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Saturday, August 11

Something strange might have happened in Syria during past 24 hours

It's just that I can't figure out what it might be. I noticed FARS went very quiet yesterday about war news from Syria.  The war reports up now at the website are from very early yesterday or the day before, and that's not like FARS. Colonel Lang on the other hand is in a talkative mood:
This is going to be one hell of a rodeo! As the article suggests there will be secondary attacks from the west out of Lattakia Province and from the Aleppo City area pushing toward the west.  These will be intended to fix the enemy in place while the main attack drives north from Hama Province to Idlib City and then on to the north. ...
The article he refers to was posted yesterday at 11:30 pm Syria Time at AMN and headlined Syrian Army’s 4th Division heads to northwest Syria for Jisr Al-Shughour offensive.

On August 9 at 4:24 pm AMN chief Leith Fadel assured readers of his Twitter page:
There is NO planned offensive to retake all of Idlib. Only thing that has been put in motion is Jisr Al-Shughour. The Turkish Army is all over Idlib and nothing can happen there unless they coordinate with Russia.
Readers might recall that I'd been a little hesitant about accepting Leith's statement, despite his good sources in the SAA, in light of an August 9 FARS report that suggested the SAA's Idlib Offensive was pretty imminent.

I think a problem for the SAA is that so many are watching everything they do so closely it's gotten hard to spring a surprise on the enemy. 

But something could have changed. Let's see what else was going on yesterday. [taptaptap taptap tap] Ah so.

Turkish lira plunges 14% versus dollar after Trump authorizes doubling metals tariffs on Turkey

Hmmmm. It might be a good idea for the Turkish military in Syria to return to their side of the border forthwith. My reasoning is that when the U.S. sanctions a fellow NATO member this could be a Sign for the NATO member not to assume the U.S. will continue studiously overlooking its actions in Syria. 

Well, we'll just have to wait and see how it plays out. In the immortal words of David Ronfeldt, Onward.

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