Source: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/02/syria-aleppo-is-fully-liberated-but-the-war-will-continue.html
February 17, 2020
Moon of Alabama
Since last week’s post https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/02/syria-turkey-invades-idleb-but-its-bluff-will-be-called.html on the Syrian Idleb campaign the Syrian army has again made extraordinary progress.
The M5 highway is under full control of the Syrian Army. The Jihadis, under threat of an encirclement, fled from the area west of Aleppo city. The suburbs and villages west of Aleppo have all been liberated. Last night the people of Aleppo celebrated https://twitter.com/SyrianLionesss/status/1229083961369993217. Nearly eight years after the 2012 invasion of east-Aleppo https://www.moonofalabama.org/2012/07/syria-schwerpunkt-aleppo-.html by Jihadists they will no longer have to endure random mortar and missile attacks. The international airport of Aleppo will now be reopened. The first flights are planned for Wednesday.
West of Aleppo the Syrian army is only 10 kilometer (6 miles) away from Darat Izzah. That town lies on the main north-south road between Idleb governorate and the Kurdish areas in the north which Turkey’s goons occupied. It is a supply line for the Jihadis as well as for the 5,000 Turkish troops that have invaded Idelb. Today some targets in the town were bombed by the Russian airforce. It will probably soon be attacked. That would give the Turkish military, which avoids fighting against the Syrian army, a serious headache.
That Aleppo has been liberated and is now fully reconnected to its sister city Damascus is an enormous success.
In a televised speech (vid) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_30re0OMOo&feature=youtu.be President Bashar Assad emphasized the success but also warned that the war is not over https://sana.sy/en/?p=185803:
“[W]e are fully aware that this liberation does not mean the end of the war, or the failure of schemes, or the disappearance of terrorism, or the surrender of enemies, but it certainly means rubbing their noses in the dirt as a prelude for complete defeat, sooner or later,” the President affirmed.
A second campaign to liberate the M4 highway between Latakia and Aleppo as well as all areas south of it is in preparation. Its start will depend on the outcome of currently ongoing negotiations.
U.S. attempts to turn the Turkish President Erdogan against Russia have failed https://www.jpost.com//Middle-East/Turkey-embraces-Russia-condemns-US-envoy-and-US-peace-plan-617678. Talks were again held today between Turkey and Russia. Erdogan’s threat that the Syrian army has to retreat back to the Sochi agreement lines by the end of the month or will be attacked by the Turkish military is taken seriously only by those https://twitter.com/YusufErim79/status/1229333835571179522 who do not understand Syrian or Russian thinking.
The Syrian president gave an appropriate response to it.
EHSANI2 @EHSANI22 5:39 PM · Feb 17, 2020 https://twitter.com/EHSANI22/status/1229445311157936129
#Syria ‘s Assad on his northern adversary Erdogan:
The battle to liberate the countryside of #Aleppo & #Idleb will continue regardless of some empty sound bubbles coming from the north.
Emma Olive 