Russia in Syria: Moscow to increase missions in Syria to '300 a day

[GennGreymane]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a6698876.html

Russia aims to increase its aerial missions over Syria to 300 a day, sources close to the country’s operations have reportedly said.

President Vladimir Putin said the country is currently flying around 50 missions a day on average in Syria.

Operation sources, however, say the aim is to increase this figure to between 200 and 300 a day, according to The Sunday Times.

The construction of a new airstrip as part of preparations for the surge in missions is also reportedly under way.

Russia has deployed a range of bombers, jets, fighters and helicopters in its bid to probe rebel forces in Syria, including Su-24M and Su-34 bombers and Su-30CM fighters.

The source told the newspaper proposed targets were chosen by the Syrians, then passed on for verification by Russian drones.

“They are extremely concerned about the image of Russia’s military actions here,” the source told The Sunday Times.

The claims come as Russia’s involvement intensifies in what the Kremlin has called a “war on terrorism”, causing increasing concern in the West.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme Russia was extending the war by targeting all opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, amid claims Russian airstrikes may have killed "several hundred" civilians and raised the risk of accidental confrontation with Western forces.

“What [Russia] is doing is propping up the Assad regime, making the resolution of all this more difficult,” Mr Fallon said.

Monitoring groups in Syria, including Human Rights Watch, have requested an investigation into Russian airstrikes which they believe may have violated international law.

Mr Putin has continually defended Russian air strikes in Syria, insisting his country’s only goal is to combat the “international terrorists” of Isis.

Speaking in an interview with Russian state TV, Mr Putin said Moscow wanted to strengthen Mr Assad’s position – as a means to reaching a political compromise.

[ParanoiD84]

There will be nothing left of syria when the bombing campaign is over. Need to get some ground troops as the air strikes is not enough. But i can imagine the terrorists pissing and shitting their pant everytime they hear a jet so that's something I guess.

[Shakadam]

“What [Russia] is doing is propping up the Assad regime, making the resolution of all this more difficult,” Mr Fallon said.

I would very much like to know what the US/EU strategy for dealing with the Syria situation is long term, because as far as I can see there isn't one. US is bombing a few random IS targets which does pretty much nothing in the end, and are we reeeally so naive that we think the "good" rebels will somehow, someway, someday, come out on top of this mess and everything will be jolly and good?

Russia is helping Assad which is all fine by me. Assad may be a colossal shithead, but at least he's a known shithead and I'd bet all the money in the world that Syria 5 years ago was a lot better than Syria as of today, and a lot better than Syria will be if IS or any of the other myriad of extremist rebel groups seizes complete control.

[Gheld]

Sounds like Putin's going to need a bigger Garrison!

[Deleted]

Putin gives a fuck on the opinion and stuff like image ,gotta hand him that he has balls .I didnt read much about it so i can only say my first opinion but thats pretty good - he screwes them in THERE territorium and doesnt let his Landsmen bend over and suffer .Overall i think the politics should watch there own ppl first and THEN be nice to others but somehow Merkel screws that up (But like i said i need to read more to build my full opinion)

[Independent voter]

It's a sectarian conflict now, President Assad and his Shiites versus the Sunnis, both the Syrian Sunnis and the ISIS Sunnis. The Syrian Sunni conflict is very old some historians saying that the reason the First Crusade succeeded is Sunnis were to busy killing Shiites to go fight off the Europeans.

Syria is like 90% Sunni and Assad and his dad kept the Sunnis in check via terrorism, torture, imprisonment etc.

Assad failed to quell the rebellion so now Putin has to send in Russian troops to prop Assad up. Putin bombs Syrian Sunnis who flee and ISIS moves in and occupies the abandoned ground. Putin is prolonging the conflict and burdening Europe with more refugees.

What a mess.

[Exception]

It's a sectarian conflict now, President Assad and his Shiites versus the Sunnis, both the Syrian Sunnis and the ISIS Sunnis. The Syrian Sunni conflict is very old some historians saying that the reason the First Crusade succeeded is Sunnis were to busy killing Shiites to go fight off the Europeans.

Syria is like 90% Sunni and Assad and his dad kept the Sunnis in check via terrorism, torture, imprisonment etc.

Assad failed to quell the rebellion so now Putin has to send in Russian troops to prop Assad up. Putin bombs Syrian Sunnis who flee and ISIS moves in and occupies the abandoned ground. Putin is prolonging the conflict and burdening Europe with more refugees.

What a mess.

The Sunni-Shia conflict is currently, at it's core, about who has power in the Middle East: Iran or Saudi. It's just that IS kind of got out of hand. But even with them, it's about political power, their upper ranks are made up of ex-Ba'athists for instance.

[Deleted]

I would very much like to know what the US/EU strategy for dealing with the Syria situation is long term, because as far as I can see there isn't one. US is bombing a few random IS targets which does pretty much nothing in the end, and are we reeeally so naive that we think the "good" rebels will somehow, someway, someday, come out on top of this mess and everything will be jolly and good?

Russia is helping Assad which is all fine by me. Assad may be a colossal shithead, but at least he's a known shithead and I'd bet all the money in the world that Syria 5 years ago was a lot better than Syria as of today, and a lot better than Syria will be if IS or any of the other myriad of extremist rebel groups seizes complete control.

The US strategy for Syria is to try and keep ISIS and Assad pointed at each other while supporting other rebel factions.

