In east Syria insurgents from the Fee Syrian Army have been kicked out of the city of Raqqa by al-Qaida affiliate Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria:
Fighting between ISIS and the Ahfad al-Rasoul brigade for control of Raqqa – which fell out of the control of president Bashar Assad in March – has intensified over the last week. The battle culminated with the jihadist group detonating a car bomb early Wednesday at the city’s main train station, killing Rasoul commanders Abu Mazen and Fahd Hussein al-Kajwan.
The Al-Qaeda-linked ISIS clashed with Rasoul fighters at the brigade’s headquarters, which they eventually overran, with most of the group withdrawing to Turkey Wednesday.
While the ISIS terrorist have won this fight the conflict itself is a sign that the at least parts of the population is turning against them. Summary execution of children (video) does not make one friends with their parents.
In south Syria near the border to Jordan the insurgents have made a few small gains. These are attributed to new Saudi financed anti-Tank missiles:
The Saudi-financed missile shipments arrived in the last few weeks through Jordan after months of quiet Saudi pressure to prod Amman to open a supply route.
Jordanian officials privately say they are caught between appeasing the Saudis and the danger of reprisals by Assad, who earlier this year warned Amman it "would be playing with fire" if it supported rebels.
…
It follows close Saudi-American-Jordanian intelligence coordination to vet and track weapons to keep them out of "the wrong hands" of Islamist fighters, a regional diplomatic source and an Arab security source told Reuters.
While the Saudis financed the missiles the real physical supplier is more likely the CIA.
The Syrian army has consolidated in the south and the new missiles are unlikely effect its hold on the area. That might be one reason why General Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, just visited Jordan to tell King Abdullah to ask for more help:
“We did not talk about direct military intervention,” [Dempsey] said. “That actually never came up. What did come up was discussions about what we could do to help them build their capability and capacities, whether it was border surveillance and I.S.R.,” which stands for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
The I.S.R. capability is needed to spy on on the Syrian army and to be able to maneuver the insurgents, who have been trained by U.S. special forces in Jordan, against it. But the Syrian president Assad had warned Jordan to refrain from supporting the insurgents and likely has some counteraction planned. Jordan's king might soon be in real trouble.
Before Dempsey came to Jordan he had visited Israel and he left with some curious statement:
The Israelis “of course want us to continue to present a credible military threat to support those diplomatic and economic efforts,” General Dempsey said, adding that he told them, “since I was here last year, we have better military options than we did a year ago.”
“That’s because we’ve continued to refine them,” he said. “We’ve continued to develop technology, we’ve continued to train and plan.”
He declined to provide details.
What technology development was Dempsey thinking of? Or was this just a fake?
