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Russian plane downed in the Sinai.

Tidewater

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Bama Reb said:
I started off by thinking that "If that were me, I'd have been out of there long before now".
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Sharm is a short boat trip across the Gulf of Aqaba from Saudi Arabia. I don't think security along that coast is too tight. From there, with friends in Saudi Arabia, you could go wherever.
 
Tidewater

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CaliforniaTide said:
Looks like Putin has made his decision...

Putin and his calvary of grizzlies...
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Russian is allegedly the third most-commonly spoken language in Daesh (after Arabic and English). Russia has lots of muslims, mostly Sunni. The northern Caucasus has several muslim-majority republics: Chechnya, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Ingushetia and North Ossetia. Not all of them are happy about being part of the Russian Federation.
 
TIDE-HSV

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Well, I guess this may fulfill their prophecy of the armies of Rome (we would have done, but we and the Russians would be even better) meeting them in Raqqa, their losing the battle and cut down to 5,000 men in Jerusalem, so that Jesus can return to kill the anti-Messiah. Could be there won't be 5K left, much less in Jerusalem...
 
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crimsonaudio said:
Yah, that's weird, unless it's just a language thing.
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I have found no Russian source indicating that Putin was announce he plans on putting 150k Russian forces into Syria.
I have read that Admiral (R) Stavridis, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, suggested that NATO put 150,000 NATO troops on the ground in Syria.

My read of Vladimir Vladirimovich is that, if he believes Daesh really did bomb a Russian plane, he will be really ticked off, and he may do anything that is physically possible.
 
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Massive Russian blanket air bombardment is flattening Raqqa

Russia has launched a merciless blanket air campaign, backed by Kalibr cruise missiles fired from the Caspian and Mediterranean Seas, for the object of wiping the Islamic State’s Syrian center of Raqqa off the map, debkafile’s military sources report.

Western and Middle East sources tracking the campaign since Friday, Nov. 20, report that at least 75 air sorties have been conducted and are systematically razing the town of 200,000 inhabitants 160km east of Aleppo, district by district, irrespective of civilian town dwellers.

Moscow wants the entire Middle East and Muslim world to see the price exacted for launching a terrorist attack on Russia after the downing of the Metrojet airliner that killed 224 people over Egyptian Sinai on Oct. 31. Russian bombers and cruise missiles rained death and destruction on the ISIS administration center after the jihadists claimed responsibility for that disaster and published photos of a soft drink can claimed to have been rigged as a bomb for blowing the plane up.
When the Russians are done, the town will be a pile of rubble, an intelligence source told debkafile.

The Russian defense ministry ran photos Friday of Russian technicians loading bombs on the Tupolev 95 bombers (dubbed “Bears” in the West). Ground crews marked the bombs “For ours,” and “For Paris.”
Last Tuesday, our military sources first revealed that the Tupolev’s were taking off from Morozovsk air base in the Rostov district of southern Russia instead of from the Russian military enclave outside the Syrian town of Latakia.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported Friday that 15 Syrian oil facilities seized by ISIS had been destroyed this week and 525 of their trucks, costing the jihadists $1.5 million a day in revenue.

As for casualties, the published figure of 600 jihadists killed in one day is probably far below the real figure. Our sources report that the Islamist terrorists’ death toll most probably runs into thousands with many more injured.
To sustain the hectic tempo of its aerial war, Moscow has doubled the number of bombers assigned to Syria from 34 two weeks ago to 69 by Saturday, Nov. 21.

Our military sources add that this augmented air power allows the Russians to expand their targets to other parts of Syria. On Friday, they renewed sorties against Syrian rebel forces holding the southern town of Deraa near the Jordanian border.
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Daesh has a stated policy of claiming credit (or blame) for every terror incident. This may slow them down doing that next time...
 
Tidewater

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Tupelovs from Rostov have to fly over Turkey. I guess the Turks are on board with this.

Edit: Turns out they flew via Iranian airspace, which means they then crossed Iraqi airspace.
 
