| Syria:
Government Liberates Aleppo - In Revenge(?) ISIS Retakes
Palmyra
By Moon Of Alabama
December 12,
2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- "Moon
Of Alabama"
-The
assault by Syrian government forces and its allies on
Takfiri forces in east-Aleppo continues. Yesterday the
heavily fortified Sheikh Saeed quarter was taken in
addition to Karam Da`da`, Ferdous, Bab al Maqam and
Jallum. The al-Qaeda led terrorists are down to some 5
square kilometer, five city quarters, roughly 2% of the
area they held when the siege on them started. They may
give up today or tomorrow. Huge amounts of foreign
ammunition, food and medicines were found in the
quarters the Takfiris retreated from.
bigger
The U.S. has
given up on any relief mission for them. U.S. Secretary
of State Kerry is down to begging the Russians to let
some of his friends escape:
Kerry urges Russia to ‘show a little grace’ and allow
Aleppo evacuation.
Winning back
the economic capital of the country, a city which the
Turkish wannabe-Sultan Erdogan
wanted to capture and incorporate into his
neo-Ottoman empire, is the biggest victory the Syrian
government achieved in this war. The whole area retaken
in and around Aleppo is some 18,000 square kilometers -
that is a larger area than the whole countries of Qatar
or Lebanon.
There were
discussions between Syria and its allies from Russia,
Iran and Lebanon on how to proceed from here. It was
decided to set a priority in the west towards the
al-Qaeda occupied Idleb instead of the mostly ISIS
occupied east-Syria. A two front war in the west and
east would be too risky and require additional forces
that are not (yet) available. Two reasons for this
decision are the economic importance of Idleb governate
and the continuity of the government held western part
of "useful Syria". There are other forces, Turkish,
Kurdish and some Arab U.S. proxies, that have declared
war on ISIS and shall bleed to eradicate it in the east.
Accordingly a
tacit deal was found with Turkey. It would be allowed to
take al-Bab, east of Aleppo and to march on towards
Raqqa from there. In exchange it would refrain from
supporting al-Qaeda and aligned forces in and around
Idleb in the west. Those forces would still have
clandestine support from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Qatar
and others. It is somewhat questionable if the rather
unreliable Erdogan will stick to the deal but that risk
has been taken.
The general
risk of setting the priority in the west is a festering
of a U.S. occupation of Syria's east. The U.S. just
deployed an additional 200 special forces there to
bring the total up to acknowledged 500. There are also
some French and other special forces in the area. They
are building several small military airfields and hire
anyone they can find in that area to, allegedly, fight
ISIS. This looks much like the construction of a "Salafist
principality" in east-Syria and west-Iraq without the
ISIS label. Gulf countries' and Zionists' lobbyists have
called for such an occupation strategy of Upper
Mesopotamia. A U.S./Saudi controlled proxy entity that
interrupts the "Shia crescent" from Iran over Iraq and
Syria to Lebanon and holds the ground for a planned
natural gas pipeline from Qatar to Turkey and onto
Europe.
The Russian and
Syrian hope may be that a Trump administration will
abandon such imperial nonsense.
Since December
5
probing attacks of ISIS around the larger area of
east-Homs governate and Palmyra were registered. But the
priority of the Syrian government was, rightly so, on
east-Aleppo. Palmyra was held by a Syrian army
contingent in large company size and by a few companies
of little trained National Defense Forces - way too few
to defend a rather large area against a sizable and
determined attack.
Last Friday
ISIS attacked Palmyra with several hundred fighters,
heavy artillery and tanks. Multiple suicide Vehicle
Based IEDs penetrated the NDF defense lines around
Palmyra. A large ISIS attack on Saturday was repulsed by
over 60 Russian air attacks. Major news agencies
falsely reported that ISIS had taken the center of
Palmyra based solely on "activists in Turkey" claims.
Only a
renewed ISIS attack on Sunday proved to be too much
for the thin defense forces. At noon the decision was
taken to avoid further losses and to retreat from the
city towards the south and the west. Palmyra and the
surrounding areas
fell again to ISIS.
The attackers
are thought to have come from Deir Ezzor, where a Syrian
government force surrounded by ISIS recently had a few
quiet days. They fighters most likely did not recently
come from Mosul in Iraq. Several military sources said
the attackers were superbly organized, well led and had
excellent intelligence.
Reinforcements
for the Syrian army
have arrived in the area and the Russian deputy
foreign minister
promised
to retake the city from ISIS. The reinforcements may be
enough to stop the current ISIS advance. But the
priority is Aleppo and an immediate successful
counterattack on Palmyra is not likely.
How does this
ISIS attack fit into the bigger picture?
Map by
Fabrice Balanche - Status November 2016 - Palmyra is
below the lower center-left of the map frame -
bigger
ISIS is under
attack in Iraq in Mosul and the areas west of it. U.S.
proxy forces, mostly Kurdish YPG fighters, attack the
surroundings of the ISIS held city of Raqqa. Turkish
proxy forces, including some units from the terrorist
group Ahrar al-Sham, attack ISIS in al-Bab north-west of
Raqqa and east of Aleppo. U.S. drones and attack planes
are constantly flying over all ISIS held territory in
east-Syria.
How come ISIS
has the considerable resources available to now attack
Palmyra, far away from the critical points further north
where it is heavily attacked? Where did the necessary
ammunition and money come from? Why attack now?
U.S. Central
Command, the imperial headquarter in the Middle East,
announced on December 9 that it had just bombed 168
ISIS tanker trucks near Palmyra. (CentCom is huge. There
are 58,000 U.S. troops plus 42,000 U.S. military
contractors under CentCom command in the Middle East.)
That CentCom claim sounded very dubious to me and I was
not the
only one to disregard it as nonsense:
The Inside
Source - @InsideSourceInt
> #Syria // #Palmyra // US claims of destroying 160
ISIS oil trucks in Syria are seemingly false from
what we've heard.
3:46 AM - 10 Dec 2016
The
video accompanying the CentCom claim showed bomb
hits on only three tanker trucks and some four fixed
targets. Nothing like the claimed large scale attack. It
is questionable that so many tanker trucks, most were
bombed over the last year, would assemble in one area.
And why would they be near the then front line with
Syrian forces in Palmyra? Why would the U.S. hit them
there and not on their way coming or going to wherever?
How come no one else, no opposition outlet and no
agency, reported such a large attack?
This emphasis
on "look we are hitting ISIS around Palmyra" by CentCom
is suspicious. The U.S. did see tanker trucks but the
hundreds of ISIS forces with heavy equipment, including
tanks, preparing for their assault on the city were
invisible? This under an airspace that is practically
controlled by the U.S. and its allies?
This smells of
a "revenge" attack ordered up by the U.S. or its Gulf
allies for the Syrian and Russian taking of Aleppo. A
demonstration that the early victory of Russia in
Palmyra was ephemeral. A propaganda defeat of Russia
covering the real defeat of U.S. supported Takfiris in
east-Aleppo.
The views
expressed in this article are the author's own and do
not necessarily reflect Information Clearing House
editorial policy. |
