US Warns against Major Offensive in Syria

[Deleted]

looks alot more likely that this battle isnt coming any time soon.

Biggest action is Syria is the kurds smashing it at Deir ez-Zor. Not long before ISIS lose thier last stronghold in Syria but they are pretty dug in.

[alkyd]

As one great philosopher once said:

[Deleted]

•15 Km Buffer Demilitarized Zone for TK and RU by Oct 15
•HTS / Nusra would withdraw, unclear about rebels
•Erdogan: We prevented a humanitarian Catastrophe in Idlib
•Russia Def.: NO military offensive in Idlib

Tukey now treating Syria like Pakistan treats Afganistan

[Easo]

Well, this is an interesting play. However, it means more permanent status quo - read, another frozen conflict.
But Turkey and Russia gets what they want...

[fluffhead]

If Idlib gets liberated, does that mean there will be no more "US mercenaries/foot soldiers" in Syria?

They were just on vacation and got lost.

[Shalcker]

And apparently just as Idlib campaign gets delayed, destroying pretext for escalation, either Israeli jets or French frigate shot down Russian IL-20 surveillance plane flying over Mediterranean sea during their last night's attack.

US suggests that it was Syrians accidentally getting it while shooting down Israeli missiles/jets; i guess we'll know soon enough as data gets gathered and analysed.

Edit: Russian Ministry of Defence apparently agrees with US.

[turboether]

As long as the rebels continue their civilian human shield modus operandi, casualties will sadly be unavoidable.

[caervek]

Al Qaida are now "rebels"..

Western governments have been referring to them as rebels/moderates in Syria since day one.

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As one great philosopher once said:

The mistake you're making (like everyone who tries to use this argument) is assuming that the loyalist forces recently started using chlorine based weapons, in reality both sides have been using them since the start, it's just nobody cares because chlorine weapons are homebrew "make it in the shed" level chemical weapons.

The only reason a big fuss gets made about chemical weapons in Syria is on the occasions when it's been misreported as Sarin attacks and western governments have doubled down before the truth came out.

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either Israeli jets or French frigate shot down Russian IL-20 surveillance plane flying over Mediterranean sea during their last night's attack.

US suggests that it was Syrians accidentally getting it while shooting down Israeli missiles/jets; i guess we'll know soon enough as data gets gathered and analysed.

Edit: Russian Ministry of Defence apparently agrees with US.

Don't sell the Israeli F-16 pilots short, using another plane to block an incoming missile isn't easy (even when it's an old guidance system, you have countermeasures and they don't).

[Shalcker]

Don't sell the Israeli F-16 pilots short, using another plane to block an incoming missile isn't easy (even when it's an old guidance system, you have countermeasures and they don't).

Well, Russians got warning from Israel a minute before attack; that is obviously not enough to move anything out of the way.

[Kante]

Tough shit. Maybe Russia should tell it's allies to not shoot at anything with Russian sold hardware when Russian planes are in the air, seeing that Russian crap has tendency to hit unintended airplanes.

Even better, Russia shouldn't allow storage of Iranian missiles under it's protective wing.

[Shalcker]

Tough shit. Maybe Russia should tell it's allies to not shoot at anything with Russian sold hardware when Russian planes are in the air, seeing that Russian crap has tendency to hit unintended airplanes.

Or maybe Israeli jets should be shot on sight there.

[Deleted]

It was Israel to blame.

Israel attacked from direction of Russian plane against Syria n due to Rus plane being bigger it got aggro from syrian radar n missiles

This was intentional
https://www.rt.com/news/438686-syria-russia-s200-il20/

[Kante]

Or maybe Israeli jets should be shot on sight there.

Good luck with that, not exactly a barrel bomb dropping air force.

[Deleted]

pretty suprised something like this hasn't happened up till now given the frequency of israeli strikes.

egg on face for russians.

October 15th is the next big day in the battle for Idlib, thats the deadline for the jihadis to withdraw (not going to happen, and withdraw to where? turkey?)

[Easo]

See the full might of Syrian air defence! /s
Massive fail is massive, call it whatever you want, but Syrians had to be aware that there is Russian plane coming, doesn't matter whether someone else is there too. Then again, judging by their history, this is not surprising.

[caervek]

Gotta be honest, I don't understand why there isn't widespread condemnation of Israel over this.

They illegally violated the airspace of Syria, illegally bombed a base belonging to Syria's ally Iran, and then on the way out realised they were about to be shot down so used a nearby Russian plane as a human shield.

Have to wonder, would the IAF pilots have been as quick to sacrifice a nearby American AWACs plane to save their hides.

[ParanoiD84]

Good on Israel, using russian jets as human shields.

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Dont think russia will do anything just like they did not do anything when turkey shot one down.

[Kante]

See the full might of Syrian air defence! /s
Massive fail is massive, call it whatever you want, but Syrians had to be aware that there is Russian plane coming, doesn't matter whether someone else is there too. Then again, judging by their history, this is not surprising.

The bigger fail is the Russian one here, not only that they allow storage of weapons bound to Hezbollah but both their S-300 and S-400 batteries were active in the area, the usual deal is that the Israelis warn ahead of time before operating in an area and the Russians simply turn off the lock on system, wasn't the case this time and those systems failed to engage older generation F-16's, they could care less about the IL-20 AWACs and the crewmen, Israelis just hit them below the belt with a sledgehammer.

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Gotta be honest, I don't understand why there isn't widespread condemnation of Israel over this.

They illegally violated the airspace of Syria, illegally bombed a base belonging to Syria's ally Iran, and then on the way out realised they were about to be shot down so used a nearby Russian plane as a human shield.

Have to wonder, would the IAF pilots have been as quick to sacrifice a nearby American AWACs plane to save their hides.

Syrians fired hundreds of S-200's over the years at Israeli jets, the only time they managed to hit one is due to a overly confident pilot who thought he had enough time, so this Russian version that the Israeli jets needed to cover themselves with the Russian IL-20 to escape is absolute non-sense, just like the story about the two Russian tourists who came to Salisbury to take a look at Salisbury Cathedral's spire.

come on.

[Ulmita]

Good on Israel, using russian jets as human shields.

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Dont think russia will do anything just like they did not do anything when turkey shot one down.

They didn't? Are you sure about that?
In my opinion Putin checked mate by making best buddies with them, selling them S-400, creating chaos between US and Turkey relations. Imagine the F-35 flying inside S-400 radars. The info the Russians will get is priceless.
Like him or not, he is by far the best strategist out there.

[Deleted]

They didn't? Are you sure about that?
In my opinion Putin checked mate by making best buddies with them, selling them S-400, creating chaos between US and Turkey relations. Imagine the F-35 flying inside S-400 radars. The info the Russians will get is priceless.
Like him or not, he is by far the best strategist out there.

Will you too upgrade to S-400? Greece has S-300...