Syria news: Rebel coalition begins push to take Aleppo

[AZTG]

^ The US is going to have to support the Kurds regardless, mostly because of their influence in Iraq. Without Kurdish support, there is no more unified Iraq and concentrated flow of oil.

I agree that we have no suitable Arab puppet to replace Assad. And it would have to be an Arab: either a Shia with Sunni support (don't know if that exists in the mid East right now) or a secular Sunni who is willing to include minority groups in the government.

But like you said, any secular Sunni group is allied with the Wahhabis/Takfiris due to the extestential threat to the Sunni communities in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon as well.

The Kurds might be the best bet until the field of potential rulers thins, but then that means we would have to turn our backs and snake the Kurds at some point (again).

On a site note, I might have to say fuck it and change the thread title to HVC and AZTG discuss the mid east hahahaha

The funny thing about all this is that the Kurdish Regional Government, KRG, in Iraq is under the influence of Turkey and Iran. The leading party of KRG, the Barzani clan is under Turkish influence. The biggest oposition party, the Talabani supporters, are under Iranian influence. Iran is already under Russian influence, and if Turkey works with Russia, all of the KRG will ne under Russia. And being that the majorirty of Iraq is Shiite, they are under Iran. Im telling you man, Russia played this shit right.

The US at this point should allow the KRG to sell their oil without Baghdad, help the YPG get land that connects to the Sea so that the KRG could sell their oil without having it go through Turkey. Europe and the US should buy most of their oil from the Kurds. This will make it so that the KRG is the strongest part of Iraq and Rojava woll be the strongest part of Syria, with that foothold, the US could work to a peaceful resolution in Iraq and Syria and put a moderate puppet in control politically.

But we have to give props to Russia. They played their cards rignt.

And yea im down with the name change. Nothing else going on here anyway.

 

[kingblaze84]

Assad's govt still is bombing the Kurds in some areas today, I wonder how long he'll continue this. It's a little surprising to me because Assad's ally Russia has been supportive of the Kurds at times. America's reaction and Kurdish reaction will be interesting too, considering the PKK and others are already at war with Turkey.

 

[AZTG]

Assad's govt still is bombing the Kurds in some areas today, I wonder how long he'll continue this. It's a little surprising to me because Assad's ally Russia has been supportive of the Kurds at times. America's reaction and Kurdish reaction will be interesting too, considering the PKK and others are already at war with Turkey.

Yea there were heavy clashes last night in Hassakah. These are the heaviest clashes between Assad and the YPG since 2011. They had many skirmishes but nothing this signifacant. 1 theory behind it is that Assad doesnt want ISIS to lose more ground in Syria so soon. Ofcourse he eventually wants ISIS out of Syria but not until he consolidates more power and finishes off the rebels. The YPG took the town of Manjib just a week ago and right away they started operation Al-Bab, which is one of the handful of ISIS strongholds left. The regime feels that if ISIS is ousted out of Syria, the Kurds and the Rebels might work together against the Regime and more importantly, the focus on the world will be directly on Assad and how to stabilize Syria. He is not ready for that, so he attacked the YPG to weaken them.

All accounts say that on the ground, the YPG pushed back Assads forces, but Assad has airplanes and they attack civilian areas. Shit can go very left field from here.

I expect cooler heads (Russia and US) to prevail and calm this down soon though.

 

[HerbalVaporCapers]

Assad's govt still is bombing the Kurds in some areas today, I wonder how long he'll continue this. It's a little surprising to me because Assad's ally Russia has been supportive of the Kurds at times. America's reaction and Kurdish reaction will be interesting too, considering the PKK and others are already at war with Turkey.

Yea there were heavy clashes last night in Hassakah. These are the heaviest clashes between Assad and the YPG since 2011. They had many skirmishes but nothing this signifacant. 1 theory behind it is that Assad doesnt want ISIS to lose more ground in Syria so soon. Ofcourse he eventually wants ISIS out of Syria but not until he consolidates more power and finishes off the rebels. The YPG took the town of Manjib just a week ago and right away they started operation Al-Bab, which is one of the handful of ISIS strongholds left. The regime feels that if ISIS is ousted out of Syria, the Kurds and the Rebels might work together against the Regime and more importantly, the focus on the world will be directly on Assad and how to stabilize Syria. He is not ready for that, so he attacked the YPG to weaken them.

