By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans in collaboration with Jakub Janovsky and Calibre Obscura
Turkish air and ground strikes which commenced late on the 27th of February 2020 on positions of the Syrian Arab Army (SyAA) and affiliated forces hit a large number of targets throughout Idlib and Aleppo, leading to the complete collapse of government forces along this part of the frontline and allowing rebel forces to continue their advance after recapturing the strategic town of Saraqib. Launched in retaliation after the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike, Turkey has now entered a new phase in its war in Syria, and at present the long-term implications can only be guessed at.
To purposely strike a Turkish military position only to get completely annihilated in retaliatory strikes raises
the issue of whether the current organisation in charge of regime
operations is capable of dealing with the situation it faces. The catastrophic outcome of the regime's (and Russia's) attempt at directly challenging Turkey's resolve must have not only amazed those following
the offensive, but also the regime's military itself. Completely misjudging the impending danger and incapable of properly
anticipating Turkey's retaliatory strikes, the Syrian military totally collapsed in the face of drones and artillery. Instead of engaging or at least deterring Turkish aircraft and drones from freely striking government forces on the ground, the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) and Syrian Arab Air Defence Force (SyAADF) have so far done nothing to stop the Turkish Air Force from penetrating into Syrian airspace.
What is certain is that for rebel forces Turkey's new phase could not have come at a better time. As the tide of the war is now in favour of the regime, rebel forces lost the offensive posture many groups managed to cling on to for much of the war. With rebel forces in Idlib everywhere on the defensive and losing, Idlib has largely been cut off
from the largest supplier of weaponry and ammunition to factions
opposing the Syrian government: The Syrian Arab Army. The latter's
failure to redistribute, protect, or at least destroy major arms depots
like Ayyash
ensured a seemingly endless supply of vehicles, weaponry and ammunition
to opposing forces in Syria. Nowadays mostly relying on small batches
of munitions purchased on the black market or received from foreign
powers, the only way for rebels in Idlib to stock up on heavier
equipment like tanks is through smash and grab attacks on poorly
defended but overstocked regime positions and now, a Turkish-backed offensive launched against the city of Saraqib.
A detailed list of the destroyed and captured vehicles, weaponry and ammunition and can be seen below.
This list only includes captured vehicles and equipment of which photo
or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of
equipment destroyed by Turkey and captured by Idlibi rebel forces is undoubtedly higher than recorded
here. Small arms and munitions are not included in this list.
This list will be updated as additional footage becomes available.
(Click on the numbers to get a picture of each individual captured or destroyed vehicle)
Tanks (47, of which destroyed: 34, captured: 13)
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7 T-55A: (1, captured) (2, destroyed) (3, destroyed) (4, destroyed) (5, destroyed) (6, destroyed) (7, destroyed)
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2 T-55M: (1, captured) (2, captured)
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1 T-55(A)MV: (1, destroyed)
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4 T-62 Obr. 1972: (1, captured) (2, destroyed) (3, destroyed) (4, destroyed)
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3 T-62M: (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed) (3, destroyed)
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2 T-72 'Ural': (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed)
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1 T-72M: (1, captured)
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6 T-72M1: (1, captured) (2, captured) (3, captured) (4, captured) (5, captured) (6, destroyed)
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1 T-72M1 'Shafrah': (1, captured)
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1 T-72AV: (1, captured)
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1 T-72B Obr. 1989/T-90: (1, destroyed)
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10 Unknown T-72: (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed) (3, destroyed) (4, destroyed) (5, destroyed) (6, destroyed) (7 destroyed) (8, destroyed) (9, destroyed) (10, destroyed)
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8 Unknown T-55/62: (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed) (3, destroyed) (4, destroyed) (5, destroyed) (6, destroyed) (7, destroyed) (8, destroyed)
Infantry fighting vehicles (21, of which destroyed: 9, captured: 12)
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21 BMP-1: (1, captured) (2, captured) (3, captured) (4, captured) (5, captured) (6, captured) (7, captured) (8, captured) (9, captured) (10, captured) (11 and 12, captured) (13, destroyed) (14, destroyed) (15, destroyed) (16, destroyed) (17, destroyed) (18, destroyed) (19, destroyed) (20, destroyed) (21, destroyed)
Self-propelled artillery (24, of which destroyed: 24)
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16 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed) (3, destroyed) (4, destroyed) (5, destroyed) (6, destroyed) (7, destroyed) (8, destroyed) (9, destroyed) (10, destroyed) (11, destroyed) (12, destroyed) (13, destroyed) (14, destroyed) (15, destroyed) (16, destroyed)
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2 130mm M-46 field gun on truck chassis: (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed)
