MAP OF MILITARY INFLUENCE December 2016
Jan 03, 2017 2171

MAP OF MILITARY INFLUENCE December 2016

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Jusoor for Studies issued the military influence map for December  2016, which showed that the ratio of total and effective controlling of areas by various fighting parties were different from the ratio in the map of November  2016.

Through issuing this map monthly, the center seeks for highlighting the field developments in the Syrian scene and its effects on the total and effective controlling ratio in whole Syrian lands and in each province, separately, analyze the content of this map, clarify the implications politically and reading the results in a way linking the fighters to the politicians.

The most prominent development during the last month in 2016 was the control of Assad forces and foreign militias on the eastern part of Aleppo after a military crackdown involving heavily both the regime aviation and Russian aviation.
the armed opposition controlled eastern Aleppo since July 2012, and now Aleppo is out control of opposition to be replaced by various forces such as: Russian forces represented by military police battalion, Demining teams, and militias composed of Afghan, Iraqi, and Lebanese fighters, the regime army and the Kurdish units to protect people.

In Wadi Barada, North West countryside of Damascus, the forces of regime supported by Hezbollah forces continued the violations of ceasefire agreement which Turkish and Russian parties signed after the armed opposition exit from Aleppo, despite the international calls to commitment the truce, the armed opposition Repelled the repeated attacks of regime, and are still fighting until now within a bad weather conditions and lack of food and humanitarian needs.

In the meantime, operation Euphrates Shield is trying to control the strategic city of Al-Bab in eastern countryside of Aleppo to liberate it from ISIL, and the battles there exchanged control between the parties.

Democratic Forces of Syria which includes the Kurdish protection people's Units controlled two villages in the western countryside of Raqqa north east of Syria, and are preparing for the next phase of the campaign (anger of Euphrates) aimed to surround ISIL around Raqqa.
Although the impacts of the armed oppositions' loss for the entire city of Aleppo on the ratio of total and effective control stayed limited, but the control of regime forces on the city is considered the great qualitative breakthrough since the beginning of the military conflict in Syria, to start the new year 2017 with a new phase called (post-Aleppo).