Thousands of Iranian troops are now in Syria for ground offensives against insurgents

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: Reuters

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army and allied Iranian and Hezbollah forces are preparing for a ground offensive against insurgents in the Aleppo area backed by Russian air strikes, two senior regional officials familiar with the plans said on Tuesday.

The offensive would expand on a ground attack launched by the same alliance last week that is targeting rebels in Hama province further west.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said thousands of Iranian troops had arrived to take part in the ground offensives in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

A big government offensive in the area near the Turkish border is likely to further anger NATO member Ankara, which has backed insurgents fighting Assad and has already expressed deep concern over Russian air strikes that have targeted them.

Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/thousands-of-iranian-troops-are-now-in-syria-for-ground-offensives-against-insurgents-2015-10?r=US&IR=T

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Getting more WWIIIish every day. I guess next move is for Turkey to make a ground incursion into Syria.

[daleo]

1. I wonder If Saudi troops will join in

Maybe they already have.

[roamer65]

7. There are many, many Saudi Wahhabi'ist volunteers in there. N/t

[SereneG]

17. Saudi will never join

Saudi Arabia cannot stand Assad and Iran. There is no way they will do any manouvres together.

[randys1]

2. Agree on the world war concern, can you IMAGINE any con in the WH?

[roamer65]

8. This is where WW3 will start.

Remember WW1 started from an Austro-Hungarian archduke's assassination and WW2 started from the invasion of Poland. It was called the "Phony War" until Hitler's blitzkrieg in Spring 1940.
This one is going to suck a lot of countries into it very quickly.

King Abdullah II of Jordan is already calling the Third World War.

[bananas]

13. There's been decades of planning for ww3 by the military of all countries.

It's not going to be fun.

[Jesus Malverde]

3. Note the media is too chicken to tell us the name of who controls allepo

Is it al nusra? Al Qaeda? I'm sure it's well known which jihadists control allepo.

[MowCowWhoHow III]

4. No one faction controls Aleppo

[Jesus Malverde]

5. So the "rebel area" what's the name of that group.

clearly they are identifiable with a little research.

[MowCowWhoHow III]

6. It's a completely chaotic/fluid mix of nusra, fsa and intermediate jihadis

[daleo]

9. Intermediate Jihadis?

Are those Jihadis that haven't been promoted to the major leagues, yet? Or are they still interning? Part-timers? Hobbyists? Strange, how this nomenclature evolves.

[MowCowWhoHow III]

10. Intermediate religious zealotry

fsa are nominally secular, nusra are grade A nutty zealots on par with isis. Between them are a zoo of sunni outfits of varying sanity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_armed_groups_in_the_Syrian_Civil_War

[neverforget]

11. This has a walking into WW1 feel to it.

Stumbling and miscalculating into another world war.

[roamer65]

14. Theodore Roosevelt knew WW1 was coming as early as 1910.

The PBS special "The Roosevelts" was very good. They mentioned that TR made a trip to Europe in 1910 and came back with the observation that a large war in Europe was coming. Sadly, though, he wanted the United States into it much earlier and often goaded Woodrow Wilson to get involved.

[CanonRay]

12. I say good. Let somebody elses kids die in this mess.

And somebody besides us be the World Police.

[MowCowWhoHow III]

15. Iranian MPs arrive in Damascus before joint offensive

A delegation of Iranian lawmakers arrived in Damascus on Wednesday in the build-up to a joint operation against insurgents in northwest Syria, and said U.S.-led efforts to fight rebels had failed.

The visit, led by the chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, came as Iranian troops prepared to bolster a Syrian army offensive that two senior officials told Reuters would target rebels in Aleppo.

The attack, which the officials said would be backed by Russian air strikes, underlined the growing involvement in the civil war of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's two main allies, which has alarmed a U.S.-led coalition opposed to the president that is bombing Islamic State militants.

"The international coalition led by America has failed in the fight against terrorism. The cooperation between Syria, Iraq, Iran and Russia has been positive and successful," Boroujerdi was quoted as saying by Iran's state broadcaster IRIB as he arrived at Damascus airport.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/14/us-mideast-crisis-syria-iran-idUSKCN0S80LT20151014

[MowCowWhoHow III]

16. China says not planning to send military forces to Syria

China said on Wednesday it had no plans to send its military to Syria to fight with Russian forces after reports in overseas media that it was planning to do so.

Chinese media has picked up Russian and Middle Eastern news reports that China would fight alongside Russia in Syria, and that China's sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, could participate too.

Chinese media has also described these reports as speculative nonsense.

"As far as I know there are no such plans," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing, when asked if China had or would send forces to Syria. "Recently, the Liaoning aircraft carrier went to carry out technical tests and military drills," she added, without elaborating.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/14/us-mideast-crisis-china-idUSKCN0S80W120151014?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews