Article

2018-03-04 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Rantburg Exclusive: SDF Battefield Combat Report 3/3/2018 - Gerndains Taking a Beating

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Posted by Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 2018-03-04 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11137 views ] Top
File under: Sublime Porte

#1 This SDF report is over 24 hours old. Yesterday I did not post so this is actually yesterdays report which is the latest report released by the SDF. There was no 3/4/2018 report issued today. This usually indicates a major issue contrary to the SDF objectives has occurred. And as per another article posted today:

Turks seize Afrin stronghold, kill scores of Syrian troops

Raju fell. Also, as Raju fell advances were made in two other areas as a big push was executed in Afrin by Turkey during the night in all of these areas.

After the success of these pushes, SDF press office went quite, and the Turks attacked a Syrian regime location near Manbij.

Why is this important? Manbij is where the U.S. presence is. It is a shot over the bow to the U.S.. The Turks are taking Syrian territory and they had to consider a confrontation with Syria was possible in their plans.

The next two weeks will be interesting. Will Russia ditch Syria and go with Turkey? I don't think so. Turkey is too Islamic for Russia to be comfortable with such an allie.

Posted by Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 2018-03-04 01:19|| 2018-03-04 01:19|| Front Page Top

#2 You really need a larger platform for stuff like this. 200 clicks a day hardly seems worth the effort of writing it. I think maybe people don't realize just how tiny Rantburg really is. 400 clicks on one article is *huge* for Rantburg, while on most sites that's a rounding error.

Posted by Herb McCoy7309 2018-03-04 05:32|| 2018-03-04 05:32|| Front Page Top

#3 forcing the Turkish army to bring the hovercrafts?????????

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2018-03-04 06:15|| 2018-03-04 06:15|| Front Page Top

#4 Helicopters are what this Kurdish press agent calls Hovercrafts. They sometimes create their own English words. This is a comment from azadirojava who is in the area reporting on the conflict:

LOL I just hear word is not staggers but stagnates. Goodnight friends. I need sleep so I use right words and not invent nice sounding ones.

Posted by Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 2018-03-04 06:51|| 2018-03-04 06:51|| Front Page Top

#5 SDF lost Raju upon which the Turks sent in their germdain special forces on a patrol in the streets of Raju which resulted in 9 of them being wiped out in a YPG ambush.

Posted by Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 2018-03-04 06:55|| 2018-03-04 06:55|| Front Page Top

#6 I think maybe people don't realize just how tiny Rantburg really is.

We know, Herb McCoy7309. But this is a very specialized area of interest, and I, at least, am careful with whom I share Rantburg in my very civilian circle. And beyond that, most people seem simply uninterested in the idea that the jihadi threat is meaningful. A recently retired girlfriend of mine just got back from a trip to Paris, and now is on safari in Kenya, after which she will meet her husband in Germany to visit the cousins there. When I suggest situational awareness, she waves it off.

I started paying attention to the world in the latter half of the 1980s, when Mr. Wife came back from business trips with stories about the post office in Athens that was blown up after he mailed a letter, the Greek island ferry that sold its last ticket to the people in front of him in line, then was attacked by anarchists in motorboats with machine guns, the idiots tossing grenades into Paris cafés as they rode by on motorcycles the summer his flights stopped there on his way to and from the Middle East... I heard about these things when he laughingly told the stories to others, because he didn’t want me to worry — and obviously nothing bad ever happened to him. But I needed to know when to worry when he was abroad, which turned out to be how he spent the career he will retire from in a few months. I am the only spouse in my circle who pays attention, though; even the trailing husband who wore a gun on his hip the entire time they were on assignment in Caracas is not concerned about his wife on safari in Kenya with a group of middle aged American ladies.

Posted by trailing wife 2018-03-04 11:39|| 2018-03-04 11:39|| Front Page Top

#7 Ulaigum Ebbineng7056, it occurs to me that a simple map of the area would help me visualize what is going on, but pretty much all I could find were satellite photos. If you happen across something like the one seen here, I’d be thrilled.

Posted by trailing wife 2018-03-04 11:44|| 2018-03-04 11:44|| Front Page Top

#8 Erdogan will learn the same lesson Stalin did early in WWII, when you purge the military of all of your competent officers and senior NCOs and promote true believers and sycophants, you wind up with an incompetent military.

Erdogan is getting his butt handed to him by the Kurds, his only victories are when he bombs and bombards with indiscriminate artillery.

Funny I haven't heard a word from HRW on Erdogan's tactics in Syria. Can't wait for a major airstrike by either the US or Russia. That's when the fun begins. I don't think this serves either Russia or US purposes at all.

I am beginning to think of Turkey as ISIN (Islamic State in NATO).

Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom 2018-03-04 12:10|| 2018-03-04 12:10|| Front Page Top

#9 The Islamic colonization of Europe is the axis of Erdogan, Soros, Merkel. nATO is dead because the Soviet Union was destroyed by Reagon 30 years ago. The world needs an anti-Islamic NATO. The world wide headquarters of which should be in Jerusalem.

Posted by Omeger Gray6606 2018-03-04 18:26|| 2018-03-04 18:26|| Front Page Top

#10 Per TW's request:

Posted by Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 2018-03-04 20:01|| 2018-03-04 20:01|| Front Page Top

#11 Afrin Kurdish Canon Region:

Legend
Yellow: YPG/SDF
Cyan: Turk/FSA Held Areas
Dark Cyan/Blue: Newly Captured Areas During The Past 24 Hours

It appears due to Turk Air superiority the Kurds are moving out of structures into Mountains and other terrains to do guerilla style attacks. One YPJ fighter survived 26 days behind Turk lines in such a manner.

Posted by Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 2018-03-04 20:09|| 2018-03-04 20:09|| Front Page Top

#12 The above map and others is available at:

https://twitter.com/CivilWarMap

Syrian Civil War Map (Twitter)

Posted by Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 2018-03-04 20:26|| 2018-03-04 20:26|| Front Page Top

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