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I'm curious as to how all of these contacts with rebel groups are coordinated. How does the US military figure out who the "moderate rebels" are, for example? Also, how do we get in touch with Kurdish groups? Do we have a military representative or CIA operatives on the ground there or something?
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Oct 23, 2015 19:13
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farraday posted:Should be interesting to find out more about this raid. What ended up happening with this offensive?
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Oct 23, 2015 19:19
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goose fleet posted:I'm curious as to how all of these contacts with rebel groups are coordinated. How does the US military figure out who the "moderate rebels" are, for example? Also, how do we get in touch with Kurdish groups? Do we have a military representative or CIA operatives on the ground there or something? http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/10/world/middleeast/syria-turkey-islamic-state-kurdish-militia-ypg.html Oh yeah that reminds me, it's October 23, which means it's been exactly a year since that famous strike on Tel Shair hill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx-jd3w7kPU This is about the time that the YPG started to push ISIL back in Kobani with help from the Coalition. Remember, ISIL originally told the US to "bring your planes": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E7-6fQlRrM I think ISIL's finally learned never play capture the flag with the US.
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Oct 23, 2015 19:34
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fade5 posted:Remember, ISIL originally told the US to "bring your planes": "Bring your planes" *BOOM* "What the gently caress was I thinking?"
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Oct 23, 2015 19:42
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goose fleet posted:I'm curious as to how all of these contacts with rebel groups are coordinated. How does the US military figure out who the "moderate rebels" are, for example? Also, how do we get in touch with Kurdish groups? Do we have a military representative or CIA operatives on the ground there or something? I'm sure CIA and other agencies are all over the loving place. Plus spies/informants, foreign spies and god knows what else. I too am interested in the inner workings of this, and would enjoy spy novels on the subject. Given how often rebels switch sides there've got to me some entertaining (and horrific!) tales in there.
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Oct 23, 2015 19:45
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fade5 posted:
Has it only been a year? So much has happened it feels longer.
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Oct 23, 2015 19:56
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CommieGIR posted:"Bring your planes" Please tell me there was at least one PR official who went to the press with  "The planes have been brought"
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Oct 23, 2015 20:49
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Radio Prune posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB-Qha-OQ0Q Any idea how many / how open the Iranian army is in Syria right now? These guys look regular and pretty uniform. I'm aware that Iranian troops are present but I figured they were a lot more clandestine about what they were up to, not trumping around in full kit and not giving a gently caress about who sees them.
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Oct 23, 2015 20:51
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Cirofren posted:I don't know much about MANPADs, how often do/did the Gremlin or Stinger kill their operators?
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Oct 23, 2015 21:07
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Radio Prune posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB-Qha-OQ0Q What makes you sure they're Iranians? I'm not denying it, I just have no idea what the video says or what Iranian uniforms look like.
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Oct 23, 2015 21:14
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I'm not sure if the dudes walking through the fields are Iranians, but the people operating the (Iranian) heavy weaponry likely are. And you can hear Farsi being spoken at 1:28 so they are present.
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Oct 23, 2015 21:44
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goose fleet posted:I'm curious as to how all of these contacts with rebel groups are coordinated. How does the US military figure out who the "moderate rebels" are, for example? Also, how do we get in touch with Kurdish groups? Do we have a military representative or CIA operatives on the ground there or something? Right now 'moderate' essentially means anyone willing to sign up under the FSA label to get free goodies and are not allied with Al-Qaeda. Most of the fighters are simply going where the money and ammo are and don't give a poo poo about the ideology of the group they're under the command of since they're all allied with each other and primarily fighting to overthrow Assad and defend themselves from ISIS.
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Oct 23, 2015 21:58
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fade5 posted:Remember, ISIL originally told the US to "bring your planes": Offscreen, an ISIL fighter who was a veteran of the Iraq War shakes his head and silently prays that the US doesn't bring its planes.
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Oct 23, 2015 22:04
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Radio Prune posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB-Qha-OQ0Q SANA has lost the plot. https://twitter.com/SANA_English/media/grid?idx=1&tid=657661124083621888
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Oct 23, 2015 22:17
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fade5 posted:Some of it is in murky/classified territory, but here's how the YPG call in airstrikes when they need to: Wow, so pretty much exactly like a video game, that's incredible.
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Oct 23, 2015 22:40
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Looks like Sinjar/Shingal is finally kicking into high gear: https://twitter.com/EzidiPress/status/657652135102980099 quote:#Breaking: coalition airstrikes against ISIS positions inside #Shingal city few minutes ago #Sinjar #TwitterKurds https://twitter.com/EzidiPress/status/657644373828632577 quote:Upcoming storming of #Shingal city. #Ezidi fighters swear to take revenge on their former neighbours who collaborated with ISIS #Sinjar  pictures of dead bodies, as a warning.
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Oct 23, 2015 22:40
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fade5 posted:Looks like Sinjar/Shingal is finally kicking into high gear: Oh boy, what's a civil war without murderous retribution?
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Oct 23, 2015 22:42
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GhostofJohnMuir posted:Oh boy, what's a civil war without murderous retribution?