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6 152mm 2S3 Akatsiya: (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed) (3, destroyed) (4, destroyed) (5, destroyed) (6, destroyed)
Multiple rocket launchers (12, of which destroyed: 11, damaged: 1)
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9 122mm BM-21 'Grad': (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed) (3, destroyed) (4, destroyed) (5, destroyed) (6, destroyed) (7, destroyed) (8, destroyed) (9, destroyed) (10, damaged)
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1 122mm HM-20: (1, destroyed)
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1 122mm MRL on Toyota: (1, destroyed)
Mortars (3, of which destroyed: 1, captured: 2)
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2 160mm M160: (1, captured) (2, captured)
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1 240mm M240: (1, destroyed)
Anti-tank guided missiles (37, of which captured: 37, of which 10 launchers and optics)
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1 9M14 Malyutka: (1)
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3 HJ-73D: (1, 2, and 3)
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2 thermal optic for HJ-73D launcher: (1 and 2)
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3 9M111 Fagot: (1, 2, and 3)
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11 9M113 Konkurs: (1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 6) (7, 8 and 9) (10 and 11)
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2 9P135 launcher for the 9M111 Fagot and 9M113 Konkurs ATGM: (1) (2)
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2 1PN79-2 thermal optic for the 9P135 ATGM launcher: (1) (2)
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12 9M131 Metis: (1, 2, 3 and 4) (5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10) (11 and 12)
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2 9P151 launcher for the 9M131 Metis ATGM: (1) (2)
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1 1PN86-VI thermal optic for 9P151 Metis ATGM launcher: (1) (2)
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2 9M133-1 Kornet: (1 and 2)
(Self-propelled) anti-aircraft guns (4, of which destroyed: 2, damaged: 1, captured: 1)
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3 23mm ZSU-23-4 'Shilka': (1, damaged) (2, destroyed) (3, destroyed)
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1 23mm ZU-23: (1, captured)
Surface-to-air missile systems (2, of which destroyed: 2)
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2 Pantsir-S1: (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed)
Aircraft and Helicopters (8, of which destroyed: 8)
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2 Su-24MK2 (downed on the 1st of March 2020)
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1 L-39 (downed on the 3th of March 2020)
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2 Mi-8/17 (1 and 2 shot down by MANPADS on the 11th and 14th of Feburary respectively)
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3 MBB 223 Flamingo (Hit in a hangar at Kweres. Likely already derelict and used as a source of spare parts)
Trucks, vehicles and engineering equipment (33, of which destroyed: 21, captured: 12)
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1 GAZ-66: (1, destroyed)
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8 GAZ-3308: (1, captured) (2, captured) (3, captured) (4, destroyed) (5, destroyed) (6, destroyed) (7, destroyed) (8, destroyed)
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1 Ural-4320: (1, destroyed)
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1 KamAZ: (1, destroyed)
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2 Ammunition truck: (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed)
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8 Trucks carrying equipment: (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed) (3, destroyed) (4, destroyed) (5, destroyed) (6, destroyed) (7, destroyed) (8, destroyed)
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3 Technical: (1, captured) (2, destroyed) (3, destroyed)
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2 Excevator: (1 and 2, captured)
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2 Motorcycle: (1 and 2, captured)
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5 Unknown truck: (1, captured) (2, destroyed) (3, destroyed) (4 and 5, destroyed)
Strategic locations hit
Special thanks to Morant Mathieu, MENA_Conflict and Monitoring.
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It's about time ASSad had a taste of his own medicine. 😊
ReplyDeleteWhere is war planes?
ReplyDeleteYou should add 2 Su-24 planes.. Its confirmed both by Turkish and Syrian sides.
ReplyDeleteAdded!
Deletelooks good on them...to bad it wasn't more destroyed...way to go Turkey et al
DeleteSo SyAAF now have only 8 active Su-24MK2s ?
ReplyDeleteYeah, until the SAA retake Saraqib and Turkey secured a bad deal in which the Russians were allowed to patrol the southern corridor of the M4 Highway which were located inside the rebel-held territory.
ReplyDeleteАплодирую!!!
ReplyDeleteПочему же САА отбила Саракиб , и почему Эрдоган ездил в Москву кланятся Путину в ноги ?!
It's interesting that you cover the effectiveness of Turkish UAVs against the Syrians but completely ignore the similar level of effectiveness that Russian airstrikes showed against the rebels, and their supporting Turkish armor.
ReplyDeleteThere's actually an article in the making covering this very subject. I'm very sorry that the little spare time I have to work on articles like these does not match your level of patience.
DeleteI'm glad to hear that. Looking forward to your take on it.
DeleteHas the list been updated since you wrote it?
ReplyDeleteYep!
Delete