All accounts say that on the ground, the YPG pushed back Assads forces, but Assad has airplanes and they attack civilian areas. Shit can go very left field from here.

I expect cooler heads (Russia and US) to prevail and calm this down soon though.

To a decent extent, Bashar Al Assad enabled the growth of Al Qaeda in Iraq during the Iraq War. When the war was going on across the border, he was able to get rid of a lot of radical Sunnis who would otherwise be interested in fighting his government (as they had done in the late 70s/early 80s) who would blow themselves up or die fighting the US army. Two birds with one stone When the civil conflict began in Syria, he had a prisoner amnesty...

But let out some of the most radical Wahhabis in his prison system. They by and large joined the organization that became ISIS.

With ISIS, Bashar has a boogeyman. His strategy of crushing the "moderates" first, as they are the true threat to his regime, leaves the door open for international help against ISIS when they are the last men standing. He becomes legitimate because realistically, who would back ISIS over Bashar?

 

[AZTG]

Assad's govt still is bombing the Kurds in some areas today, I wonder how long he'll continue this. It's a little surprising to me because Assad's ally Russia has been supportive of the Kurds at times. America's reaction and Kurdish reaction will be interesting too, considering the PKK and others are already at war with Turkey.

Yea there were heavy clashes last night in Hassakah. These are the heaviest clashes between Assad and the YPG since 2011. They had many skirmishes but nothing this signifacant. 1 theory behind it is that Assad doesnt want ISIS to lose more ground in Syria so soon. Ofcourse he eventually wants ISIS out of Syria but not until he consolidates more power and finishes off the rebels. The YPG took the town of Manjib just a week ago and right away they started operation Al-Bab, which is one of the handful of ISIS strongholds left. The regime feels that if ISIS is ousted out of Syria, the Kurds and the Rebels might work together against the Regime and more importantly, the focus on the world will be directly on Assad and how to stabilize Syria. He is not ready for that, so he attacked the YPG to weaken them.

All accounts say that on the ground, the YPG pushed back Assads forces, but Assad has airplanes and they attack civilian areas. Shit can go very left field from here.

I expect cooler heads (Russia and US) to prevail and calm this down soon though.

To a decent extent, Bashar Al Assad enabled the growth of Al Qaeda in Iraq during the Iraq War. When the war was going on across the border, he was able to get rid of a lot of radical Sunnis who would otherwise be interested in fighting his government (as they had done in the late 70s/early 80s) who would blow themselves up or die fighting the US army. Two birds with one stone When the civil conflict began in Syria, he had a prisoner amnesty...

But let out some of the most radical Wahhabis in his prison system. They by and large joined the organization that became ISIS.

With ISIS, Bashar has a boogeyman. His strategy of crushing the "moderates" first, as they are the true threat to his regime, leaves the door open for international help against ISIS when they are the last men standing. He becomes legitimate because realistically, who would back ISIS over Bashar?

Crazy thing is, looking at it from just a humanistic point of view, Assad has done so much more damage than even ISIS has. Only difference is Assad does not pose a true threat to the West. Assad has killed close to 500k civilians and forced about 10 million to either migrate internationally or internally.

Now as an American, I get that ISIS is the bigger threat to stability in the world but Assad has straight up committed genocide and the US didnt do and isnt doing shit to stop it.

You know how they ask Clinton what his biggest regret of his presidency is and he replies that its not sending forces to Rwanda earlier because he could have saved hundreds of thousands of people? I predict Obama will have the same answer but it will be out Syria.

We invaded Afganistan to go over Al Qaeda. I get it. After 9-11 it had to be done. But honestly, what amount of threat was Al Qaeda after the US bolstered up its secuirty of the home land? Same with Iraq, getting rid of Saddam was a great thing, especially for my people, but Saddam committed genocide in 80s by killing 300k kurds in 4-5 years and the US didnt do shit. In 2003, as fucked up as it was, shit was relatively stable in Iraq, and Saddam was killing people but nothing this bad.

Assad on the other hand? He was straight barrell bombing his own people. People would be at markets buying groceries and got blown up. 500k people dead and I bet the actual numbers are higher. If any country needed to get invaded in the mid east in the past 16 years it was Syria and thats the only place we didnt invade. Smh.

