Peto exaggerates loy advance as usual. They have only fire control of the highway
No Khalidiya has also been captured and that is essentially cutting off the highway and Peto has been one of the more reliable sources in the war as of late.
The corridor lost by Assadists contains 3 large cities: Idlib, Ariha, Jisr and many villages.
On the other hand Qalamoun region is empty desert.
Except the corridor that the goverment lost was of little strategic importance to them. It was purely symbolic. Neither it blocked any border crossings or gave them any staging points. It was always a case of when they would lose and not if they would lose it. Also Ariha and Jisr werent "big cities". They were towns with population in 25K-30K range while Idlib was big city of 150,000.
On the other hand the Qalamoun was a vital logistical point for the rebels into Syria from Arsal and that is now cut off. The last remaining town of Zabadani also has been forced into a truce. And no, it wasnt "empty desert either". A lot of towns were there. Not to mention the recent losses in Rif latakia and Rif aleppo.
Anyway not to divert from my original point, the "land loss" percentage you initially posted is highly misleading since the bulk of that loss is un-inhabitable and sparsely populated desert areas in Homs and Damascus.
Just as its your opinion, my opinion and one that is much more feasible is that the urban, middle class sunnis who have accustomed to a certain way of life are not comfortable with the wahhabis who dominate the opposition and also there is bit of class warfare here where the opposition is primarily rural, conservative poor along with foreign jhadis.
Assad for now has the support of a good number of sunnis, alawites, shias , druze and christians. That is the fact.
Why he has that support it depends on each one and its subjective
. That along with the fact the Kurds are acting a third entity with their own fight with the wahhabi opposition makes his position stronger.
In Syria hardly 50 K Alawites and Druze are fighting for Assad willingly. Thats about it. There are additional 150 K Christians and Sunnis and even Aalwis and Druze who are drafted to army and NDF by force and fear, therefore have zero motivation and terrible fighters.
Rebels on the other hand have some 150 K force which is all volunteer. Thats why despite total lack of weapons they were chasing Assadists in 2012.
Wow 500. You must someday look up the difference between opinion and facts. Don't ever confuse between the two. Almost every single word you just uttered is your opinion/bias which is unprovable/unverifiable and there is no point in even trying to counter them.
In 2012 FSA had virtually no support. Yet they kicked Assad butt.
Yeah no. This is an article in pro-rebel Hurriyet from September 2012 and it already documents how the FSA is unravelling and the jihadis are increasingly leading the fight. And it was in 2012 that Turkey started supporting the rebels with military support and hosting them.
Syrian rebels: Too fragmented, unruly - MIDEAST
FTA
The Jihadists, Islamists, pro-al-Qaida and secular groups that are not under the control of the FSA and which are fighting in different areas of Syria against the Syrian regime forces prove how fragmented and disorganized the Syrian rebel groups were in Syria
The most prominent rebel group, the “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) – who listed its main base as in the southern Turkish city of Hatay on its website – is the best connected with the SNC.
SNC Executive Committee member Semir Nashar has just met three different leaders from three different rebel groups fighting in Aleppo where heavy clashes have been going on between the rebels and regime forces for one month.
“Nashar has met one rebel from Jabhat al-Nusra which is al-Qaida in Syria,
The SNC member said mainly Chechens, Libyans and a few Afghans were fighting on the fronts in Syria. “Most of them fight in Syria to be martyrs,” he added.
In 2012, not only did the FSA had foreign support - they were not even based in Syria - they were also unruly and not capable of putting up a fight . Additional point a lot of foreign wahhabis fresh from the libian war and from caucuses had invaded syria at that point and Nusra was active then. It was only after the opposition took in the foreigners did the government took in Hezbollah and much later the first Iraqi militia , Liwa Abu fadl al Abbas in damascus to protect the sayyida zeinab shrine which was under attack by wahhabis.
Fact remains if the opposition had not received any foreign support, the rebellion would have been crushed by the government.