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Oct 23, 2015 22:47
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fade5 posted:It doesn't excuse it, but those neighbors/collaborators are part of the reason the term "Yazidi sex slaves" exists so prominently when talking about ISIL's various horrors. History has shown that "collaborator" often begins to encompass the people who just tried to keep their heads down and also people who have nice things that other people want and also people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's one of the hallmarks for why civil wars are so bloody.
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Oct 23, 2015 22:57
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Updates on Hama offensive. Eastern Hama. the attacks out here are not confirmed to have made advances and there is no official word of advances which means there was probably nothing notable. fighting is not necessarily over, but the initial attacks probably did not take any of the towns or hills targeted. This comes at the same time ISIS has conducted a large raid on the lifeline into Aleppo, which I will go over a bit later. Tonight, the rebels launched a fresh attacks from the Hama salient itself aimed at the small towns/villages to the southeast which the regime over ran in their first day of attacks. Official word from the regime and rebels came down that these were successful and that these two villages were retaken. by themselves these gains are little more than a thumb tot he eye fo the regime as they offer little but more defensive depth. What is interesting here is claims, hints implications that the rebels goal is to take the Town of Morek itself. This is a moderately large town directly east of the salient on the M5 highway running from Hama to Aleppo. The rebels taking this town would seriously alter the balance on this front. To understand why a bit about the geography here. The M5 highway acts as a rough dividing line between large towns on the west and small villages on the east. Not only that but the Orantes river winds its way diagonally west to east until it bisects Hama city proper. The current rebel salient touches the river so by taking Morek they would effectively turn their salient into an offensive platform which could push toward Hama. The small villages east of the highway do not offer great springboards for assaults on larger towns(which we've seent he rebels are veyr good at defending) while the river acts to shield the other flank from attacks as, despite not being very large, there are limited crossings north of the larger towns at the outskirts of Hama. This geography is part of what led to an initially succesful Rebel push toward Hama in 2014. In that case they effectively followed the river south avoiding the large towns, which cost them as when the regime counter offensive arrived they had few strong points where they could fort up. They did take Morek during that offensive, but only well after they'd pushed south and the they lost it again within a month of so. Taking it at the start of this offensive, if it continued further south, would leave them in a much stronger position to assault the towns at Hama's outskirts. It could also be that taking Morek would lead to more advances in the eastern farmlands/towns as it would force the regime to withdraw from more exposed villages. Still they'd need to take it first. On the subject of ISIS rebel cooperation, I am heavily skeptical. despite claims the rebels raided or attacked the Aleppo supply line I've seen nothing to indicate an actual attack towards towns within 10 km of the road. In contrast, isIS has been raiding the road frequently and while they over ran a sizable portion of it this time there appears to be no cooperation or coordination with the rebels. Keep in mind attacking the road does not directly help the rebel assault in Hama and while it could benefit the rebels in South Aleppo, ISIS has a more proximate there, namely hurting the regime assault toward Kweries airbase which is ongoing. Basically, the regime has atatcked the rebels and ISIS in the past few weeks, it should not be surprising both have attacked back nor is it evidence of collusion. Edit// One last note, it is obvious at this point the rebels have taken to launching attacks at evening and intot he night to reduce the effectiveness of Russian air support. This indicates to me they have not received any weaponry as of yet to respond to air attacks. It is also obvious to me that Russia will rapidly find a way to respond to the change in operational tempo that we should probably see within the next week or so as they can not allow a rebel offensive to gain steam. farraday fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Oct 23, 2015 |
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Oct 23, 2015 23:20
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http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/im...dium=socialflowquote:With Russia, Syria and the U.S. led coalition striking targets around Syria, the skies above the war-torn country have become increasingly filled with combat aircraft. These airstrikes have become the bane of militant and rebel factions fighting on the ground. Now some of them are trying are using helium filled condoms with small explosives attached in an attempt to down one of these aircraft.
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Oct 24, 2015 01:53
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It would have to be a pretty small amount of explosive to be lifted by a helium balloon. How would it even detonate?
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Oct 24, 2015 02:02
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Brown Moses posted:Seems the Iraqi army and their pals in Kata'ib Hizballah have been using what appears to be a 10 barrel Volcano rocket launcher (as seen in Syria) Radio Prune posted:It would have to be a pretty small amount of explosive to be lifted by a helium balloon. How would it even detonate?
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Oct 24, 2015 02:11
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I've gotta know where a lot of these groups get their drones from. I mean from a practical standpoint some of their quadcopters have pretty solid range and durability and I might want to purchase something like that for personal use. Does anybody have any idea what they use?
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Oct 24, 2015 02:27
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Asehujiko posted:Hezbollah has a much better taste in music than ISIS. I'm no aircraft engineer but I think getting a decent size rock into the whirling blades of an engine at flight speed would do some pretty bad poo poo.
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Oct 24, 2015 02:55
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Asehujiko posted:Hezbollah has a much better taste in music than ISIS. The music makes the video feel like some kind of live action Advanced Wars.