 

[kingblaze84]

Assad's govt still is bombing the Kurds in some areas today, I wonder how long he'll continue this. It's a little surprising to me because Assad's ally Russia has been supportive of the Kurds at times. America's reaction and Kurdish reaction will be interesting too, considering the PKK and others are already at war with Turkey.

Yea there were heavy clashes last night in Hassakah. These are the heaviest clashes between Assad and the YPG since 2011. They had many skirmishes but nothing this signifacant. 1 theory behind it is that Assad doesnt want ISIS to lose more ground in Syria so soon. Ofcourse he eventually wants ISIS out of Syria but not until he consolidates more power and finishes off the rebels. The YPG took the town of Manjib just a week ago and right away they started operation Al-Bab, which is one of the handful of ISIS strongholds left. The regime feels that if ISIS is ousted out of Syria, the Kurds and the Rebels might work together against the Regime and more importantly, the focus on the world will be directly on Assad and how to stabilize Syria. He is not ready for that, so he attacked the YPG to weaken them.

All accounts say that on the ground, the YPG pushed back Assads forces, but Assad has airplanes and they attack civilian areas. Shit can go very left field from here.

I expect cooler heads (Russia and US) to prevail and calm this down soon though.

Yeah Assad and Iran don't like the amount of land and autonomy the YPG and its allies have in northern Syria, he's trying to check them. Along with Arabs often complaining about Kurdish military, Assad and Turkey and maybe even Russia may be agreeing the YPG and others need to be held back. I do expect the attacks to lessen with time but who knows, Assad is pretty ruthless.

Not sure what America can do though, Russia and Assad have the main advantage there. America would be condemned internationally if it attacks Syrian jets, and it would badly hurt America's reputation in Syria, making its already shady actions there even more disliked by Syrians and others. America doesn't want to be hated even more then it is now. Russia hasn't done anything to stop Turkey from bombing the YPG in Syria, so I'm not sure if Russia is going to do much to pressure Assad to stop his attacks. Exception if Assad goes too far or kills too many civilians....it's a giant mess there.

 

[janklow]

To a decent extent, Bashar Al Assad enabled the growth of Al Qaeda in Iraq during the Iraq War. When the war was going on across the border, he was able to get rid of a lot of radical Sunnis who would otherwise be interested in fighting his government (as they had done in the late 70s/early 80s) who would blow themselves up or die fighting the US army. Two birds with one stone When the civil conflict began in Syria, he had a prisoner amnesty...

in this respect he is like a lot of countries in encouraging extremism to fuck with his neighbors and forgetting that blowback exists

You know how they ask Clinton what his biggest regret of his presidency is and he replies that its not sending forces to Rwanda earlier because he could have saved hundreds of thousands of people? I predict Obama will have the same answer but it will be out Syria.

We invaded Afganistan to go over Al Qaeda. I get it. After 9-11 it had to be done. But honestly, what amount of threat was Al Qaeda after the US bolstered up its secuirty of the home land? Same with Iraq, getting rid of Saddam was a great thing, especially for my people, but Saddam committed genocide in 80s by killing 300k kurds in 4-5 years and the US didnt do shit. In 2003, as fucked up as it was, shit was relatively stable in Iraq, and Saddam was killing people but nothing this bad.

don't forget that Obama ran on a whole "i won't do the war thing" platform and then accepted that goddamn Nobel Peace Prize (possibly the single stupidest international reaction to Obama's election). but then American politics have let to some goddamn stupid decisions before Obama.

 

[AZTG]

So the YPG and Assad declared a ceasefire in which the terms are that the YPG keeps all the land they got from this fighting in Hassakah, that Assads army must leave Hassakah, and that Assads army can no longer enter Hassakah.

 

[HerbalVaporCapers]

So the YPG and Assad declared a ceasefire in which the terms are that the YPG keeps all the land they got from this fighting in Hassakah, that Assads army must leave Hassakah, and that Assads army can no longer enter Hassakah.

The Syrian Army took a big L here. The YPG surrounded their postions in government buildings and told them they had to surrender or die. Straight up, no filter.

This sounds like a surrender and retreat. They requested that the National Defense Force, or the civilian militia that supports the Syrian Army be dismantled and forced to leave Hassakah. Sounds like this is happening as well.

And now Turkey is shelling both ISIS and YPG positions from their own territory. Can't say this isn't linked.

