Four simultaneous car bomb and suicide attacks by Daesh in the regime-controlled territory in Syria — also patrolled by Kurds — is a major setback.
The loss of 48 lives and scores wounded is tragic in itself and it puts the clock back on the possibility of any initiative for a cease-fire and also underscores the dangers of urban warfare.
When terrorists use towns and cities to infiltrate and the citizenry becomes their armor it is almost impossible to reach a state of failsafe. Somebody will always get through and trigger mayhem.
This bleak, black Monday the smoke rises above the cities of Tartus, Hasakah, Homs and Saburra near Damascus. That Daesh was supposed to have been ‘dismantled’ from this area is evidently not true. Clearly, there are still pockets of resistance and between car bombs and suicide bombers, it seems these pockets are not insignificant and are still being nourished by support lines.
While the immediate response will be to sanitize the townships even further this is also a hazardous business because suspicion can be a very corrosive exercise. It not only creates fear and loathing in a citizenry already under bombardment but makes for a schism between them and the jackbooted military invading their privacy.
Regrettably, there is no other way out. Syria, already buckling at its knees cannot afford a series of such attacks because they would feed another surge of migrants and this time Turkey has its own problems, Greece has locked its doors and Germany’s Angela Merkel is far too into shock after her defeat in the election in Mecklenberg-Pomerania in what was obviously an anti-immigration vote pattern on her own turf.
Although she expressed brave words on the sidelines of the G20 meet in Beijing that there would be no change in Germany’s policy on immigration it stands to reason that this loss will put brakes on any influx.
The satisfaction over mop-up ops on Daesh camps on the Syria-Turkey border was negated by the Monday bombings. It is indeed regrettable that every time one feels the militants are on the backfoot, they manage to engage in destruction.
In the new strategy, it becomes necessary to consider isolating the supply lines and following the money trail simultaneously.
The problem inherent in this is that the levels of disaffection even in government ranks are also tangible and predicated to the impasse between Washington and Moscow.
The loss of 48 lives and scores wounded is tragic in itself and it puts the clock back on the possibility of any initiative for a cease-fire and also underscores the dangers of urban warfare.
When terrorists use towns and cities to infiltrate and the citizenry becomes their armor it is almost impossible to reach a state of failsafe. Somebody will always get through and trigger mayhem.
This bleak, black Monday the smoke rises above the cities of Tartus, Hasakah, Homs and Saburra near Damascus. That Daesh was supposed to have been ‘dismantled’ from this area is evidently not true. Clearly, there are still pockets of resistance and between car bombs and suicide bombers, it seems these pockets are not insignificant and are still being nourished by support lines.
While the immediate response will be to sanitize the townships even further this is also a hazardous business because suspicion can be a very corrosive exercise. It not only creates fear and loathing in a citizenry already under bombardment but makes for a schism between them and the jackbooted military invading their privacy.
Regrettably, there is no other way out. Syria, already buckling at its knees cannot afford a series of such attacks because they would feed another surge of migrants and this time Turkey has its own problems, Greece has locked its doors and Germany’s Angela Merkel is far too into shock after her defeat in the election in Mecklenberg-Pomerania in what was obviously an anti-immigration vote pattern on her own turf.
Although she expressed brave words on the sidelines of the G20 meet in Beijing that there would be no change in Germany’s policy on immigration it stands to reason that this loss will put brakes on any influx.
The satisfaction over mop-up ops on Daesh camps on the Syria-Turkey border was negated by the Monday bombings. It is indeed regrettable that every time one feels the militants are on the backfoot, they manage to engage in destruction.
In the new strategy, it becomes necessary to consider isolating the supply lines and following the money trail simultaneously.
The problem inherent in this is that the levels of disaffection even in government ranks are also tangible and predicated to the impasse between Washington and Moscow.
