"South Front" 3 February 2016 Aleppo maps

IMO you can't understand real war (as opposed to CT ops) without good situation maps.  "South Front" is an international site that carries good military news.  We will display "South Front" tactical maps so long as they continue to present useful information.  It should be noted that the "jaws" of R+6 operations are closing west of Kuweires air base (gap appears to be 2.5 kms now) and northwest of Aleppo proper (gap is just a few hundred meters).  When these gaps close significant rebel forces will be "pocketed" inside the encirclements formed.  pl

Comments

[D]

LOL - it must have killed them to write this headline and story . . .

"After four months, Russia’s campaign in Syria is proving successful for Moscow"

"According to analysts and officials here, the Russian government believes it has won those dividends at a relatively low cost to the country’s budget, with minimal loss of life to its soldiers and with largely supportive public opinion of the war effort."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/after-four-months-russias-campaign-in-syria-is-proving-successful-for-moscow/2016/02/02/7a65d676-9dd0-11e5-9ad2-568d814bbf3b_story.html

[bth]

Isn't that a fair assessment of the situation from any perspective?

[Thirdeye]

Live broadcast of Al-Manar TV from inside formerly besieged Zahra/Nubl.

http://www.almanar.com.lb/manarlive.php

News of linkup at Mu'arrasat breaking within the last hour. Jihadis are still trying to make a stand at Rityan.

[Matthew]

D; If the Russians were really snotty, they would recycle Condy Rice's line about working for a "durable ceasefire." See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/russia-airstrikes-syria_us_56b1c6bbe4b04f9b57d7dcd7

[Thirdeye]

It's kind of hilarious how they still take the view that the on-the-ground results are trivial on the day when Al Qaeda is experiencing its biggest strategic disaster of the war.

[The Beaver]

Colonel,

So-called peace talks suspended until February 25th 2016.
http://www.thelocal.ch/20160203/syrian-opposition-leader-arrives-for-geneva-talks

[The government delegation meanwhile complained that the HNC was disorganized, had not named its negotiators and that the body contained individuals it considered "terrorists".]

BTW: Syria's Ambassador at the UN and representing his country in Geneva, Bashar Ja'afari told reporters he had known for "hours" that the opposition wanted to withdraw and accused De Mistura of pausing the talks to avert a walk-out.

http://news.trust.org/item/20160203192333-zkol6

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other top ISSG diplomats are expected to meet at the annual Munich security conference on Feb. 11.

[b]

There are right now three decent current map sources on Syria on Twitter

@PetoLucem
https://twitter.com/PetoLucem
An amateur (but a good one) in north Europe

@Miladvisor
https://twitter.com/miladvisor
A Russian guy

@Syria_Protector
https://twitter.com/Syria_Protector
A reporter with the Syrian army

@texmapmaker1 had some very good maps but has not posted for a while
https://twitter.com/TEXMAPMAKER1

Southfront uses these sources in its text pieces but has some excellent maps of its own in its videos.
https://www.youtube.com/user/crimeanfront/videos

I use all of the above in my blog and source/link them to the original author.

[Eliot]

All,

Peto Lucem, one of their map makers, also publishes on twitter.

You can find him here.

https://twitter.com/PetoLucem

- Eliot

[Chris Chuba]

The right map shows the SAA on the verge of encircling a large ISIS held area that is adjacent to Kuweires air base. I remember Patrick Bahzad saying that they would seek to expand their area of control around the air base to secure it which makes perfect sense. This looks like a nice way of doing it rather than just trying to hack it out piece by piece. This area looks to be about 140 square km.

[William R. Cumming]

Thanks all as these maps are crucial to understanding events IMO!

[Youssef]

Hi all, you might also find this map useful:

http://umap.openstreetmap.fr/fr/map/desyracuse-syria-civil-war-feb-1st-2016_69215#9/35.2467/37.8452

It only gets updated once a month, but its great if you want to look at the entire Syrian theater, or zoom in to greater details.

[The Beaver]

There goes Fabius again:
http://www.challenges.fr/monde/moyen-orient/20160204.CHA4745/pour-fabius-le-regime-syrien-et-la-russie-doivent-cesser-les-bombardements-et-les-sieges.html

Same as his British colleague Hammond:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/02/putin-strengthening-isis-syria-uk-foreign-secretary-philip-hammond-russia

I guess both of them must be "scared" of the Saudis and the billions from the sales of arms