@AZTG I know your fam is from Turkey, but are you Kurdish? You have a lot of game about what's going on with them.

 

[AZTG]

So the YPG and Assad declared a ceasefire in which the terms are that the YPG keeps all the land they got from this fighting in Hassakah, that Assads army must leave Hassakah, and that Assads army can no longer enter Hassakah.

The Syrian Army took a big L here. The YPG surrounded their postions in government buildings and told them they had to surrender or die. Straight up, no filter.

This sounds like a surrender and retreat. They requested that the National Defense Force, or the civilian militia that supports the Syrian Army be dismantled and forced to leave Hassakah. Sounds like this is happening as well.

And now Turkey is shelling both ISIS and YPG positions from their own territory. Can't say this isn't linked.

@AZTG I know your fam is from Turkey, but are you Kurdish? You have a lot of game about what's going on with them.

Yea im Kurdish. I fully support the ypg and unfortunately the pkk as well. I say unfortunately because no one should be supporting a paramilitary militia that bombs govt buildings, but for Kurds in Turkey they are really the only group that the Kurds can support. There is a lot of dirty shit the pkk did and does but which group doesnt? The turkish govt is way worse. Wish the environment in Turkey wasnt so fucked up that kurds can only legitimately support the pkk, but that is the situation.

The last few years the HDP gained a lot of traction and made it seem like a political solution was possible. The only issue is that they were a political party and so have no choice but to play accordingly with the rules put in place by the turkish govt. The turkish govt however was always corrupt and even more so now and pulled the rug out from under the HDP and basically sent a message saying that you can only operate as far as I let you, which made the HDP lose all legitimacy in the peace process. Whats the point of having a political party that can only do what the oppressor allows?

This made the pkk gain even more legitimacy for Kurds and basically proved that if any real change comes it will have to be orchestrated by the pkk.

 

[AZTG]

So Jarablus is the only major syrian city left in ISIS control in Syria on the Turkish border. Its the hub of foreign fighters and help that ISIS and other rebel groups are getting. It was the next city on the list that the YPG was targetting, and today, Turkey announced that they are going to invade Syria and take over the city.

This is just a smoke screen. Its a way for ISIS and other islamist groups to continue getting help from Turkey and other countries without the coalation being able to take Jarablus.

I wonder how the international community will react with Turkey actually invading Syria.

 

[HerbalVaporCapers]

So Jarablus is the only major syrian city left in ISIS control in Syria on the Turkish border. Its the hub of foreign fighters and help that ISIS and other rebel groups are getting. It was the next city on the list that the YPG was targetting, and today, Turkey announced that they are going to invade Syria and take over the city.

This is just a smoke screen. Its a way for ISIS and other islamist groups to continue getting help from Turkey and other countries without the coalation being able to take Jarablus.

I wonder how the international community will react with Turkey actually invading Syria.

Buses and trucks of "FSA" followed tanks into Jarablus, so I agree with the bolded.

This helps the Syrian government a lot as well.

But if raises a question: If US Special Forces are imbedded with the SDF in Rojava, will they continue to support the SDF when they are openly fighting against Turkey?

It's pretty much a proxy war at this point, but how are folks in the states gonna feel if dead US soldiers are on the news... And it was the Turkish military that killed them?

 

[AZTG]

So Jarablus is the only major syrian city left in ISIS control in Syria on the Turkish border. Its the hub of foreign fighters and help that ISIS and other rebel groups are getting. It was the next city on the list that the YPG was targetting, and today, Turkey announced that they are going to invade Syria and take over the city.

This is just a smoke screen. Its a way for ISIS and other islamist groups to continue getting help from Turkey and other countries without the coalation being able to take Jarablus.

I wonder how the international community will react with Turkey actually invading Syria.

Buses and trucks of "FSA" followed tanks into Jarablus, so I agree with the bolded.

This helps the Syrian government a lot as well.

But if raises a question: If US Special Forces are imbedded with the SDF in Rojava, will they continue to support the SDF when they are openly fighting against Turkey?

It's pretty much a proxy war at this point, but how are folks in the states gonna feel if dead US soldiers are on the news... And it was the Turkish military that killed them?

Answer is no. If YPG fights Turkey, the special forces will be long gone and the US would not be supporting the YPG.

Biden said today that the US will never support the YPG if they crossed the euphrates again, all this after the YPG fought 2 months for Manbij. Its just America being America again.

