Syrian Civil War, 1 December

The big news is that government forces regrouped and retook Hama from the rebels. The rebels had only a small force in the town and withdrew without serious fighting when government forces approached, so it was not much of a battle, but this shows that Assad regime forces have recovered some of their organization and nerve. The rebels have continued to advance in other areas but nothing like the blitzkrieg of the previous few days.

HTS, the Turkish-backed, Sunni Muslim group leading the offensive, has seized land from Kurdish groups and its soldiers have looted Kurdish homes. Doesn't bode well for unity among anti-regime forces. More here.

A claim about captured equipment: "The amount of captured Assad regime weapons, ammunition, tanks, IFVs, and trucks is sufficient to rearm an entire rebel army." More pictures here from Special Kherson Cat, one of the most reliable Ukrainian bloggers. The captured stuff includes a couple of aircraft, a helicopter, and Pantsir SAM systems.

Russia has sacked the commander of their forces in Syria and replaced him with one of their top generals. Ukrainian intelligence reports that Russian forces in Syria have taken serious losses, but nobody else has confirmed this. Putin promised aid to Syria but nobody has yet reported on Russian forces or equipment arriving.

As I was saying about the anti-Assad, anti-Putin community, who believe all the evil in the world is run from Moscow: 

What’s happening in Ukraine, Georgia, Syria all shows we need a global plan to counter Russia and its “allies.”

More on the political background from Ruth Sherlock, notes that in recent weeks Israel has been bombing Iran-backed militias in Syria.

And this, from Oz Katerji: 

Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow and anybody who says so is lying. The truth is nobody, not even the most analytical minds with the best contacts, foresaw any of this, and the experts are sitting around as dumbfounded as you are, hitting refresh on their Telegram feeds just like you are. There are two types of Syria analyst right now, the type saying “man I have no idea what’s going on”, and liars. You aren’t going to find any answers.