Julian Röpcke🇺🇦 Profile picture
Journalist. Leitender Redakteur Sicherheitspolitik und Konflikte @BILD.

Mar 3, 2020, 5 tweets

#NewsMap
Two more strategic towns were captured by #AssadPutin forces overnight - after #Turkey once again betrayed its allies and stopped all support operations for Syrian rebel forces in #Idlib.

No more drone strikes, no air defense, no artillery, no MLRS, no ground troops.

And of course, I talk about the status quo, which could change in one hour, day or week if Erdogan is not happy what Moscow delivers.
(Just as I didn’t claim “they will surrender Saraqeb tomorrow”, when Turkey helped rebels significantly, just 48 hours ago.)

Reading, “but they shot down our drones”.
FYI: 2% of Turkey’s 150 aircraft strong attack drone force and 0% of its 300 aircraft strong manned attack jet force have been destroyed over Idlib so far.
Also 0% of its 100 pieces strong artillery/MLRS force inside Idlib were taken out.

So to stop (or at best interrupt) military operations in Idlib was a #political decision and not driven by military necessity.
And of course, it is highly futile to rebel moral and trust in Turkey as many were killed, capturing Saraqeb, and more were killed, losing it again.

And last but not least: IF the surrender for the only hub to recapture its observation posts and the Idlib de-escalation zone was planned by Turkey (for some reasons, I don’t understand), then WHY IT DIDN’T TELL REBEL FORCES AND LET THEM FIGHT THE ENTIRE DAY INSTEAD W/O SUPPORT?!

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