Expanded capabilities of Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah observed in Syrian conflict

RuAF Su-24 and Mi-8 aircrew rescued with assistance by Iran-backed military special forces

According to ABNA:

While the Russians were planning for another operations to free the pilot immediately, General Soleimani contacted [Russian forces] and proposed a special task force unit be formed of Hezbollah's special forces and Syrian commandos who have been trained by Iran and are fully familiar with the geographical situation of the region to be tasked with the ground operations and Russia provide them with air cover and satellite intelligence.

Soleimani promised them to return the Russian pilot safe and sound; a promise that was kept in the end, according to the Syrian officer.

After tracing the place of the Russian pilot using his GPS, it was revealed that the pilot was being kept in a place 6km behind the frontline of the clashes between the Syrian army and the opposition.

Six fighters of Hezbollah's special operation unit and 18 Syrian commandos approached the frontline to carry out the operations and the Russian air force and helicopters concurrently created hellfire in the region and destroyed the terrorists' headquarters in a way that most of the enemy forces deployed in the region fled the scene and the ground was paved for the special unit's advance.

The Syrian officer added that every move of the special units was monitored and covered precisely by the Russian satellites in a way that the slightest moves made 100 meters away from the area of operation was reported to them and every moment of the operation was reported to a very high-raking official in the Kremlin (that he thinks was president Putin) and it was clear that he was monitoring the entire operations through satellites from Moscow.

According to the officer who called for anonymity, the operation later turned into a hunt of the terrorists in the operation zone by the Russian air force from the sky and by Brigadier General Soleimani's operations units on the ground.

COMMENTARY: Some of the details of the ABNA report haven't been verified, however it has apparently been corroborated that an 18-member Syrian commando team linked up with a 6-member Hezbollah special operations team already sitting near a border crossing point to effect the rescue.

It has been pointed out by another observer that the Iran-backed Hezbollah special operations team was performing a SICTA (strategic intelligence collection / target acquisition) mission. Such teams are probably all along that border right up to Jarabulus. [see HERE]

While others have been pointing to the Syrian conflict as a drain on Iranian and Iran-backed forces such as Hezbollah, this writer has stressed the expansion of capabilities--particularly on offense--that the Syrian conflict has spawned during the course of the war.

According to Associated Press:

A Hezbollah TV station says a joint operation by the Lebanese militant group and Syrian security agents killed an Islamic State figure suspected of involvement in Beirut's deadly bombing earlier this month.

AL-Manar TV says Abdul-Salam Hendawi, also known as Abu Abdo, died in an ambush in an IS-held area in Syria's central province of Homs.

It says Hendawi was responsible for bringing into Lebanon two suicide bombers who carried out the Nov. 12 attack in southern Beirut. The attack killed 43 people and wounded more than 200.

COMMENTARY: If accurate, such a strike by Lebanese Hezbollah (LH) represents a successful counter-terrorism operation beyond the formal boundaries of said military force.

While the United States, Israel, EU and GCC consider Iran-backed LH a terrorist organization, Russia does not, as expressed at the Vienna II Syrian conflict resolution talks. This may be considered another point of contention beyond the fate of Syrian President Assad, between the U.S.-led coalition against ISIL on the one hand, and the R+5 (Russia, Syria, Iran, Lebanese Hezbullah, Iraqi PMF and Syrian NDF) on the other.

Opposition counteroffensive stalls against Iran-backed forces, SW Aleppo

Iran-backed Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah T-72 type main battle tank, SW Aleppo front. Social media imagery emerging 24NOV15

According to Leith Fadel at Al-Masdar News, dated 26NOV15:

The Islamist rebels from the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra, Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, Harakat Nouriddeen Al-Zinki, Jaysh Al-Islam, and Liwaa Suqour Al-Sham launched a large-scale offensive in southern Aleppo earlier this week, targeting the Syrian Arab Army’s frontline defenses at the multiple hilltops that surround the

Over the past 6 days in southern Aleppo, the Islamist rebels from Jabhat Al-Nusra, Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, and Harakat Nouriddeen Al-Zinki have repeatedly tried to bypass the Syrian Armed Forces’ frontline defenses at the imperative village of Banes and Kafr Haddad; this powerful assault from the Islamist rebel factions has resulted in the capture of Kafr Haddad’s southern Sector, despite the Islamist rebels declaring this village as “liberated”.

With the ongoing firefights near Banes and Kafr Haddad, the Islamist rebels attempted to take advantage of the Syrian Arab Army’s brief hiatus from the battlefield in order to allow their soldiers to take leave for a few days before going back to battle.

According to a battlefield journalist that is embedded with the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division in southern Aleppo, the Islamist rebels have been unable to make any significant progress in the last 72 hours after failing to take Banes from the soldiers entrenched in this village.

