Russia will fight in Syria until complete victory
A few days ago, this message was in the top of the world News: “Government forces with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces continue the offensive in the vicinity of Deir ez-Zor. They managed to push the militants five to seven km east of the city limits, beyond the Euphrates River. At the same time, one part of the militants, according to some reports, fled towards the city of Mayadin, while the other crossed the Euphrates, taking refuge in the northern part of Deir ez-Zora. Earlier it was reported that part of the militants surrendered to the Syrian army. Military sources said the remaining terrorists in the city would not be able to resist for a long time. ” And literally immediately information appeared that the detachments of the Syrian government forces, reinforced by units of the 4th tank divisions, forced the Euphrates River in the area of Deir ez-Zora by a pontoon crossing induced by engineering units, are developing the offensive eastward, expanding the captured bridgehead. Very little remains to the oil fields, which were the main source of funding for the militants. The zone controlled by the Islamic State (IG, a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) narrowed to 27 thousand square meters. km
SECOND FRONTSyrian frontline reports become obsolete quickly. When at a press briefing at the beginning of last week, Lieutenant-General Alexander Lapin, Chief of Staff of the Russian Troop Group, reported on the first results of the battles near Deir ez-Zor, the subdivision of the brigade general of Syrian government forces Al-Hassan Suchel with the support of the Aerospace Forces Russia has already unblocked the city and reached the Euphrates, and the assault groups of the Republican Guard, General Isam Zahreddin, broke off the encirclement of the military airfield, which the Syrian forces held for 9 months military personnel. From the south-west direction, detachments under the command of the Qatarji brothers broke into Deir ez-Zor.
Today, Syrian government forces are already entrenched on the other side of the Euphrates and are continuing the offensive. Of course, the official releases of the Russian Ministry of Defense say absolutely nothing about this, but Arab media claim that the units of the special operations forces of the Russian Armed Forces, which blocked the approach of the Islamic State from the east bank, were the first to force the Old Testament River Euphrates.
And from the north to Deir ez-Zor with support aviation the Western coalition broke through the main US ally in Syria, the so-called Syrian Democratic Army (SDA) or “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDS) - an alliance of armed Syrian opposition forces, which include Kurdish people's self-defense units, various Arab opposition groups, as well as Assyrian, Armenian and Turkmen troops.
In the spring of last year, there were about 30 thousand trained soldiers in the SDA ranks, and since the main forces of the IG were thrown against the army of Damascus, the SDA could easily break through to Deir-ez-Zor first. At some point, however, on a much smaller scale, the situation really reminded 1945 of the spring, when the Germans surrendered the cities on the western front almost without a fight, and bloody battles were fought with the Red Army to the last.
According to some reports, the SDA units on the sly seem to have succeeded in capturing one of the Deir-ez-Zor quarters, but then they suddenly found themselves under fire, and the offensive stalled. As reported by the Arabic edition of Al-Masdar News, the promotion of the Syrian Democratic Forces in the province "slowed down as a result of the attack by unknown aircraft, which caused air strikes against the positions of the US allied forces on the east coast of the Euphrates."
Who gave the ATS command to slow down the onslaught to the unofficial capital of the IG, the city of Rakku and to rush at Deir-ez-Zor at high speed, became clear after the declaration of the commander of the Western coalition forces, Lieutenant General Paul E. Funk, who clarified that the Russian VKS - Several SDA soldiers were injured and hospitalized. At the same time, the advisers of the international coalition, who were in the SDA battle formations, did not suffer, but the American general made it clear that the coalition “reserves the right to self-defense ...”
It should be recalled here that the US Air Force repeatedly “missed” themselves, including under Deir-ez-Zor - they targeted the IS, and fell on the positions of the Syrian army. But here is a special case, since, as the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, clarified, the command of the Russian Aerospace Forces in Syria warned the United States about the borders of the military operation in Deir ez-Zor in advance through the current communication channel. So the Americans themselves framed up their allies. And quite deliberately, in order to take advantage of the situation, to take control of more Syrian territory, by the way, very rich in hydrocarbons.
