via Almasdarnews.
Following the complete capitulation of rebel forces in Syria’s eastern Qalamoun region, the Syrian Army has come into possession of an entire brigade worth of main battle tanks and other armored vehicles.Story and vid here.
Virtually all of the captured armor comes from the Brigade 559 base which was taken over by militant groups in 2014.
Unfortunately for the rebels, they simply did not have enough men and technical specialists to maintain anymore than a fraction of the entire mechanized loot in frontline service at any one period in time.Much of the armor was hidden in caves and makeshift storage sights within the mountains of eastern Qalamoun.In line with the surrender deal for eastern Qalamoun, over fifty armored vehicles – mostly T-55, T-62 and T-72 main battle tanks but also including support vehicles like Shilkas – have now been returned to Syrian government forces; even more amazingly, this includes plenty of spare parts and ammunition, which was also preserved.
When the after action of this war is written I hope more than a few chapters are devoted to the idea of nation state forces throwing down their weapons and fleeing in the face of determined terrorist forces.
The Iraqis and Syrians basically armed the people they were fighting in the early stages of these conflicts.
By rights we should be looking at two new radical Islamic states ... instead we have this never ending quagmire.
But back on task.
It would be nice if the Pentagon used the UN convention of "duty to protect" and applied that to terrorists who capture nation state military equipment.
Part of our "duty to protect" going into the future would be to automatically launch strikes to destroy tanks, APC/IFVs, heavy trucks etc...during economic/civil turmoil in certain countries.
Not playing world police, just saying if terrorists/rebels gain weapons that can influence a battlefield and can used against us then we're gonna zap it first.
