“The Syrian Army, backed by Russia, has obviously turned the table on the terrorists, and this is something even our sworn enemies can’t deny. Less than 15 percent of Syrian territory is now controlled by anti-government forces,” Viktor Baranets said.
He added, however, that it could take the Syrian Army and Russia’s Aerospace Forces years to claw these 15 percent back because there are new forces emerging in Syria with the help of the United States, which has forked over a hefty $2 billion to rearm the so-called Syrian Free Army.
Russian warplanes have flown over 30,000 sorties since the start of their mission in Syria, destroying more than 96,000 terrorist installations.
These include 8,332 command posts, 17,194 strongpoints, 53,707 militant concentrations, 970 training camps, 6,769 arms and ammunition depots, 212 oilfields, 184 oil refineries and thousands of other targets.
“By the time our Aerospace Forces started pounding the terrorists in Syria, the Americans had already been bombing them for two years with more than 6,000 sorties flown. As a result, more than half of the country’s territory was under Daesh control. The more the Americans bombed Daesh, al-Nusra Front and others, the more territories were falling under the militants’ control. Now it’s the other way round,” Baranets said.
The Euphrates River Valley now remains the only large chunk of Syrian land still under Daesh control, and the advancing forces of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) have already liberated parts of it.
The ongoing war in Syria has left an estimated 220,000 dead and displaced some 12 million, many of them flooding surrounding nations, as well as Europe, making it the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, according to the United Nations.
