The long awaited Syrian army campaign to liberate Idlib governorate in Syria’s northwest is supposed to start shortly after September 7, the date when the Turkish, Russian and Iranian presidents will meet. Strong forces have been put into place and are ready to strike. The Russian fleet in the Mediterranean has been strengthened, new air…
The first Turkish attempt to set up a military base in Syria’s Islamist-held Idlib failed. January a large Turkish military convoy crossed the border on the way to a strategic town of al-Eis. Two days later it withdrew back into Turkey never having reached its destination and suffering 1 dead and 2 wounded to a…
In just a month the Syrian army has inflicted a huge defeat on the rebels. As soon as ISIS was finally defeat in eastern Syria in late 2017 the army wheeled back to the west and launched its biggest and perhaps most spectacular offensive against the rebels yes. Even as Putin in mid-December was announcing…
In daily hard-line statements this week, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been reiterating Turkey’s determination to launch a cross-border operation against Syria’s Afrin canton, which is controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). His Jan. 13 statement was particularly blunt: “Don’t ever doubt it. One night we may arrive suddenly. If terrorists in Afrin don’t surrender,…
The Syrian government with support from its Russian, Iranian, and Lebanese allies has embarked on a major military operation to retake parts of Syria’s northern governorate of Idlib. As it does so, the US and its regional allies are rushing to position themselves to ensure the permanent partition of Syria is achieved. As Syrian forces…
If the struggle to liberate Aleppo was Syria’s Stalingrad, the operation to liberate Idlib, just begun, is its Battle of Berlin. At stake in what promises to be the last major military operation undertaken by government forces and its allies is the complete extirpation of Salafi-jihadi groups and their allies from Syrian territory. As such, when it has been accomplished…
