Thomas Wictor

I always tell you: Trust only me. My specialized knowledge can easily be yours. Weapons and tactics always tell the truth. Words, videos, photos, and captions can lie.

Knowledge of maneuver

The video below was allegedly put out by the Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki (Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement), a member of the Fatah Halab (Aleppo Conquest) rebel joint-operations room. This is said to be a mass retreat of Assad’s forces from Handarat Camp, Aleppo, “under the blows of the mujahedin.”

Baloney. That is a textbook assault by Arab League professional strategic special operators. It’s clear that the Arab League published this video, so I’ll tell you a few things about it. Even though the Arab League obviously wants the world to see their capabilities, I won’t discuss a few specific tactics.

First, the men at the beginning are engaging in “fire and maneuver.” While some troops lay down a wall of bullets, others advance. These are athletes, running flat-out. They’re young warriors at their peak of physical fitness.

Notice how the cameraman doesn’t film what’s happening to the right? That’s because he’s a strategic special operator pretending to be a rebel. It’s not yet time for him to pan the camera to the right. The soldier next to him fires to cover the advance of the running men. You can see the puffs of smoke.

Then a soldier who was firing from a prone position gets up and joins the other troops.

You’re not seeing a retreat; you’re seeing a very aggressive assault.

Knowledge of weapons

At 0:11 in the video, someone opens up with a Central Wisconsin Armory (CWA) Dragon M-50 machine gun. The sound is unmistakable.

CWA sells the Dragon M-50 to one customer in the Middle East, but the buyer’s identity is classified.

Neither Syrian rebels nor Assad’s allies would be using a Dragon M-50. What you’re hearing is strategic special forces covering the advance of their colleagues. From 0:32 to 0:50, the cameraman scrupulously avoids filming what’s happening off screen to the right.

Then we get to see why.

Knowledge of assault

This was a two-pronged attack. Men used fire and maneuver to advance in the open, at least two machine gunners—probably in light armored vehicles—fired at the enemy off screen to the right, and nearly 100 men materialized and went through two breaches in the rock wall.

One of the breaches was created with a shoulder-fired rocket.

The red arrow below shows where the main body of the assault force appeared.

These men launched their assault behind the enemy front line. Arab League strategic special operators bypass all enemy defenses and head right to the rear area, where the commanders are. Virtually every land force uses “defense in depth,” also called “elastic defense.”

If someone attacks, you pull back your center and fall on the assault troops from the sides.

Therefore Arab League strategic special operators attack from behind the enemy’s front line, preventing him from using elastic defense. The red arrow below is where most of the assault troops entered the battlefield; the green arrow points toward the enemy front line.

Several machine gunners are firing to the right, into the backs of the enemy. This was a surprise attack.

Bullets hit this rock at 1:15. The enemy managed to get off a few rounds.

However, despite the volume of fire that you hear, not a single running soldier is hit. That’s because almost all the shooting is being done by the men covering the advance of the assault troops.

Knowledge of uniforms and equipment

Most of the men wear balaclavas and the heaviest body armor I’ve ever seen.

That armor is specifically designed to get a man across “beaten ground”—areas filled with flying projectiles. Surprise, speed, massive covering fire, and heavy armor allow for this unbelievably audacious assault in the middle of the enemy’s position.

These troops have equipment not available to either the rebels or Assad’s forces.

An unidentified launcher.

Both men also carry rifles. The launchers are very reflective, as if covered with extremely glossy paint.

A strange helmet, worn by a man with a white brassard on his upper left arm.

The helmet almost certainly has a screen that shows him where all his troops and the enemy are. It’s the next generation of the IDF Tzayad Digital Land Army, a command, control, and communications (C3) system. He’s leading the assault.

A joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) with a computer-radio kneels down to communicate with close-air support (CAS) overhead.

He wouldn’t do that if the enemy were at his heels. There are also two other men on the battlefield who prove that the assault troops had air cover. I won’t describe them.

This isn’t a bird below. It traveled that distance in 1/30th of a second.

It’s a nanodrone, a Flying Black Box of Death.

No idea what the large weapon below is. A launcher? A heavy machine gun?

The soldier is a huge, powerful man.

Another bullet strike.

Finally a wounded man, being helped by another.

It appears that three men were injured. That’s astonishing, given that this was a surprise attack behind enemy lines.

Knowledge of special effects

The area marked by the red line below is computer generated imagery (CGI).

It was put into the video in order to conceal the method by which the Arab League strategic special operators carried out their assault.

Below is a CGI wall. There’s no doubt. Look at it.

All the CGI was used to hide multiple tactics.

Every time you hear a shot, the video defocuses.

It’s dramatic, but they added it in post-production.

The broken edges of wall are CGI.

This wall is moving in tandem with the camera.

Fake walls make it appear as though the “rebels” were crouched in buildings, out of sight.

And the logo of Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki kept turning into a red flag for just one frame at a time.

A red flag tells the people of Aleppo that their liberation is approaching.

Knowledge of audiences

This video was made for Assad, the Iranian mullahs, Iranian proxies, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the other Islamists fighting in Syria. You won’t see any Arab League or allied flags in Syria, but let’s review.

At least 100 extremely heavily armed strategic special operators suddenly appeared behind enemy lines and raced toward the rear area to kill commanders and destroy supply depots and communications systems. It took two minutes and thirty seconds. The attackers suffered three casualties.

Not one person on social media actually comprehends what he or she saw.

We live in an era in which all you have to do to make someone believe something is to simply say it.

But ask anybody who served in the infantry. Is that a retreat or an assault? They’ll tell you that men retreating in panic don’t keep in physical contact.

But special forces communicate by touch during assaults.

Also, soldiers don’t retreat in single file.

And men fleeing in panic don’t charge the enemy.

If you’re running away, why burden yourself with a rifle, a launcher, and a case of rockets in your left hand?

Because you’re not running away. You’re calmly advancing on a target with enough firepower to completely destroy it.

The video shows a lightning-fast, orderly, disciplined assault that achieved its goal in only minutes. And that was just with infantry. What do you think will happen when armor, artillery, and aircraft are added?

A message has been sent. Let’s hope the right people are listening.

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