 

[HerbalVaporCapers]

So Jarablus is the only major syrian city left in ISIS control in Syria on the Turkish border. Its the hub of foreign fighters and help that ISIS and other rebel groups are getting. It was the next city on the list that the YPG was targetting, and today, Turkey announced that they are going to invade Syria and take over the city.

This is just a smoke screen. Its a way for ISIS and other islamist groups to continue getting help from Turkey and other countries without the coalation being able to take Jarablus.

I wonder how the international community will react with Turkey actually invading Syria.

Buses and trucks of "FSA" followed tanks into Jarablus, so I agree with the bolded.

This helps the Syrian government a lot as well.

But if raises a question: If US Special Forces are imbedded with the SDF in Rojava, will they continue to support the SDF when they are openly fighting against Turkey?

It's pretty much a proxy war at this point, but how are folks in the states gonna feel if dead US soldiers are on the news... And it was the Turkish military that killed them?

Answer is no. If YPG fights Turkey, the special forces will be long gone and the US would not be supporting the YPG.

Biden said today that the US will never support the YPG if they crossed the euphrates again, all this after the YPG fought 2 months for Manbij. Its just America being America again.

Shit would be like the end of Desert Storm all over again.

Kinda surprised any Kurdish group is messing with the US at all. But then again you'll take any help you can if you have worse enemies close by

 

[kingblaze84]

So Jarablus is the only major syrian city left in ISIS control in Syria on the Turkish border. Its the hub of foreign fighters and help that ISIS and other rebel groups are getting. It was the next city on the list that the YPG was targetting, and today, Turkey announced that they are going to invade Syria and take over the city.

This is just a smoke screen. Its a way for ISIS and other islamist groups to continue getting help from Turkey and other countries without the coalation being able to take Jarablus.

I wonder how the international community will react with Turkey actually invading Syria.

Buses and trucks of "FSA" followed tanks into Jarablus, so I agree with the bolded.

This helps the Syrian government a lot as well.

But if raises a question: If US Special Forces are imbedded with the SDF in Rojava, will they continue to support the SDF when they are openly fighting against Turkey?

It's pretty much a proxy war at this point, but how are folks in the states gonna feel if dead US soldiers are on the news... And it was the Turkish military that killed them?

Answer is no. If YPG fights Turkey, the special forces will be long gone and the US would not be supporting the YPG.

Biden said today that the US will never support the YPG if they crossed the euphrates again, all this after the YPG fought 2 months for Manbij. Its just America being America again.

Shit would be like the end of Desert Storm all over again.

Kinda surprised any Kurdish group is messing with the US at all. But then again you'll take any help you can if you have worse enemies close by

Yeah I'm surprised Kurdish groups would mess with America at this point but as you said, they were desperate for help. Kurdish groups even worked with Israel at one point, a huge no-no in the Middle East. I feel bad for the Kurdish groups in Syria, if even Biden is willing cut off aid to them, then you know no one else can do much.

I'm sure the PKK will continue war against Turkey though, Turkey is gonna react in a brutal way and they already are in some ways. Giant mess all around, I can see why much of the world just shrugs at this shit now.

 

[kingblaze84]

Realistically, America can't do much to take on Turkey anyway. Not as its losing money and treasure in so many neverending battles in the Middle East. With so many enemies around the world, I suppose Obama didn't want to create another one in Turkey's government.

 

[AZTG]

I think its not that big of a deal. I think the way the YPG looks at is that are just gonna wait it out. How much time and resource can Turkey really waste? Also, what will be Assads reaction to Turkey invading a part of Syria? More importantly what will be Irans reaction?

US is just playing smart politics and I think the YPG knows that they are out as as soon as they lose their importance and so their reaction is calculcated.

These development are interesting.

And about Turkey reacting in a brutal way, they already burned and destroyed 8 huge towns to the ground because they couldnt win the fights in the cities. 100s of civilians got burned alive. Doesnt get more brutal. Turkey is gonna continue its brutal actions.

The pkk attacks have been ramping up. If you look past the "official" numbers of each side and look at idependently verified numbers, the pkk has killed more soldiers then turkish soldiers have killed the pkk. But, with that said they sent a message to the turkish govt saying that they were ready for peace if turkey was, that was followed by a huge pkk attack on a turkish base. Haha. Shit is a clusterfuck.