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Russia Doubles Number of Daily Airstrikes in Syria, and Rebels Intensify Their Attacks Supply of U.S.-Made Missiles Picks Up, Syrian Insurgents Say
(about 9 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Russian warplanes are carrying out more airstrikes in support of Syrian government ground troops as rebels are firing more American antitank weapons, deepening the impression that a proxy war between the United States and Russia is joining the list of interlocking conflicts in Syria. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Insurgent commanders say that since Russia began air attacks in support of the Syrian government, they have for the first time received bountiful supplies of powerful American-made antitank missiles.
Russia doubled the number of its airstrikes over the weekend to more than 60 a day, Russian state news media said, helping government troops take two villages on Monday. With the enhanced insurgent firepower and with Russia steadily raising the number of airstrikes against the government’s opponents, the Syrian conflict is edging closer to an all-out proxy war between the United States and Russia.
Videos posted online by pro-Russian outlets, from an area above the village of Tal Skayk, in Hama Province, showed Syrian troops and allied militias watching as heavy barrages sent smoke towering from clusters of houses, while a narrator enthusiastically described progress in fighting “terrorists.” The increased levels of support have raised morale on both sides of the conflict, broadening war aims and hardening political positions, making a diplomatic settlement all the more unlikely.
At the same time, the handful of insurgent groups that received covert assistance from the United States have intensified their use of TOW antitank guided missiles, posting more than two dozen videos in the past few days of the missiles weaving over open fields before hitting their targets. The American-made TOW antitank missiles began arriving in the region in 2013, through a covert program run by the United States, Saudi Arabia and other allies to help certain C.I.A.-vetted insurgent groups battle the Syrian government.
Russia and the United States have both said that they are fighting militants of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, but the two countries support opposite sides in the battle between President Bashar al-Assad and Syrians who are rebelling against his government. The weapons are delivered to the field by American allies, but the United States approves their destination. That suggests that the newly steady battlefield supply has at least tacit American approval, now that Russian air power is backing President Bashar al-Assad.
The dynamic has ratcheted up the dangers of the conflict, while also bolstering morale for combatants on both sides, because the higher stakes have led some fighters to expect stronger commitments from their backers. “We get what we ask for in a very short time,” one commander, Ahmad al-Saud, said in an interview. He added that in just two days his group, Division 13, had destroyed seven armored vehicles with seven TOWs: “Seven out of seven.”
With air support from Russia, Mr. Assad’s government is trying to retake territory seized this year by insurgent groups that include the Nusra Front, the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, and American-backed units calling themselves the Free Syrian Army. Spirits are rising on the government side as well. Weapons and morale are “at a new level,” said an official with the newly revived alliance of Russia, Iran and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah that is fighting on the behalf of Damascus.
But the insurgents in that area do not include the Islamic State, which declared the formation of a caliphate, or religious state, in June 2014 that stretches from northern and eastern Syria into Iraq. Instead of a dim light at the end of a tunnel, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss military matters, the alliance is seeking something closer to victory. The aim now is to retake Syrian land that had been given up for lost, take the ouster of Mr. Assad off the table for good and reach a far more advantageous political solution after establishing “new facts on the ground.”
The advances that have posed the most serious threat to Mr. Assad have come from a coalition of Islamist insurgents called the Army of Conquest that includes the Nusra Front but not the Islamic State. But as Russian airstrikes against Syrian insurgents have picked up, so have insurgent attacks, documented in online videos. American TOW-guided missiles weave across fields, their red contrails blazing, chasing Russian-made vehicles used by Syrian government forces and blowing them up.
Advancing alongside the Islamist groups, and sometimes aiding them, are several relatively secular groups led by army defectors, known as the Free Syrian Army. At least 34 such videos have been posted in just the last five days from the battlefield in Hama and Idlib Provinces, where TOWs have helped blunt the Syrian government’s first ground offensive backed by Russian air power.
The Free Syrian Army, despite fluctuating levels of assistance from the United States and its allies, has long been seen as a marginal player. The influence of Islamist groups has risen alongside better organization and financing. But new developments have given the Free Syrian Army a more prominent role, even while putting the group in new danger. One official with a rebel group that is fighting in Hama called the supply “carte blanche.”
Several American-aided units have come under direct fire by the Russians, but they claim to have held their territory, with the help of TOW missiles, better than their Islamist counterparts. “We can get as much as we need and whenever we need them,” he said, asking not to be identified to avoid reprisals from rival Islamist insurgents he has criticized. “Just fill in the numbers.”
“Rebels on these front lines are the Free Syrians who come from these villages and have no other place to go to,” said one fighter who asked that his name not be used, for safety reasons. He said he believed Russia’s entry into the conflict had made the difference.
“We are not foreigners who can easily leave,” he added, contrasting his unit to the Nusra Front and the Islamic State, which have attracted foreign fighters. “We belong here, and our families and land are here.” “By bombing us, Russia is bombing the 13 ‘Friends of Syria’ countries,” he said, referring to the group of the United States and its allies that called for the ouster of Mr. Assad after his crackdown on political protests in 2011.
