Russian Air Campaign in Syria Proves Fruitful Anti-Terror Fight Possibility

“Assad has not been doing well for a long time, so that leads me to believe they (the Russians) saw something lately that made them think things were getting considerably worse, and they had to intervene”, said Eugene Rumer, director of the Carnegie Endowment’s Russia and Eurasia Program.

USA officials have voiced a similar view, while rebels have said the Russian-backed attacks are failing and they expect more gains for their side.

Last month, these gestures famously included the broadcast on Iranian state media of images from Iran’s secret missile launch sites.

Atshan is close to the town of Morek, which rebels took in an assault led by Islamist insurgents of the Jund al-Aqsa group on Thursday.

Rebels have even regained a few positions, and fighters on the government’s side are meanwhile being killed in large numbers, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war.

Moscow, which has maintained a military presence in Syria for decades as an ally of the ruling Assad family, had an estimated 2,000 personnel in the country when it began air strikes on September 30.

The deployments appear to demonstrate Russia’s willingness to risk the lives of its personnel to maximise the amount of fire support its contingent in Syria can provide to pro-government forces fighting on the frontline. One campaign is aimed at taking back territory in Idlib to carve out a belt separating the province from neighboring Hama province and connect government-held areas in Hama with Assad’s stronghold on the Mediterranean coast.

The U.S. says its old enemy’s air strikes have, in the main, hit other Syrian groups – including foreign-backed fighters and more moderate groups – with Russian Federation mostly targeting the west of Syria. All of Moscow’s fixed-wing aircraft are flying from there in support of ground offensives by the Syrian army and foreign Shiite militias, the defense official said.

“There is a sort of competition now among the factions to excel in defending the areas so none of them can get accused of being a traitor for losing a strip of land”, said Hadi Abdullah, an opposition activist who travels with the rebels to the front lines to report on fighting.

And the number can only go up, considering the increase in the intensity of air strikes.

A report by the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) released today (November 8) analysed social media, including Instagram accounts, relating to three soldiers who serve or have served with the Russian military.

“The Russians do not care as much about collateral damage [from airstrikes as the US]”, Jorge Benitez of the Atlantic Council told FP.

It was not clear if it was a Russian or a Syrian army airstrike that struck a school in the eastern city of Boukamal.

And then, on October 24, the Iraqi government announced that it is authorizing the Russian military to use the Al Taqaddum airbase that is also being used by USA troops for operations against IS. Iran regards Syria as its client state – an essential building block in the Shi’ite axis it has assembled across the Middle East – and it has supported Assad with money, arms and fighting forces, both its own Revolutionary Guards and scores of thousands of Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon. Bayoush said the Russians had been meeting Syrians who falsely claimed to be FSA.