Ahmad al-Ahmad, Baladi News, Aleppo
The battel of breaking the siege of Aleppo has been launched on Sunday, which Jaish al-Fatah initiated by bombing a number of booby-trapped cars, at the beginning of a battel in which the rebels stormed in the regime's strongholds in more than one area within a sector that extends about 20 km south and southwest of Aleppo, where the rebels seized control of a group of important areas affiliated to the regime forces, the most important of which were the strategic al-Hikmah school, Tellet Moatah, Tellet Ouhud, Moaskar al-Banat, and several other areas where regime forces used to station, after bombing two booby-trapped cars, then followed by violent clashes in the region, which led to the death of dozens of regime forces' members amidst the continuation of clashes on different axes in the region.
All the facts on this front indicate that regime forces are rapidly collapsing before the strikes of Jaish al-Fatah alongside the frontline which the rebels have opened in an unprecedented area that is considered one of the regime's most powerful and fortified regions.
"Passive Defense"
One of the main surprises of this battle is the rapid and systematic use of one of the most important modes of passive defense against the aircrafts that support the regime, whether its or the Russians, as the civilians burned the tyres alongside the countryside's areas close to the battlefield, starting from al-Atareb, reaching the neighborhood of al-Rashideen along with the besieged neighborhoods within the city of Aleppo such as al-Katirji, in support for the rebels and in a repetition to a similar tactic they used during the battels of liberating the regiment 46 and the city of al-Atareb, where a huge smoke cloud was formed alongside the southern countryside of Aleppo, which had a significant role in neutralizing the role of warplanes during the early hours of the battel.
The civilians responded to the appeals launched from the mosques' minarets, urging to support the rebels and relieve them by burning tires. According to some field sources and observatories, several warplanes returned to their airbases after failing to see their targets, which have contributed a lot in the initial progress made by the rebels during the first stage of the battle, and protected the civilians from many massacres.
How much this tactic affected Putin and Assad's warplanes?
Camouflaging with smoke is one of the oldest known forms of camouflage, which is capable of significantly reducing the ability of the pilots to see targets and firing at them, especially for older aircrafts such as the regime's, which do not have any advanced visual equipment, and in case of providing enough smoke, it will stop the planes almost entirely.
As for the Russian aircrafts, the visual equipment they use will be significantly affected, especially that they are forced to shoot from high altitudes and so their efficiency will decrease a lot, especially helicopters which will not be able to work at all, MI-24 to be precise.
A field commander talked to Baladi News about: "The necessity of making such fires inside the civilian areas and concentrating on the frontlines to prevent the regime and Russia from using attacking helicopters, which are expected to be used heavily by the Russians in their attempt to support Assad in repelling the attack".
The commander went on saying: "Generally, the smoke will help in reducing the capability of aircrafts in direct bombardment against the rebels and civilians alike, forcing the Russian warplanes to shoot according to coordinates with no visual contact with the targets, which will make them shoot at previously known targets such as the centers already controlled or to be controlled by the rebels. This means that rebels are better not to station in such areas, but rather spread around them to avoid the losses in such situations".