Syrian government troops advanced on Monday toward a crucial highway held by insurgents, taking several villages in Hama Province with the help of Russian airstrikes, according to Syrian and Russian state news media, antigovernment activists and fighters. The C.I.A. program that delivered the TOWs is separate from — and significantly larger than — the disgraced Pentagon program that was canceled last week after spending $500 million to train a handful of fighters. That failed largely because few recruits would agree to its goal of fighting only the militant Islamic State and not Mr. Assad.
A senior commander of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia group that has been battling alongside Mr. Assad’s forces, was killed on Sunday in the fighting. He was identified as Hassan Mohammad Hussein al-Hajj by Hezbollah news outlets, which provided live coverage of his funeral on Monday. Rebel commanders scoffed when asked about reports of the delivery of 500 TOWs from Saudi Arabia, saying it was an insignificant number compared with what is available. Saudi Arabia in 2013 ordered more than 13,000 of them. Given that American weapons contracts require disclosure of the “end user,” insurgents said they were being delivered with Washington’s approval.
Videos from the battlefield in recent days showed Russian attack helicopters swooping low over fields, seemingly close enough to touch, then veering upward to fire barrages of rockets, flares and heavy machine-gun fire. Equally graphic videos of new Russian firepower have been posted by pro-government fighters and journalists embedded with them.
Warplanes dropped leaflets over Idlib and Latakia, farther north, trying to persuade insurgents to surrender. Russian attack helicopters swoop low over fields, seemingly close enough to touch, then veer upward to unleash barrages of rockets, flares and heavy machine-gun fire. Explosions pepper distant villages, with smoke rising over clusters of houses as narrators declare progress against “terrorists.”
“40 types of ammunition … are waiting for you,” one read. “Able to destroy targets (ground-underground-shelters and fortified areas).” They appear to be using techniques honed in Afghanistan, where the occupying Soviet Army fought insurgents who were eventually supplied with antiaircraft missiles by the United States. Some of those insurgents later began Al Qaeda.
Another read: “O Gunman: It is time for the truth. The world is changing rapidly. The army is coming. Think of yourself.” It added, “Drop your weapon to keep your life and future.” That specter hangs over American policy, and has kept Syrian insurgents from receiving what they most want: antiaircraft missiles to stop the government airstrikes that have been one of the war’s largest killers of civilians.
Insurgents and antigovernment activists conducted their own information campaign, circulating videos showing how to disarm what they said were Russian cluster bombs and listing helpful Russian military terms that might be overheard on radio transmissions. Now, they want them to use on Russian warplanes as well.
Mr. Saud, of Division 13, said he and other commanders renewed their requests for antiaircraft weapons 10 days ago to the liaison officers they work with in an operations center in Turkey.
“They told us they would deliver our requests to their countries,” he said. “We understand that it is not an easy decision to make when it comes to antiaircraft missiles or a no-fly zone, especially now that Syrian airspace is filled with jets from different countries.”
Both Russia and the United States have declared they are fighting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, but the two global powers support opposite sides in the battle between Mr. Assad and the Syrians who rebelled against his rule.
With air support from Russia, the government of Mr. Assad is trying to retake territory seized this year in Idlib and Hama Provinces by insurgent groups that include both the Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and American-backed units calling themselves the Free Syrian Army — but not ISIS, which is strong in northern and eastern Syria into Iraq but has little presence in the west.
Instead, the advances there, which have posed the most immediate threat to Mr. Assad, have come from a coalition of Islamist insurgents called the Army of Conquest, which includes the Nusra Front but opposes the Islamic State.
Advancing alongside the Islamist groups, and sometimes aiding them, have been several of the relatively secular groups, like the Free Syrian Army, which have gained new prominence and status because of their access to the TOWs.
Even in smaller quantities, the missiles played a major role in the insurgent advances that eventually endangered Mr. Assad’s rule. While that would seem like a welcome development for United States policy makers, in practice it presented another quandary, given that the Nusra Front was among the groups benefiting from the enhanced firepower.
It is a tactical alliance that Free Syrian Army commanders describe as an uncomfortable marriage of necessity, since they cannot operate without the consent of the larger and stronger Nusra Front. But Mr. Assad and his allies cite the arrangement as proof that there is little difference between insurgent groups, calling them all terrorists that are legitimate targets.
Either way, the newly empowered Free Syrian Army, long a marginal player as Islamist groups have risen in influence, is playing a more prominent role.
“Islamic groups have always labeled us as agents, infidels and apostates because of our dealing with the West,” Mr. Saud said. “But now they can see how effective we are because of our dealing with the West.”
Several American-aided units have come under direct fire by the Russians. But they claim to have held their territory, with the help of TOW missiles, better than their Islamist counterparts.
In a further shift of American aid to fighting groups already operating inside Syria, American cargo planes on Sunday dropped the first shipment of small-arms ammunition to Syrian Arab fighters combating the Islamic State, a military spokesman, Col. Steve Warren, said on Monday.
He declined to name the groups or their location, citing operational security, but said American officials had screened them. The likely recipient was a coalition of mixed Arab and Kurdish groups that have been battling Islamic State fighters in northeastern Syria alongside Kurdish militias, now calling itself the Syrian Arab Coalition.
Syrian government troops advanced on Monday toward a strategically important highway held by insurgents, taking several villages in the central province of Hama with the help of Russian airstrikes, according to Syrian and Russian state news media, antigovernment activists and fighters.
But the front lines remained heavily contested, according to activists, with each side making liberal use of its new weapons.