Air Strikes by VKS & SyAAF, 24 April, 2017
The VKS opened the day in a rather slow fashion: ‘only’ four air strikes launched from Hmemmem by 01.00hrs. Following the usual ‘night of…
The VKS opened the day in a rather slow fashion: ‘only’ four air strikes launched from Hmemmem by 01.00hrs. Following the usual ‘night of rest’, the Russians resumed flying around 06.00hrs, by launching a series of six air strikes on the Jishr ash-Shughour and Taftanaz areas.
Around 08.00hrs, the SyAAF opened its ‘office hours’ by scrambling a Su-24 from Tiyas. This was followed by a Su-22 from Shayrat (08.02), another from Demyr (08.05), one more from Tiyas (08.17), and another from Shayrat (08.29), before the Russians launched a total of five fighter-bombers on their part.
Tiyas was back in action by scrambling two Su-24s at 10.12 and 10.18, Hama dispatched a total of four helicopters during the following minutes, another Su-22 came in from Nayrab AB (Aleppo IAP), at 10.27, and one more from Shayrat, at 10.37. Nearly all of these have bombed the Latamina and Kfar Zita areas, and were clearly related to the major push by the IRGC and the V Corps ‘SAA’ on Masasnah, Zawr at-Teba, Zawr Mahruqa, Jabal ash-Shir and the Zalin checkpoint. While most of these were eventually captured, at least the attack on the Zalin CP was reversed by insurgents due to heavy losses of assaulters. Both sides have experienced heavy losses in this battle so far: local Assadist sources have announced burials for up to 1,200 KIA; Jaysh al-Izza and Jaysh an-Nasr alone seem to have lost over 1,000 KIA and WIA too (sorry, I lost the related link) — which, considering the massive firepower deployed against them, is no surprise. Nevertheless, especially the Jaysh al-Izza continues to extract a fearfull tool from enemy infantry and armour through extensive use of BGM-71 TOW ATGMs: up to a dozen of hits were reported yesterday and the day before, including one on a T-90 that seem to have survived the hit (though is also confirming deployment of one of IRGC’s Iraqi surrogates in northern Hama).
Here a video showing ODAB-500s that hit Latamina early in the morning:
Following several additional air strikes by Russians (some apparently flown by their helicopters too), Latamina was hit by two Su-22s that lifted off Shayrat, at 11.42, and 11.52, while Houleh — on the western side of the Ra’astan-Talbiseh Pocket (northern Homs) was bombed by a Su-22 from Dmeyr AB, around the same time: the latter air strike killed at least four civilians.
In total, this morning was by far not as intensive as over the last four weeks: rather comparable with 23 April, when — as reported earlier — up to 50% of the VKS at Hmemmem (and all of the Russians at Sanobar), were not flying at all.
This changed very little during the afternoon: Nayrab AB dispatched two Su-22s to bomb the Latamina area and Hama added a MiG-21 in the same direction shortly after the noon. It was only after 12.10 that the VKS started launching one of its typical, ‘big waves’: by 14.30hrs, they launched a total of 31 fighter-bombers that hit Jishr ash-Shughour, Ma’arat an-Nauman, Idlib (city), Kfar Nabel (hit some 7–8 times), Khan Sheykhoun (where a market was hit, killing several civilians), Latamina, Khan Sheykhoun again, and Idlib (city) again. The SyAAF was flying a lot through this time too, as Hama, Nayrab, Shayrat and Tiyas all launched their MiG-23s (first three sorties by this type from Hama in two days) and Su-22s for their second wave of the day, and Hama added more helicopters and three L-39s too.
Notable is that the SyAAF Su-22s returned to the practice of deploying ODAB-500 FAE-bombs too, i.e. not only the Russians are using these. Here an example from Latamina yesterday:
…and here from the nearby village of Markhaba:
Despite all of this, it remains obvious that the VKS/SyAAF’s control of the battlefield remains poor in general — alone because of the increased use of artillery by insurgents: this would be impossible — if only the Russians could tie their recce with their fighter-bombers in real time (which they claim they can, but obviously can’t). Nevertheless, it can’t be said the SyAAF stopped trying: all four air bases around the battlefield in northern Hama and Idlib launched even a third wave of air strikes, late during the afternoon.
Dera’a in southern Syria was hit by at least two Su-22s during the afternoon (here a video showing one of them).
On the contrary, the Russians remained relatively quiet, and only flew sporadic strikes through the day (total of ‘just’ eleven between 15.00 and 18.00hrs, for example). This changed — and then dramatically — around 23.00hrs, when Hmemmem AB burst into activity: 24 VKS fighter-bombers got airborne by 24.00hrs.
Overall, and to my surprise, the SyAAF had an ‘all-out day’: it really flew everything it still has, and most of that three times. The VKS on the contrary, had actually another ‘day’ off’ — at least until 23.00hrs.
Totals
VKS
fighter-bombers: 91
helicopters: 7
UAVS: 10
recce: 2
SyAAF
helicopters: 20
L-39s: 10 (mostly from Hama, 2–3 from Kweres)
MiG-21s: 2
MiG-23s: 6 (all from Hama, i.e. two flights for each of 3 that are operational there)
Su-22s: 30 (from Nayrab, Kweres, Shayrat and Dmeyr)
Su-24s: 11
***
BTW, for easier orientation, I recommend this map of Idlib and western Aleppo, created by Nawar Oliver. It is particularly precise in regards of zones of influence by the FSyA + AAS, HTS, the IRGC, the Russians, PYD/YPG etc.