Especially, says General Konashenkov, no one bombed the Kurds or even planned. It’s just that this long-suffering people, whom no one has ever deceived, have not fully realized that the alliance with the Americans who are fighting on both fronts - and against the radical Islamists, and at the same time with the Islamists (secretly) promises nothing good. To understand the situation: at a time when some American military advisers inspired SDA fighters to storm igil positions in Deir ez-Zor, other American “advisers” evacuated the IS commandment from the besieged city on an emergency basis ...
AKERBAT BOILERS
The city of Akerbat was called only during the war in front-line reports. In fact, this is a village in the very center of Syria, where about 10 thousand people lived in the best of times. But with the outbreak of hostilities, the status of Akerbat changed, as the Islamists turned it into a kind of fortified transport hub through which all the necessary IS groups were supplied to Deir ez-Zor province: reserves, military equipment, food and other resources. A handicraft tank factory also worked here, where damaged armored vehicles were repaired, protection of tanks and armored vehicles intensified, and so-called martyr tanks and martyrs BMPs were also made. If such a T-55 or T-62, packed to the ground with anti-tank mines and TNT, exploded in positions of the Syrian government army, nothing remained alive within a radius of several hundred meters.
There is a desert all around, so there was plenty of room to get around Akerbat. But it was impossible to leave such a powerful group in the rear of the advancing troops. I had to take it, and it took several months to accomplish this task, because the city had not just a perimeter defense, but also a multi-level, consisting of tunnels, numerous passages, bunkers. In fact, at Akerbat there was another Akerbat - underground.
As Lieutenant General Alexander Lapin specified, the city’s attack was preceded by a powerful fire defeat, and the 4 Division of the Syrian Army formed the basis of the offensive group, the 3 Volunteer Assault Brigade of the 5 Volunteer Assault Corps and the Muhabarat brigade - military intelligence, but hardly they succeeded without the support of the VKS of Russia. And it should be noted that Russian aviation worked day and night on the continuation of the entire operation. As a result, the fire-treated IG grouping at Akerbat was surrounded by three covering blows and divided into two parts. With the militants who find themselves in the boilers, no one is negotiating any more - they are simply being destroyed with all available means.
And here are the numbers that allow you to more fully imagine what the battle for Akerbat was. During the offensive operation 2893 of the IG object was destroyed, 1027 terrorists were destroyed, 49 tanks, 157 pickups with machine guns and anti-aircraft guns, more 80 artillery systems of various calibers and 132 control point.
According to General Lapin, it was near Akerbat that a radical change occurred in the fight against IS, it was from here that the decisive offensive of government forces on Deir e Zor began and conditions emerged for the defeat of the Islamists in the eastern regions of the Syrian Arab Republic.
And in an exclusive interview with NVO, Lieutenant-General Alexander Lapin noted that, compared with last year, not only the tactical training of militants decreased significantly, but the level of operational training of their leaders, whose actions were difficult to overlook the “overseas handwriting”, also fell. And all because the ranks of the Igilovsky commanders significantly thinned out, they were simply knocked out. However, both Akerbat and Deir-ez-Zor are far from the last points in this war. When asked how much more war had to be fought, General Lapin, who, by virtue of his position, took part in the development of all military operations, did not respond. But our other sources in the Ministry of Defense assured: Russia will fight in Syria until complete victory.
Probably, only then will we learn the names of other authors and performers of military operations on Syrian soil, in addition to Lieutenant General Alexander Lapin. But now information leaked, as if in the combat formations of the detachments led by the Qatarji brothers (distinguished themselves during the capture of Deir-ez-Zor), the chief of staff of one of the Russian armies, Major General Rustam Muradov, was heading to Syria’s mission to one of the combined-arms armies. and Major-General Andrei Ivanayev, advisor to the brigade-general General Sukhela called the “Syrian Zhukov,” before the trip to Syria was deputy commander. Russian military advisers are present in almost every Syrian battalion. And on the other side of the front, which is also not a secret, military advisers from the United States and other Western countries are helping to fight. And if everything is called by its own name, then it should be recognized that, to a certain extent, Syria has become a zone of armed confrontation between Russia and America. And for the first time in decades it was on the Syrian land that Washington’s far-reaching geopolitical plans were given a tough response.
