Did Nohed participate in anything in Syria after that disaster? They seem to have withdrew to a supporting role.
Should be a wakeup call. If I recall 4 Nohed members were martyred
NOHED and other SOF elements on an individual role maybe as volunteers or as part of Quds force were in the battle of Aleppo.
But from a official deployment or BTG standpoint they left the theater altogether with the news of Al Eis hitting Iranian public.
To me it was possibly military politics, IRGC was having a lot of recent success under the Solemani and Russia alliance and I Remember one day NOHED and Artesh just announce they are officially joining the war. I thought it was bizarre at the time when iran was trying to portray its role in Syria to advisor level. Now you have Artesh basically saying Iran for the first time in 30 years is entering foreign lands to fight.
Anyway after the debacle at Al Eis, they left and never heard from Artesh again (as a whole).
Again who knows the reason for their deployment. Iran went painstakingly lengths to say it was there as advisor role to prevent other countries from deploying their own forces. Or else If there was any branch of military that Iran wanted inside Syria it would have been IRIAF for years to help with air support.
So in the end was it military branch rivalry (IRGC vs Artesh) or was that supposed to be the start of Artesh rotation in the war to gain experience and prestige? Not sure but whatever it was, it ended quickly.
This is what NATO-affiliated sources may have claimed but I've not seen concrete evidence.
Were there any leaks of classified documents or conversations taking place in the Russian high command?
NOHED was tasked with slowing down and pushing back a force about ten times superior in numbers.
Not a disaster. Here's what happened:
A normal occurrence in a war. NOHED did a great job in that battle, will be used in the same manner in future conflicts hopefully.
You are trying to tell someone who followed the Syrian war for years with some very good OSINT Syrian or Syrian allied sources....by referencing the same post over and over that tries to justify the ineptitude. It’s hilarious.
Al Eis was a battle front town/village (before the war for Aleppo). It kept switching back and forth between rebels and SAA/HZ/Iraqi miltias. HZ would take it then SAA and NDF would lose it. Rinse/repeat
NOHED went into a flashpoint town (its first experience) without UAV support or CAS or artillery support. They quickly took the town, but anyone who follows that battle and others during the war knows that sometimes small towns were left empty in order to trap the enemy.
Morek near Idlib province was famous for this type of warfare. Might have changed hands 10+ times. Most of the villages were demolished as well so holding them is hard when there is not fortifications left from constant bombardment.
So then they walk into the open trap and start getting artillery shelled and ambushed. Well if you had armed Shahed above your head he would have detected the ambush. After all the so called rebels drive Toyota trucks they aren’t ghosts.
Anyway an armed drone could have neutralized a decent amount of artillery and forces or at least provided exact coordinates and allowed your counter artillery to strike back and hold the ambush back. Also could have provided Russian air support to hit the outskirts. Many many options here. We see videos of such tactics in Ukraine right now from both sides.
That’s how a SOF operations should operate given the more “capable” tools and experience it has compared to a regular grunt unit. If a normal artesh or volunteer unit fell into such a trap and did what Nohed then it would be understandable. It was not understandable for this unit to act this way. That’s why NOHED wasn’t heard of again in the war. Many people were confused by the whole operation they planned.
