The news, which arrive from the Syrian town of al-Qusayr (Al-Qusair / Al-Kusair), draw the image of a heavy defeat of the rebel gangs and, if this persist in this sense, from a material change of the situation on the course of the entire Syrian-Lebanese border.
The Syrian Army has already begun several months ago with the attempt to drive the rebel troops in one direction and to actually force them to withdraw in the direction of al-Qusayr. In the Syrian city itself, there lived mainly Syrians from the “Omar al-Faruq Brigade”, quite the same, whose commando has recently tried to motivate their fighters by eating human flesh.
Besides the Farouk Brigade, there were also individual units of the ubiquitous al-Nusra Front and the Liwa al-Islam still active in the area; a while ago, even Russian-speaking terrorists (“Chechens”) were reported to be active there, but all in all, al-Qusayr (al-Kusair/al-Qusair) was an enclave of bandits and criminals, who are in the core Syrians.
The Farouk Brigade cooperates closely with the armed Lebanese Sunni commands who can be classified as “Hariri thugs”. The supply went off through Lebanon and the territories, which were controlled by these units, coming from the port in the Lebanese city of Tripoli. Similarly, many foreign mercenaries, mostly Libyans, Tunisians, and Egyptians came through this gateway to Syria.
In other words, the area around the Syrian city of Al-Qusayr was an acute open wound for Syria, through which mass infections came into the country; the Farouk Brigades were now, despite the fact that they are criminal gangs, which primarily do business with all sorts of illegal means (smuggling, kidnapping, robbery, etc.), the pus in the wound.
The closure of this enclave brings the entire situation on the border with Lebanon to a radical change. Its southern parts are quite thoroughly shielded by Hezbollah, while the Syrian Army henceforth has the opportunity to bring the northern routes under their control.
Two Syrian Army divisions and some brigades are involved in this operation, but also some Baath-units. Apparently, the latter are primarily responsible for the cleansing of the territory and the maintaining of the control, wherewith the army has the chance to carry out further operations in the north.
Of course, the Syrian government has except purely military aims also political objectives. They have to or should bring the strategically important areas of Syria under their control before the beginning of the international conference on Syria. One would have to conduct a separate conversation about Ar-Raqqah (ar-Raqqa) someday, but otherwise, the motto is about the “creation of a negotiating position”.
The operation in al-Qusayr (Al-Kusair/al-Qusair) is not yet complete. There were individual reports that the Syrians among the rebels capitulate en masse. Not the foreign mercenaries, whereby nobody is really too interested in the situation to take prisoners.
As the sad experience from Daraya (Darayya, Daraiya, Darayia) teaches, the cleanup can last long. Al-Qusayr was occupied for about a year by the rebels.
PS: The Israeli military carriage, which was detected in al-Qusayr, is a Sufa-1 (AIL Storm) – probably of little importance. The Israelis themselves comment that these vehicles are decrepit and no longer be used by the IDF. I am just able, however, to find sources, which say, that this device was produced only since the 1990s, and thus it is relatively new. But there should not really be enough space for “Assets” (essential communication technology) in this military vehicle.
Source: apxwn
