The key to defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is cutting their supply lines into Turkey. I apologise if it seems that I'm starting every post in this way but the fact of the matter is that this is something that is not going to change.
Unfortunately US President Barack Obama has either lost his nerve or lost sight of the fact that ISIL are the enemy.
So on August 24th (24/8/16) he gave Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan permission to invade Syria. The purpose of this invasion was to protect ISIL's supply lines with Turkey across a roughly 100km (60mile) stretch of the Syria/Turkey border stretching from the town of Azaz in the west to the Euphrates River in the west. This ISIL supply corridor which is now lined with Turkish steel is sometimes referred to as; "Erdogan's Pocket" or "Garvaghy Road."
Fortunately though Russia has got its September 18th (18/9/16) election out of the way and based on their performance at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) it's quite hard not to feel pity for the US at the moment. So Russia and the Syrian government have decided to aid the US by sealing Garvaghy Road to the south-west as it enters Aleppo City - roughly 50km (30 miles) south of Azaz.
Aleppo City sits at the centre of a network of roads such as Highway 60 that lead off into areas such as Idlib and Hama which are under the occupation of ISIL's ally - the Army of Conquest coalition. So if Aleppo City can be liberated it will effectively cut off the Army of Conquest's supply lines causing the insurgency in the south-west of Syria to wither and die. This will leave only the area east of Azaz and down along the Euphrates River basin to the Iraqi border under terrorist control.
Although with Obama everything seems impossible removing ISIL from this area shouldn't be too difficult a task. If Obama continues to find himself either unwilling or unable to complete that task I'm sure Russia would be prepared to do that for him also. Provided the US is prepared to ask very nicely.
The first thing I should point out about Aleppo City is that much like Syria itself around 65-75% of it remains completely loyal to the Syrian government. The problems only really exist in handful of neighbourhoods in the east of the city which are under occupation by the Army of Conquest.
Certainly since July 2016 there have been several humanitarian corridors into the Army of Conquest occupied neighbourhoods through which civilians can escape. Those who have not yet used those corridors are either being held hostage by the Army of Conquest or have chosen to fight alongside the Army of Conquest. If they have chosen the latter they are to be considered combatants rather than civilians. That the Army of Conquest is prepared to use children as combatants is just further testament to the evil of the group.
Therefore this claim that Aleppo is Under Siege is simply untrue. Only around 30% of the city is under occupation by terrorists groups and civilians in those areas are free to leave. Provided the terrorists will allow them to.
Over the nearly six years the Army of Conquest has occupied the east of Aleppo City they have constructed an extremely elaborate network of underground bunkers and tunnels. I would compare this to Chislehurst Caves in Kent. However unless you went on a lot of school trips in the south-east of England that probably won't mean much to you. They are though similar to the vast network of tunnels and bunkers such as the Cu Chi tunnels the Viet Cong used during the Vietnam war.
This type of tunnel warfare is extremely nasty. If you put a ground force into an area the enemy can simply disappear into the tunnels and then pop up behind the ground force. This cuts them off from their supply and escape routes trapping them into an area where they are massacred.
So before you send ground troops into an area containing a tunnel network first you have to conduct airstrikes to destroy the tunnels. This is done using very large bombs that are designed to explode once to burrow underground and then explode a second time to release a shockwave causing the tunnels and bunkers to collapse.
During operations against the Viet Cong's tunnel networks such as Operation Crimp the US would use wave after wave of B52 bombers dropping 30 tonnes of explosives each for days and days to carpet bomb entire areas.
This is what Russia has been doing in eastern Aleppo since roughly September 20th (20/9/16). However using highly targeted strikes rather than pure brute force Russia has been able to destroy the Army of Conquest's tunnel networks to the point that the Syrian government has been able to deploy ground troops to the area.
By September 24th (24/9/16) Syrian government forces had succeeded in liberating areas around the Aleppo Citadel in the centre of the Old City. By September 27th (27/9/16) they proceeded to liberate the Farafira and al-Suweiqa districts of the Old City.
On September 29th (29/9/16) Syrian government succeeded in completely liberating the Handarat camp for Palestinian refugees in north-east of Aleppo City which had been used by the Army of Conquest as a military base. Syrian government forces also succeeded in liberating the Kindi Hospital which the Army of Conquest had turned into a military base along with much of the Shaqayf district in which it is located.
On October 1st (1/10/16) Syrian government forces launched an operation to secure the Bustan al-Pasha neighbourhood. Today it is being reported that neighbourhood has been fully liberated limiting the Army of Conquest to an area between the Midan district and the Old City and from the Sakhour to the eastern outskirts of Aleppo City.
To the south of the city on September 24th (24/9/16) Syrian government forces launched an operation to liberate the Sheikh Saeed district. Although yet to be completed this is said to be progressing well meaning that the Army of Conquest will soon be limited to an area between the Karm al-Deadea district and the Old City and the Bab An-Nayrab district in the south-east of Aleppo City.
Sadly if you've only been watching western media coverage of the fighting in eastern Aleppo City over the past two weeks you wouldn't know about any of that. The reason for this is that western journalists only seem to have one source for what is happening in Syria and that source is the Army of Conquest.
Obviously the Army of Conquest have no interest in talking about they are losing ground every day and are on the brink of having their occupation of eastern Aleppo City ended. Instead they just want to show you often faked videos of injured civilians along with tearful interviews in the hope that it will put pressure on western governments to call for a ceasefire so they can cling onto their fiefdom.
A prime example of this has been a hospital known as "M10." In the past 10 days or so the Army of Conquest have claimed that this hospital has been destroyed not once but three times. On one occasion they even released CCTV footage of the hospital in which it was very clearly not destroyed. What has happened on several occasions is that military targets around the hospital have been destroyed causing a bit of dust to be kicked up into the air close to the hospital.
I think what really summed the situation up was a France 24 interview I saw with the head of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) who provide the Army of Conquest with medical services. After claiming to be a political impartial he turned around and said;
"We've showed you all these pictures of children suffering. If that doesn't turn the war in our favour what will?!"
Needless to say he was not questioned on why the SAMS are now refusing to treat civilians in eastern Aleppo City in order to treat Army of Conquest fighters.
17:40 on 6/10/16 (UK date).
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