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Tidewater

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IS leaders fleeing Raqqa under Russian bombs

Looks like things are not going so well for Daesh.
"The terrorist command system in Homs province was completely disrupted due to the losses. We have registered incidences of refusal to fulfil the assigned tasks," Kartapolov said.
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This broke my heart:
Huge loss of life is forcing the IS field commanders to evacuate the dead militants’ corpses from the battlefield at night and dump them in sewage. "As far as we know, in view of the fact that huge losses make it impossible to bury all the fighters according to the Islamic tradition, the field commanders have decided to dump the bodies of ordinary militants in cesspits," Kartapolov told journalists at a briefing.
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Tidewater

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Bamaro said:
Better them than us.
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This is one of those occasions in which President Obama sees the world the way he wishes it to be, not the way it is Daesh does not care much whether the US slows down the influx of refugees into the US. That is not a recruitment tool for Daesh. Murdering 130 people in Paris is a success they can point to.
On the other hand, Daesh does not think, "Man, those Americans are really nice to avoid killing out oil truck drivers." They see this as weakness.
On the other hand, the likely see the rubblling of Raqqa and think, "Man, we should not have screwed with that Russian airliner."
That is not the way Obama sees it (in fact, Obama probably sees that moral calculus as repugnant), but that is the way those in Raqqa see it.
 
Tidewater

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The Russians and the French have hit both Raqqa and Daesh oil trucks.
That calls fo rthe question why, after a year and a half does Raqqa still have any targets left worth hitting?"
“When we agreed we were going to do airpower and the military said, this is how it would work, he [Obama] said, ‘No, I do not want any civilian casualties,’” Keane explained. “And the response was, ‘But there’s always some civilian casualties. We have the best capability in the world to protect from civilians casualties.’” However, Obama’s response was, “No, you don’t understand. I want no civilian casualties. Zero,’” Keane continued. “So that has driven our so-called rules of engagement to a degree we have never had in any previous air campaign from desert storm to the present.”
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Russia has also hit Daesh oil trucks, which isa major source of Daesh income to fund their ops.
Since this has been known for a while, why on earth have those trucks not been destroyed months ago.
Same answer.
The leaflets, which fluttered to the ground about 45 minutes before the strikes, simply said: "Get out of your trucks now, and run away from them. Warning: airstrikes are coming. Oil trucks will be destroyed. Get away from your oil trucks immediately. Do not risk your life."
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Trying to avoid needless civilian casualties is nice, but why on earth was this not done months ago?
This is criminal negligence on the part of the President.
 
Tidewater

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A decent article on the Russian reactions.
Putin Accuses Islamic State of Downing Passenger Jet as Strategic Bombers Pound Syria

In addition to the 30 or so Russian tactical bombers and attack jets that are bombing targets in Syria from an airbase in Latakia, on the Syrian Mediterranean coast, some 23 heavy long-range bombers joined the fray, on November 17. Around 12 long-range supersonic Tu-22M3 “Backfire” ... flew over 4,500 kilometers to Syria to bomb IS targets in Raqqa, and then returned home. Later, six Tu-95MS “Bear” and five Tu-160 “Blackjack” strategic bombers ... fired 34 long-range cruise missiles at targets in Idlib and Aleppo provinces (TASS, November 17). The Tu-22M3 “Backfire” bombers bombed Raqqa during the night—from 0500 to 0530 hours—to minimize threat from ground fire. The strategic bombers fired cruise missiles later in daylight, without entering hostile airspace.
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Here is evidence of the Russian concern over civilian casualties.
The Tu-22M3 was developed during the Cold War as a highly specialized naval supersonic jet, designated to destroy the United States’ carrier battle groups with supersonic nuclear-armed cruise missiles. During the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, in the 1980s, Tu-22M3 bombers were used to attack rebel mujahidin positions; there, they proved to be an inaccurate, though heavy-payload weapon. The Tu-22M3’s radar targeting device is designed to distinguish ships at sea, but not to pinpoint targets on land. This heavy bomber cannot do close-air-support missions. In footage released by the Russian defense ministry, the Tu-22M3 aircraft are being loaded with “dumb” munitions, apparently to carpet-bomb presumed IS targets in Raqqa province, where there are no forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad operating
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I guess Daesh is regretting poking the bear one too many times.
 
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