"Syria regime prepares for ‘biggest military operation’ of war in Aleppo" Rudaw

 

"As fighters in the city dig-in and try to consolidate their positions, those fighting on the regime’s side are cutting off supply lines along seven fronts in a bid to cut-off the eastern part of the city, ahead of the upcoming offensive.

The Syrian military and its allied militias have once again started offensive operations after Russia intervened late last September on their side and began providing air support. "  Rudaw

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Rudaw is a Kurdish news network.

"b" tells us that there are 8,000 R+6 reinforcements newly arrived in the Aleppo area.  Who these troops might be I know not.  Is this the much reported newly created 4th Assault Corps of the Syrian Army or some other group?  And what exactly is the composition of the 4th Assault Corps? 

Russian air and artillery are chewing the "opposition" to bits while the threat of Russian anti-air defenses have effectively grounded the Turkish Air Force.  This has enabled the YPG Kurds to advance across the Euphrates River to threaten the IS' supply line to Turkey and the Syrian Army to re-group and sort out the confusion caused by the long, slow decline it had experienced at the hands of rebels supplied by the US, Turkey and the Gulfies. 

The "grinding" process continues as forces are positioned for the climactic battle we have characterized here as the kesselschlacht . 

If I were in northern Syria as an "opposition" fighter I would either be thinking of "rallying" to the government side or looking over my shoulder at the Turkish border.  pl   

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/160120164

Comments

[alba etie]

annamaria
Yep - at the very least its been puzzling about how the DOD keeps changing its story about this incident .

[alba etie]

DanBradburd
Thanks -

[different clue]

Ishmael Zechariah,

I reject National Independence for both peoples in both cases. Cultural and local governance autonomy for each people within their respective countries would be a nice thing. It might be achievable in Turkey/Kurdistan if both sides come up with good-will leadership to make it work and keep expectations limited and restrained on both sides.

It will be tougher in Sinjiang. What the Great Han State is doing in Sinjiang is not really ethnic cleansing. It is leaving most of the Uygurs in physical place. What it is, is ethnic flooding and ethnic drowning. It is driven by a bottomless pit desire on China's part for consumable resources. That desire makes China a deadly threat and a menace to many countries on its southern and southeastern borders and all over the China Sea. The only way to reduce Chinese ethnic drowning pressure on Sinjiang would be for so many people all over the world to boycott the Chinese economy so totally that the Chinese economy would shrink to the point where violent instability within Great Han-istan itself forced the ChinaGov to pull back all the coercive forces it has into the Great Han heartland itself to reimpose order there.

Unless and until that happens, no government will dare support an Uygur uprising in Sinjiang for all the reasons Babak Makkinejad mentions. And neither will I.

And meanwhile, the suffering of Uygurs in Sinjiang does nothing to justify the presence of illegal Uygur settlers moving into Syrian-abandoned houses in the Occupied North Bank is Syria. The Syrian government will want that completely reversed and ended as part of its reconquest of its own country. The SyriaGov might well be satisfied to see them move to Turkey. Russia and China will want to be very sure that none of the illegal Uygur settlers in the Occupied North Bank can ever jihadify anywhere ever again. They wanted that before they read any comment of mine, and they will want that even if they never read my poor little comment.

[Babak Makkinejad]

"... it is, is ethnic flooding and ethnic drowning..."

But that is what Yankees have been doing too...

[LeaNder]

"Mason-Dixon Line"

If you ever understoodd what Pynchon was trying to tell me about the Mason-Dixon line, I would be really pleased about your help. ;)