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Oct 24, 2015 02:58
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FAUXTON posted:I'm no aircraft engineer but I think getting a decent size rock into the whirling blades of an engine at flight speed would do some pretty bad poo poo. This is extremely true. Little chips of concrete are pretty unhealthy too - they're one of the kinds of detritus people regularly sweep runways for.
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Oct 24, 2015 04:00
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GreyjoyBastard posted:This is extremely true. Little chips of concrete are pretty unhealthy too - they're one of the kinds of detritus people regularly sweep runways for. On the other hand, rubbers full of helium probably aren't lifting much.
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Oct 24, 2015 04:27
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I don't think Latex survives very long in the sun. Although it would be interesting if they actually managed to take down even a single flying machine with them, I feel like all this will accomplish is sparsely littering the area with UXO
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Oct 24, 2015 05:40
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FAUXTON posted:On the other hand, rubbers full of helium probably aren't lifting much. Yeah, and it takes a pretty significant amount of luck for them to be in the exact right place to hit an aircraft. At the very least, just stick some small rocks in your miniballoons and use your explosives for something more sensible. Although really, I expect our Mad Max friends in Syria and Iraq could come up with some better uses for helium, too.
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Oct 24, 2015 05:51
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I'm like 60% sure the ISIS condom explosives thing is russian propaganda, it showed up on pro-russian sites before anywhere else
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Oct 24, 2015 05:56
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Flavahbeast posted:I'm like 60% sure the ISIS condom explosives thing is russian propaganda, it showed up on pro-russian sites before anywhere else Yeah, it reeks of made up bullshit meant to impart the idea of "haha, look at how backwards these rebels are, we'll win in a week." An all too familiar mentality.
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Oct 24, 2015 06:46
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Bait and Swatch posted:Yeah, it reeks of made up bullshit meant to impart the idea of "haha, look at how backwards these rebels are, we'll win in a week." An all too familiar mentality. The Secret History of the Syrian War will include a line about how much of the Russian air power was neutralized when their jets required large amounts of maintenance due to a latex substance gumming up their jet engine intakes for unknown reasons.
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Oct 24, 2015 06:50
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Does anyone recall an article describing the Gulf Countries' increased support for Syrian rebels after the Ghouta gas strike? KSA and the differences between Abdullah and Salman were talked about in it too. Went through my bookmarks but I can't even remember which site it was.
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Oct 24, 2015 07:59
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I can't remember if I've shared this before, but it might be useful to some of you: http://syria.bellingcat.com/ Syria Right Now is our attempt to organise social media accounts of the Syrian opposition groups to make it easier to access info from Syria.
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Oct 24, 2015 12:40
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I'm having a hard time figuring out if this is a new thing or old news. On the one hand, we know that Russia has asked before to know where the FSA is to avoid from bombing them but this sounds more like "try to help them." Some of the political aspects of this seem to be new but maybe it is just different translations? I mean, I am obviously skeptical of Russia but if there really is going to be some pressure on Assad to allow elections and come to the table then that could at least be a reason for optimism. I'm sure I'm just grasping at straws... http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/24/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-idUSKCN0SI08820151024
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Oct 24, 2015 14:35
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GreyjoyBastard posted:Yeah, and it takes a pretty significant amount of luck for them to be in the exact right place to hit an aircraft. I think I'd rather have an AA gun then you get thousands of little things in the air and you get to direct where they go.
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Oct 24, 2015 14:38
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Invicta{HOG}, M.D. posted:I'm having a hard time figuring out if this is a new thing or old news. On the one hand, we know that Russia has asked before to know where the FSA is to avoid from bombing them but this sounds more like "try to help them." Some of the political aspects of this seem to be new but maybe it is just different translations? I mean, I am obviously skeptical of Russia but if there really is going to be some pressure on Assad to allow elections and come to the table then that could at least be a reason for optimism. I'm sure I'm just grasping at straws... It's still not what the US/Saudi coalition wanted. They won't be in full control of the transition to a new government or able to influence it so they may reject it and continue just making Syria as expensive as possible for Russia. U.N. Report Calls on Governments to Protect Whistleblowers Like Snowden, Not Prosecute Them - The Intercept quote:In a statement accompanying the report in response to Kaye’s questionnaire, U.S. officials acknowledged that government employees who deal with classified material are not covered by the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. But they insisted that those employees “retain the ability to report any perceived government fraud, waste, or abuse to appropriate inspectors general, other executive branch oversight entities, and certain members of Congress while preserving any national security interests at issue.” Haha, yeah loving right. I can see it now: "He is not a whistleblower! He told the public our secrets! That's different" Mackers fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Oct 24, 2015 |
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Oct 24, 2015 17:02
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So what's the deal with the new he-said-she-said story coming out of Turkey blaming Erdogan for the Syrian sarin strikes?
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Oct 24, 2015 17:12
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ComradeCosmobot posted:So what's the deal with the new he-said-she-said story coming out of Turkey blaming Erdogan for the Syrian sarin strikes? They've yet to produce their evidence so it's a little hard to judge. Of course, that hasn't stopped some people saying it's final proof Turkey did it.
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Oct 24, 2015 17:17
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