Hello and welcome to the 2nd installment of the SWD.

From this edition forward, strike reports for Syria from CJTF-OIR will be added for the previous day.

Military events are listed below by governorates:

Aleppo:

SAA Tiger forces captured Musharifah, Bayjan and Tal Bayjan from IS in the east countryside of Aleppo.

Situation in the Al-Bab is unchanged. TFSA are most likely consolidating position recently taken in the city and are in the process of dismantling IEDs left by IS.

Map showing government’s progress against IS in E. Aleppo. Source: @loomisroberto

Hasakah:

Skirmish occurred today near the town of Amude between YPJ (Women’s Protection Units) and Turkish army after the latter entered Syrian territory. After a few hours Turkish troops retreated with unknown number of casualties. 2 YPJ fighters were wounded. Source: ARA News

Conflicts involving Turkish army and Kurdish elements whether it is exclusively YPX (G OR Y) or the SDF formation are nothing unusual. However, location of this particular clash is interesting as most of the encounters happen near the Afrin canton. Clashes are incited in most cases by Turkey’s indiscriminate shelling of SDF’s territory in a bid to get the latter to respond in the same or similar manner. If the SDF takes the bait Turkey can initiate some kind of operation against them with international justification which they still lack to properly act without getting condemned.

Homs:

Syrian army captured Hayyan Gas facility from IS. Syrian MOD (Ministry of Defense) confirmed the news of Hayyan’s liberation. Reports also suggest that SAA captured western orchards, area SE from Hayyan on the map below, if the advance is confirmed it would put them on the doorstep of Palmyra.

Situation in E. Homs. Source: @loomisroberto

Hama:

Heavy clashes are continuing between HTS and LAA with high number of casualties. Yesterday’s article from SOHR reports that there are at least 46 confirmed casualties, numbers may rapidly rise if the same intensity of clashes resume throughout this “mini civil war”. Over the past few days mass execution of FSA & HTS prisoners by LAA has taken place with numbers of slain varying from 50 up to a 100.

Daraa:

Situation in Al-Manashiyah district is still mostly unclear, with pro-gov sources claiming that rebels are “tactically withdrawing” from the outskirts of Al-Manashiyah. On the other hand pro-rebel sources claim that most of the Al-Manshiyah district has been seized and that there is a continuous advance taking place. Truth is most likely somewhere in between the two, so take everything that comes out of Daraa with a grain of salt until the situation is clearer.

CJTF-OIR strikes in Syria on the 13th of February 2017 included 15 strikes. Strikes were concentrated on Abu Kamal, Palmyra and Raqqa where they destroyed oil storage & transportation units used by IS, AA artillery system and 8 fighting positions with a vehicle, respectively. Full report on CJTF-OIR strikes conducted in both Syria & Iraq can be found here.

Intellectual credited property used may vary from an edition to edition.

For those of you interested, you can follow me on my personal, biased twitter @joskobaric where I occasionally tweet some things.