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Sunday, September 16, 2012

Attrition

As I've noted before, the Syrians just aren't very good counter-insurgents. Strategypage writes:

The fighting intensifies. About 6,000 soldiers and armed rebels have been killed in 20 months of violence, each side suffering about the same number of casualties. Most of the rebels are killed by artillery and air strikes, while most of the military casualties are from ambushes, mines and planted bombs. Over 25,000 civilians have died so far, and nearly 30,000 arrested.

The Syrian army has a 1:1 kill ratio? That doesn't even count desertions.

The Syrian army will not hold up under this intensity of fighting and attrition.

And the fighting is intensifying, with recent months having over 3,000 dead a month.