Zardnaar
Deity
Home fall in next few days or Assads forces make a stand?
Middle East thread
- Thread starter Bonyduck Campersang
- Start date
Syrian rebels take Hama, a second major city, in another blow to Assad
The Islamist rebels’ breakneck advance has redrawn the country’s front lines and revealed the fragility of the government’s security forces.ISTANBUL — An Islamist rebel group said Thursday that it had taken control of Hama, Syria’s fourth-largest city, dealing another significant blow to President Bashar al-Assad less than a week after his forces ceded Aleppo in the face of a breakneck rebel advance.
The Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which is leading the offensive, released a series of short statements Thursday afternoon, saying it had entered neighborhoods in Hama after days of fighting on its outskirts and freed inmates from the city’s central prison. Around the same time, the Syrian army announced it had withdrawn.
“Military units stationed there have redeployed and repositioned outside the city,” in order to “preserve the lives of civilians,” an army statement said. By nightfall, HTS said Hama was completely under its control.
The rebels’ seizure of the city was the latest shocking turn in Syria’s civil war, a nearly 14-year conflict that had appeared all but frozen until insurgent fighters streamed toward Aleppo last week and to other parts of northern and central Syria, redrawing the country’s front lines and revealing the fragility of Assad’s security forces.
The rebels’ capture of Hama, which sits on the strategic M5 highway, could serve to protect their previous gains in northern Syria, including Aleppo. And it placed the rebels about 25 miles north of the city of Homs, a junction leading to the Syrian coast and to Lebanon — areas critical to the government, as well as Iran and Russia, its main allies and military supporters.
In videos from Hama on Thursday, rebel fighters vowed an advance on Homs would come next. About 115 miles south of the city, down the M5, sits the capital Damascus, the center of Assad’s power.
WaPo
Thorgalaeg
Deity
They already are in the outskirts of Homs according to this:
bsky.app
Btw, replaced x by bluesky. It's like getting out of the sewer and breath fresh air. Every interesting account has switched too.
NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com)
North and northeast of Homs, the HTS-led rebel forces secured many more villages after SAA's withdrawal: Al-Za'farana, Al-Majd, Deir Foul, Asila, Abu Hamam, Al-Hashimiya, Al-Farahaniyya Al-Sharqiya and Al-Farahaniya Al-Ghasibiyya, Al-Makramiyya, Al-Sa'an, Izz Al-Din and Granada
bsky.app
Btw, replaced x by bluesky. It's like getting out of the sewer and breath fresh air. Every interesting account has switched too.
Akka
Moody old mage.
Lots of reports of checkpoints being taken over by locals siding with rebel factions, and the SDF is also starting to move from the south.
I'm wary of calling it the collapse of Assad's government, as I fully expected it to fall ten years ago when it was also facing rebellions from everywhere, so it might just pull out a save from the brink again.
But it still feels like the structural faults are opening into wide cracks.
I'm wary of calling it the collapse of Assad's government, as I fully expected it to fall ten years ago when it was also facing rebellions from everywhere, so it might just pull out a save from the brink again.
But it still feels like the structural faults are opening into wide cracks.
They self-identify as jihadists. Magically that is ok, depending on the enemy.
www.france24.com
I am sure the christian populations in Syria will be fine though. Likewise for the kurds.
Rebels reach Syria's second city of Aleppo as deadly campaign continues
Syrian jihadists and their Turkish-backed allies reached the country's second city of Aleppo on Friday as they pushed ahead with their lightning advance. The rebels have seized more than 50 towns and…
www.france24.com
I am sure the christian populations in Syria will be fine though. Likewise for the kurds.
Snowygerry
Deity
This is the new, multi-polar world order. Everyone regards any conflict only in their own interest, not unlike it was in the 19th century.
Thorgalaeg
Deity
Russian and Chinese embasies hurry respective citizens to flee Syria.
It is in Belgium's interests that Syria gets controlled by jihadists?
Snowygerry
Deity
Ofcourse,anything that annoys the Russian is gpod for the Belgian, we should oppose the imperialist bastards till the cows come home, don’t you think so ?
No, I think that the above is the definition of jingoism, since you literally don't care at all about Syrians, just care that "Russians are annoyed".
Arguably it is even worse than historical jingoism (eg of the British Empire), because there Britain was an antagonistic superpower, while Belgium (etc) are vassals.
Zardnaar
Deity
They self-identify as jihadists. Magically that is ok, depending on the enemy.
Rebels reach Syria's second city of Aleppo as deadly campaign continues
Syrian jihadists and their Turkish-backed allies reached the country's second city of Aleppo on Friday as they pushed ahead with their lightning advance. The rebels have seized more than 50 towns and…
I am sure the christian populations in Syria will be fine though. Likewise for the kurds.
Well you've been cheering on Russia coming up 3 years.
It's to wesk to prop up it's puppets now. Same with Iran.
saamohod
Deity
I keep seeing different (unconfirmed?) reports lately that Assad has fled Syria.
Akka
Moody old mage.
Seems he's only going to be able to ask for the latter it seems :
(Google translation : "Private sources told Sky News Arabia: Russia informed Damascus that any intervention would take place and that she has other priorities at this limited time")
Looks like Syria is heading for some changes. Can't say if it'll be good or bad, considering the mess that it has been for a long time now (and even if Assad regime falls there is no guarantee that it won't just stay at the civil war situation for the years to come, or that something even uglier replaces it). I guess we can just keep our fingers crossed.
So jihadists can't be worse than Assad? Is Assad satan or something? 
This isn't a US plan. Due to senile Biden being gone, other forces took over in the area. For those who don't recall what jihadists are, they are allied to Hamas and Egypt's imprisoned "Muslim Brotherhood". I thought Hamas was anti-west.
This isn't a US plan. Due to senile Biden being gone, other forces took over in the area. For those who don't recall what jihadists are, they are allied to Hamas and Egypt's imprisoned "Muslim Brotherhood". I thought Hamas was anti-west.
Akka
Moody old mage.
Do you have reading comprehension problem or are you just intent to project your own hypocrisy on others ? I specifically point that we can't know what will happen and it can be better or worse or the same, and then you try very hard to find a way to twist it into your own behaviour of "it's okay if it's the side I support who does it, it's bad when it's the other who does".
So it's not relevant that jihadists are jihadists and formally ALLIED to Hamas and other jihadist factions?
And after that you regard it as a good idea to say that I am finessing over things due to sympathies?
Behind all that confusion also lies the -ideally obvious, but forget ideal states- awkward truth that jihadists taking over Syria is not even the US's plan, so not even the leader's preferred thing to have jingoism by its vassals about.
Akka
Moody old mage.
=>So it's not relevant that jihadists are jihadists and formally ALLIED to Hamas and other jihadist factions?
And after that you regard it as a good idea to say that I am finessing over things due to sympathies?
Really can't add anything, it's all here. You manage to bend "can't say if the change will be good or bad" into some imaginary "yay Jihadists !", and it says a lot more about you than anyone else.
You just misread my post. Didn't get that I was telling you that "we don't know what will happen and it can be better or worse or the same" is not logically compatible with "people who literally self-identify as jihadists taking over".
Unless, of course, your view is that jihadists can be good or bad, or in between; after all, they are humans too, just by definition view non-muslims as subhumans
Unless, of course, your view is that jihadists can be good or bad, or in between; after all, they are humans too, just by definition view non-muslims as subhumans