The Islamist rebel offensive has proved to be rather unsuccessful thus far as several of their combatants have been reportedly killed by the Syrian Armed Forces.

COMMENTARY: Opposition forces committed not inconsiderable forces in launching this counteroffensive. While sections of theIRGC-QF line appeared to buckle, no opposition breakthrough appears to have been achieved.

What's more, with R+5 (Russia, Syria, Iran, Lebanese Hezbullah, Iraqi PMF and Syrian NDF) forces attacking at multiple axes and with the opposition committing much needed military resources to this now stalled counteroffensive, attritional losses at the Aleppo front as well as multiple stress points being applied may now be stretching opposition force resources as never before.

Iran-backed Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah T-72 type main battle tank movement through countryside village, SW Aleppo front. Social media imagery emerging 24NOV15.

Iran-backed Hezbollah force member equipped with Iran-manufactured AM50 anti-materiel sniper rifle, SW Aleppo front. Social media imagery emerging 24NOV15.

Iran-backed Hezbollah force member equipped with SPG-9 Kopye (“Spear”) recoilless gun, SW Aleppo front. Social media imagery emerging 24NOV15.

Free Syrian Army Delegation Visited Moscow Last Week – Russian DFM

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bodganov said on Monday that delegations from the Syrian Free Army, a coalition of ten moderate opposition groups in Syria, have visited Moscow on more than one occasion, Reuters quoted Russian news agencies as saying.

“Yes, they were here, including this week,” Bodganov said, answering a question of whether the FSA had visited Moscow last week. (Interfax/Reuters, 26 October)

Meanwhile, the Western-backed FSA said today it has not refused an offer of military support from Russia.

“We didn’t turn down the offer. We said if the Russians were serious in their offer they should stop immediately targeting our bases and targeting the civilian areas,” Major Issam Al Reis, an FSA spokesman, told the BBC today. “We don’t need help now, they should stop attacking our bases and then we can talk about future co-operation.” (BBC/Reuters, 26 October)

Image: FSA logo (Wikipedia)

Assad in Russia - UPDATE

In his first foreign trip since Syria's civil war started in 2011, Syrian President Assad made an unannounced trip to Moscow to discuss Syria with Russian President Putin. Assad arrived in Moscow on Monday.

Since Russia began its direct military involvement in Syria on 30 September, it has effectively assumed the leadership of the pro-government coalition fighting the opposition and Islamist extremist groups in the country. Putin told Assad that Russia was ready to contribute to the fight and to a political settlement of the conflict that has raged for more than four years, the Kremlin said in a statement today. The statement did not say if the future of Assad was also discussed in the meeting, but interestingly Assad was not accompanied by his military or political teams during the visit.

Meanwhile, Turkey said on Monday that it would accept the Syrian leader’s staying in office for the first six months of a political transition, at the end of which he must go. (The New York Times, 21 October) 

UPDATE: Russia said on Tuesday that president Putin had telephone conversations over the course of the day with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, President Erdogan of Turkey, President Sisi of Egypt, and King Abdullah of Jordan to discuss his talks in Moscow with Syrian President Assad. (President of Russia/Twitter)   

Photo credit: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin; Tuesday 21 October 2015 (AFP)

Three Russians Killed in Latakia

First Russian Casualties in Syrian Civil War

Three Russian servicemen fighting alongside pro-regime forces in Syria were killed today and several more wounded when a shell hit their position in the coastal province of Latakia, a senior pro-government source told Reuters on Tuesday. If confirmed, the deaths, which occurred on Monday night, would be the first known Russian military casualties in the Syrian civil war. Russia began its direct military intervention on 30 September. Russia has not said how many combat troops it has deployed in Syria. (Reuters, 20 October)

Meanwhile, the Russian-led coalition of Syrian army and its irregular NDF forces, Iran’s Quds Force and IRGC forces, the Lebanese Hezbollah and other foreign Shia militias, mostly Afghans and Pakistanis, continued the fifth day of their offensive near Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov today told Russia’s news agency Interfax that in the past 24 hours, Russian Aerospace Force carried out 55 combat sorties in Aleppo, Latakia, Idlib, Hama and Damascus provinces. He added the airstrikes were carried out by Su-24M, Su-25SM and Su-34 aircraft.

The five-days-old operation in Aleppo has had initial successes, with pro-government forces retaking some towns and villages around the strategic city. It was not clear, however, when the pro-government forces would begin their offensive on the city itself, which was expected to have taken place by now.

UPDATE: Russian embassy in Damascus had denied the Reuters report, saying the embassy had no report on the death of Russian servicemen in Latakia, Fars News Agency reported. Reuters, however, quoted the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman, as saying that observatory sources have confirmed the deaths of Russians.

File photo: Russian Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback heavy strike fighter (ausairpower.net)