Idea being ISIS and Assad wear each other out. The engagement strategy is not to remove ISIS, it's to keep them pointed towards Assad and away from US supported rebels.

Russia's strategy is much more simple - if it's a rebel (ISIS or otherwise) kill it.

[Deleted]

I would very much like to know what the US/EU strategy for dealing with the Syria situation is long term, because as far as I can see there isn't one.

In fact they do/did have a strategy but it got thwarted by Russia's intervention. Since they announced from the start that no support would be given to the Assad regime, and taking into account the diplomatic and political conflicts they've experienced with both Russia and China, they chose the option of supporting groups that fight Assad. As expected this strategy didn't turn out to be the most effective, and so far resulted in a massive amount of casualties, but at the same time avoided any American or UN boots on the ground. It's always easier to have someone else do the dying for you (in this case the Kurds), reach your political goals and don't lose the support of voters while doing so. Btw, the stategy of tackling a regime by supporting opposing groups is not new to the US and they got pretty damn good at it in the last decades.

Until a couple of weeks ago it was actually looking like their strategy would succeed but they forgot one little detail, Russia has a political agenda as well. They will never allow Assad to be simply removed without securing their own political and economical interests. They don 't give a crap about either Assad or the Syrian people, it's simply about money. The arms contracts that Russia has with Syria are worth several billions, not even mentioning their interests in oil and natural gas.

[Deleted]

Putin= the hero and leader the world needs.

[Belize]

Putin= the hero and leader the world needs.

Does he have a Putin-Signal that illuminate the sky with a giant Sickle and Hammer "P"?

[Kuntantee]

The more you bomb, the more refugees there will be. Should Russia, Iran and Syria launches a major expedition to rebels, there will be a huge refugee stream and lots of European tears.

[Shalcker]

The more you bomb, the more refugees there will be. Should Russia, Iran and Syria launches a major expedition to rebels, there will be a huge refugee stream and lots of European tears.

They already are in process of major ground assault.

And refugees happened quite a bit before Russian intervention too.

[Combatbutler]

The more you bomb, the more refugees there will be.
Should Russia, Iran and Syria launches a major expedition to rebels, there will be a huge refugee stream and lots of European tears.

Erdogan got recently payed, so most will likely stay in turkey.

[Acidbaron]

IS isn't just active in Syria, they are active in large parts of Africa and Iraq, they are all over the Region.

Airstrikes before the Russians joined in killed about a 1000 a month i believe (could be wrong on time frame), the same rate at what they recruited new souls keeping their army stable. Just pushing them back to Africa and Iraq isn't a long term solution

[Combatbutler]

IS isn't just active in Syria, they are active in large parts of Africa and Iraq, they are all over the Region.

Airstrikes before the Russians joined in killed about a 1000 a month i believe (could be wrong on time frame), the same rate at what they recruited new souls keeping their army stable. Just pushing them back to Africa and Iraq isn't a long term solution

I wonder what runs out first bullets or the idiots, joining IS, I really hope for the latter.

[Acidbaron]

I wonder what runs out first bullets or the idiots, joining IS, I really hope for the latter.

It's not only people joining willingly part of their forces are also part of boko-haram and child soldiers aren't a new concept in Africa.

You can see a map and IS army connection at the bottom of the page, interesting read also although it gets rather technical with names and terms.

http://tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/...nder/what-isis

[Shalcker]

IS isn't just active in Syria, they are active in large parts of Africa and Iraq, they are all over the Region.

Airstrikes before the Russians joined in killed about a 1000 a month i believe (could be wrong on time frame), the same rate at what they recruited new souls keeping their army stable. Just pushing them back to Africa and Iraq isn't a long term solution

I've seen mentions that Nigerians said that Russia is already drone-scouting ISIS African camps too (for possible future bombing campaign in Libya).

No sources on that though.

[Acidbaron]

I've seen mentions that Nigerians said that Russia is already drone-scouting ISIS African camps too (for possible future bombing campaign in Libya).

No sources on that though.

Would not surprise me since the Orthodox Church in Russia calls this a "holy war". This sets a dangerous precedent however since history has shown how bloody this can get if it were to inspire another Chengen war.

[Airlick]

There will be nothing left of syria when the bombing campaign is over. Need to get some ground troops as the air strikes is not enough. But i can imagine the terrorists pissing and shitting their pant everytime they hear a jet so that's something I guess.

Syrian military with Russian equipment and training will do just fine. They are fighting the war for 2 years, they may have been slowly getting pushed back for pretty much the whole time (though I suspect it was mostly because of USA bombing their installations and funding the rebels), but if they haven't fallen apart like the Iraqis (despite huge funding and 10 years of training) so far, they will definitely turn the tables with Russian support.

IS isn't just active in Syria, they are active in large parts of Africa and Iraq, they are all over the Region.

Airstrikes before the Russians joined in killed about a 1000 a month i believe (could be wrong on time frame), the same rate at what they recruited new souls keeping their army stable. Just pushing them back to Africa and Iraq isn't a long term solution

Russia has no business in getting rid of ISIS completely, just as USA doesn't. Russia wants a pawn in the Middle East, and Syria will become that pawn (if it wasn't already). But while USA has demonstrated a complete incompetence in the matter, Russia will be seen as a new world's gendarme by some people. It's also a huge propaganda boost for Putin, since noone imagined Russia would be able to launch a bombing campaign of this scale so far away from its borders, especially after it was locked in the conflict on Ukraine and harassed with sanctions by the West.