CONTINUATION IS MADE
With the capture of Deir-ez-Zor (not yet complete) and the forcing of the Euphrates in Damascus, they hurried to declare victory. Indeed, the fate of the “Islamic State”, which claims to be an imperial-type caliphate, seems to be predetermined. But the swaying banner of the Prophet from the hands of the igilovtsevs is already pulling out the so-called Syrian al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza, who called on Syrian Muslims to unite in the fight against the infidels. And, unfortunately, the appeal of the heir to the terrorist number XXUMX does not look like another political PR action.
No one argues that the IS in Syria, and in Iraq too, has practically exhausted its political and military resources. But not the Syrian al-Qaeda, which, at the initiative of its leadership and on the recommendation from abroad, first began to be called “Dzhebhat an-Nusroy” (the group is banned in the Russian Federation), but now, having changed several more names, it is called “Hayat Tahrir al “Sham.” At the same time in 2016, the leaders of the group, which was prepared in advance for the role of the IG changer, announced a break with Al-Qaeda. But here we must understand that this is not a political or ideological decision (the ideology remains the same - radical Islam), but only camouflaging rebranding.
After the start of the negotiation process in Astana, Tahrir al-Sham began to aggressively absorb the groups of "moderate" opposition. But what is this confidence worth? Suffice it to recall the allegedly “moderate” Al Zinki group, which received US support, the militants of which cut off the boy’s head and uploaded the video to the Network. Comments, as they say, are superfluous ... And this is not a special case, not a single manifestation of inhumanity. In the ranks of "Tahrir al-Sham" now there are several tens of thousands of people, including immigrants from Russia and the CIS countries. At the same time, it is possible that after the defeat of the IG, units of aspiring Igilovtsy will automatically join Tahrir al-Sham, which controls Idlib province. And the clash of Damascus with "Tahrir al-Sham" can be considered a foregone conclusion.
So, in addition to Kurds with certain types of territory in Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran, the United States has someone to rely on. For this reason, so-called de-escalation zones should be treated with a certain degree of caution. In fact, it is not yet known what will ultimately turn out of them.
In accordance with the Astana agreements, four de-escalation zones will be created in Syria. Three are already in operation - in Homs, a suburb of Damascus Eastern Gute and in the south of Syria in Daraaa. The de-escalation zone in the province of Idlib should be controlled not by the Russian military police, but by all countries guarantors of the armistice regime in Syria — Russia, Turkey, Iran. The United States remained overboard, and this, of course, Washington does not like very much. Therefore, we can expect another portion of the sanctions, including in relation to Turkey, which, with the light hand of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, clearly comes out of American control, and other, even more unpleasant events. The interests of the parties involved in the Syrian conflict clearly diverged ...
As is known, the de-escalation zone of Homs was the third in a row. The boundaries of this zone included more than 80 settlements in which 150 live thousands of people, and the Russian military police monitor the ceasefire. Moreover, in accordance with the agreements reached, the moderate opposition assumed obligations to expel from the provincial-controlled areas of all the detachments that joined the IS and Dzhebhad al-Nusra.
The transition to the de-escalation of Homs, which is controlled by the Russian military police, does not resemble the front line - at least on the opposite side one can see neither trenches nor other fortifications. Colonel Alexander Sazonov from the Center for Reconciliation of the Warring Parties claims that the overwhelming majority of the civilians who were on the other side were tired of fighting and no longer even remember that they were separated from the regime of Bashar al-Assad. They gratefully accept humanitarian aid, lining up to the Russian military doctors, but no more. And that's because Colonel Sazonov explained that the ball in the Homs zone, as well as in other de-escalation zones, is ruled not by the elected civil administration, but by the same “Jebhad al-Nusra”, which has not gone anywhere. And not only "Jebhad en Nusra." Judging by the radio interception, in the zones of de-escalation, there is reconnaissance of at least a dozen countries that have their own interests in Syria. So taking nothing away from Deir-ez-Zor.
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