the eastern Med

Russian Defense Policy | [SOURCE]



The Russian Navy is beefing up its Mediterranean presence. Recently, it announced its intent to increase the contingent from 10 to 15 ships. This greater Med activity is both cause and effect of the navy’s effort to revivify its Black Sea Fleet (BSF), virtually moribund just a few years ago.

On June 1, TASS reported the current Russian naval force in the Med includes Proyekt 11356 frigates Admiral Grigorovich and Admiral Essen, Kashin-class destroyer Smetlivyy, tank landing ships Tsezar Kunikov, Nikolay Filchenkov, and Azov, Proyekt 636.3 diesel-electric submarine Krasnodar, unspecified minesweepers, “anti-sabotage” boats, a tanker, and other support vessels. So it’s unclear just how many Russian ships are in the Med right now.

Ancient Smetlivyy returned to Sevastopol on June 3. The venerable ship has served in the BSF since 1969.

Admiral Essen fires Kalibr cruise missile on May 31

Admiral Essen and Krasnodar each fired two Kalibr (SS-N-30) land-attack cruise missiles at Islamic State positions near Palmyra on May 31.

Other BSF units — Admiral Grigorovich, Proyekt 21631 Buyan-class missile corvettes Zelenyy Dol and Serpukhov, and submarine Rostov-na-Donu — fired Kalibr missiles at targets in Syria from the eastern Med in 2015 and 2016. Prior to this, the Russian Navy lacked a land-attack capability in the Med, and used surface combatants from its Caspian Flotilla to launch Kalibr missiles. However, those weapons had to overfly Iranian and Iraqi territory to reach Syria.

On June 6, Interfaks-AVN reported that the Russian Navy will not cut the cruise missile strike capabilities of its “permanent operational formation” in the Mediterranean, according to a source “familiar with the situation.” So there is apparently no plan for Admiral Grigorovich, Admiral Essen, or Krasnodar to return to Sevastopol soon. They joined the Russian Med formation in early and late April and mid-May respectively.

Not a Large Formation

Russia’s current Mediterranean force is mistakenly called a squadron (эскадра) like its Soviet-era 5th Eskadra predecessor. However, the Russian Navy says its Med presence is a formation (соединение), not a large formation (объединение). A formation is typically naval ship division (дивизия) of 5-10 major and minor combatants with an O-6 in command.

A large formation, by contrast, is a major fleet component — a flotilla or eskadra, and it is commanded by an O-7. Such a command typically is a stepping stone to fleet commander.

In contrast to today’s formation, the 5th Eskadra normally had 40-50 ships in the Med every day at the height of the Cold War in the 1970s and 1980s. That’s probably more than the entire BSF today.​

After the U.S. Tomahawk strike on Syria’s Shayrat air base on April 7, Vladimir Pavlov wrote disparagingly of Russia’s declining capabilities in the Med. Pavlov concluded that the brief and ill-fated deployment of Admiral Kuznetsov to the eastern Med this winter left those waters empty for the U.S. (as if the Russian carrier would have prevented American action).

Pavlov noted that the navy had to rely on “1st and 2nd rank” ships from other fleets, the Baltic in particular, to maintain its Med formation.

Things look a bit better now with two Proyekt 11356 frigates in the BSF. The third, Admiral Makarov, is now supposed to join the fleet before the end of this year. The fleet has its full complement of six new Proyekt 636.3 submarines. Missile corvettes Zelenyy Dol and Serpukhov entered the order-of-battle in late 2015. More of them might follow.

The second Proyekt 18280 Yuriy Ivanov-class intelligence ship Ivan Khurs will reportedly go to replace Liman, which sank near Istanbul after colliding with a Turkish freighter on April 27.

The rest of the BSF surface fleet, however, is old. Flagship Proyekt 1164 Slava-class CG Moskva will be due soon for overhaul and modernization. Its other combatants, small missile ships, and amphibs are largely from the 1970s and 1980s. These older ships patrol the Med, but to return to port for maintenance often after brief sorties.

Russian BDK-151 Azov in the Straits

The Russians originally formulated plans to renew a continuous naval presence in the Mediterranean during 2011-2012, primarily out of their concern with the Syrian civil war and thinking that they might intervene eventually.

The Russian Med patrols began in early 2013, and all four fleets provided ships under the Operational Command of the Distant Ocean Zone (Оперативное командование в дальней морской зоне or ОК ДМЗ).

At the time, Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu acknowledged that overdue repairs and slow ship construction were hindering the navy and the new naval presence in the Med. But five years hence, these problems have been overcome to a large extent.

Captain Yasnitskiy on wing bridge

TASS reported that Captain First Rank Pavel Yasnitskiy commands the Russian Mediterranean formation.

He is a 47-year-old third generation officer born in Severomorsk — the Northern Fleet headquarters, according to Ruinformer.com. After commissioning, he served on a Black Sea Fleet destroyer before becoming executive officer, then commander of Baltic Fleet frigate Neustrashimyy. He was to command the first Improved Sovremennyy-class destroyer Vnushitelnyy, but it was never finished. Instead, he served as chief of staff for a ship brigade.

Yasnitskiy then returned to the BSF as chief of staff for a formation. He served as deputy chief of staff, chief of staff, and commander of Operational Command of the Distant Ocean Zone.

Source: Russian Defense Policy

 

[pmaitra]

With Russian Help Damascus Has Clawed Back Vast Swathes of Central Syria
5,000 square kilometers in four months

RI Staff | [SOURCE]



December 2016 was a good month for the Syrian army. It finally expelled rebel forces from eastern Aleppo thus taking full control of Syria’s most populous city. But it was not without drawbacks.

So many of best Syrian units were in Aleppo that defense of Palmyra was left to easily-spooked second string formations. ISIS took advantage of that, launched a shock offensive of its own and quickly took the town, as well as chased the defenders a further 60 kilometers -- all the way back to the T4 airbase.

At this point the Syrian government controlled less of central Syria than ever since the start of Russian military intervention in September 2015. On a map it looked like this:

After successive Russian-backed offensives the map now instead looks like this:

Syrian government forces have gone from having almost no presence in central Syria to taking some 5,000 square kilometers in just four months since the offensive to retake Palmyra was launched in early February.

The Syrian army is now just 30 kilometers from Suknah. The effort to reach and take Suknah is expected to be slow because the terrain is difficult and easy to defend for ISIS (the road to Suknah is dominated by highlands to its north). However after Suknah it is all open and flat desert all the way to Deir ez-Zor.

The fighting on the road to Suknah right about now.

As an extra bonus for Damascus its gains against ISIS means the rebel pocket of eastern Qualamun is now wholly encircled by loyalist forces, and as it is not envisioned as one of the four de-escalation zones and where it previously dreamed of linking up with US-trained rebels in the south will now have to start thinking about folding.

On most days in the war in Syria only very little territory changes hands thus perhaps giving the impression that front lines are static and almost never change. That is not true. In a timeframe of months rather than days changes in who holds what can be very dramatic.

So far in 2017 no part of Syria has seen a more dramatic change in favor of the Syrian government than central Syria which is incidentally where Russians and the Russian-trained “5th Assault Corps” have been the most active.

 

[pmaitra]

Nice video from SouthFront that summarizes several things we have posted in this thread over the last few days: https://southfront.org/syrian-war-r...ches-border-with-iraq-strategic-implications/

P.S.: Not sure why they stopped hosting on YouTube.