The moment Taftanaz air base fell, Assad badly needed a victory--and quickly. The very next day we were told that Darayya not only has fallen but that it was now totally under regime's control. That story was a complete whopper--unless bombing rubble counts. No doubt Assad's worn-down assault troops will be surprised to hear they've won. The news should increase their respect for superiors.
After weeks of high-loss assaults, 3,000 rebels not only remain, stubborn as ever, but they continue to inflict losses sufficient to drive back invading forces. That raises serious questions about how the regime will do when the bulk of rebel forces come south (after first polishing off Deir Al Azor, Aleppo, Itlib Province and Latakia and--if they are smart--the entire coast.)
A second lie (twice told on Enduring America) comes from Iranian propagandist Manouchehr who falsely claimed that the pro-opposition group cited below has confirmed a big rebel defeat. See what they are really saying instead. (Manouchehr often gives us fake quotes from Iranian reformers praising the fairness of regime elections and encouraging participation).
According to Ned Parker of the LA Times, Darayaa remains a tactical stalemate, which translates to " even for both sides."
Strategically, however, stalemate in Darayaa constitutes a significant victory for the rebels when one considers what each side set out to do. For the rebels to hang on indefinitely, as they have, constitutrs a major strategic victory. To to hang on for weeks until pushed out would have been a minor rebel victory. By contrast the regime had to take Darayaa and as quickly and completely as possible. given its proximately to vital government targets. By any measure the failure to do so is a strategic defeat of major dimensions--a display of relative impotence.
REBEL COMMANDER: "The Assad soldiers are trying to enter Dariya, but our Free [Syrian] Army is doing well to protect it...It is always the same situation in theafternoon.... They try to send in tanks … and soldiers try to enter the city, and our Free Army prevents them, and the war starts.
"The regime is present in Dariya. Both sides have control over some parts," he said.
SYRIAN OBSERVATORY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (cited in Manoucher's lies); "The regime is present in Dariya. Both sides have control over some parts," he said.
SATURDAY WAS A TYPICAL DAY: Parker writes, "tanks tried to enter Dariya, and a MIG fighter jet shelled the neighborhood that was once home to more than 200,000 people but now has about 10,000. At least 3,000 are fighters, according to rebels and activists there...The opposition forces blew up a tank Saturday, and three rebel soldiers died in the fighting, Abu Hamza said. (Three out of 3,000! Another day of victory for Assad).
SOURCE
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-syria-suburb-20130113,0,7997817.story
Comments 4 Pending 0
Sayyad Sha'er – visit: www.sayyadshaer.com
ReportOnce the rebels win, the world will witness the greatest genocide of the new millenium: The Alawites in Western Syria will be mercilessly liquidated by the Sunni FSA.
FG
ReportDid you ever read about what happened to the Germans in 1945 after SUPPORTING so many horrific crimes?
Alawites backed Assad's crimes to the hilt so why should they not pay a similar price at the hands of those whose families they killed, whose houses and bread lines they bombed, whose eyes they gouged out, etc.
The Alawites, like the Germans, will get few tears. Everyone knows what they did.
Sayyad Sha'er – visit: www.sayyadshaer.com
ReportYou're forgetting the many other minorities that Assad's regime helped. I have no sympathy for your argument, which is basically saying it is okay to annihilate an entire ethnic or religious group. These kinds of comments are reserved for the likes of Hitler. Let's not forget who exactly these rebels in Syria are, what their modus operandi is and what their beliefs are. They aren't democracy or freedom seekers. After the Alawites are taken care of, attention will shift to Iran and you'll see the same ethnic cleansing going on there. I'd like to hear you calling for Iranian ethnic groups' blood, too, one day.
FG
ReportOTHER NOTICABLE EVENTS
--The Free Syrian Army asserted that it downed a warplane at the Mezzeh military airport, attacked a checkpoint on the road to the Damascus International Airport, and fought the Syrian military near Eastern and Western Ghouta.
--A Defection. Major General Mahmoud Ali, an official in the Ministry of Interior, announces his defection:
--1655 GMT: Regime Attacks. Opposition activists claim the Syrian military killed at least 26 people, half of them children, in a bombardment of insurgent-held Damascus suburbs on Sunday. Video footage showed women weeping over the dismembered bodies of children strewn across a field in Eastern Ghouta, near an air defence base on the edge of the town of Muleiha, 5 kilometres (3 miles) east of Damascus.
--Speaking of rebel harvesting to come, Muleiha is the LAST major fortification east of Damascus held by the regime.
A report by the opposition Damascus Media Centre said insurgents had attacked the Muleiha base with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars for five days, with the army firing more than 600 rockets on the town in response.
A commander in Liwa al-Islam, one of several insurgent brigades fighting in the area, said the compound was well defended: "Our objective is to take it, but it will not be immediate."
OVSERVATION: Regime optimists and western journalists may confuse the last four words above with "stalemate"--a term which naturally implies neither side is making progress. This is only one more instance of the rebels sowing seeds for foreordained conclusions. Can anyone find one or more similar instances where the regime is "sowing" victory?
SOURCE: Enduring America