In recent days, according to rebel commanders, Putin deployed special forces to help struggling Assad to make gains in a two-months assault in northwestern Syria. Assad forces have been losing in their battles to seize the last opposition bastion. Apparently, Putin special forces are losing to rebels as well.
The rebels said Russian officers and troops had directed, behind the front lines, the operations. They directed snipers and they fired anti-tank missiles; however, this is Moscow’s first deployment of ground troops on the battlefield in the campaign to regain Idlib.
Captain Naji Mustafa, spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Liberation Front (NLF) coalition of rebel factions, said:
These special Russian forces are now present in the battlefield. The Russians are intervening directly now. When Assad’s forces failed to advance, Russia then intervened directly … after bombing the area with more than 200 sorties,
Russian ground forces entered the battle with government forces to seize the strategic Humaymat hilltops in northern Hama. The hilltops fell into rebel hands last week while exacting a steep price on the Assad Syrian army. The Syrian army failed to regain control after several attempts.
Russian defense ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.
Russia did not only fail but has been exposed to defeat.
More than two months of Russian-backed operations in and around Idlib province have yielded little or nothing.
RUSSIAN MILITARY FAILURE
It is a rare case of a military campaign that has not gone in Russia’s favor since it intervened in 2015.
Mustafa said:
Russia did not only fail but has been exposed to defeat.
The head of a major rebel group said Moscow’s deployment of undisclosed numbers of ground forces came only after elite Syrian troops known as the Tiger Forces and allied militias were unable to make “any significant territorial gains.”
Jamil al-Saleh, the head of Jaish al Izza rebel group, said:
The Syrian army found itself in a crisis and were forced to ask for Russian troops on the battlefield. In light of the size of artillery and aerial bombing, the Russians and the regime had expected to seize large areas.
Al Saleh echoed views of the opposition that the Russians and their allies who had won every major battle with the opposition since Moscow intervened in Syria had miscalculated the strength and motivation of the rebels.
Rebels contacted by Reuters said supplies of weapons including guided anti-tank missiles by Turkey had not only made it a costly battle for the Russians and their allies but repelled ground assaults.
TERRORIST IRAN INTERVENES
The Russian-led assault has not only left dozens of villages and towns in ruins but according to the U.N. has forced over 300,000 civilians to flee to the safety of areas closer to the Turkish border.
Another rebel official said Iranian-backed Shi’ite forces that had so far refrained from joining the Russian-led assault were now entering the battlefield.
Mohammad Rashid, a spokesperson for Jaish al-Nasr, a Turkey-backed rebel group fighting the Syrian army, said:
The Iranians have brought reinforcements and are now fighting on several fronts.
Reuters contributed to this article.
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