Syrians Share What They Have Learned About Russian Military Tactics

Syrians have spoken out about their experiences with Russian military tactics and suggested there are a lot of similarities with the country's invasion of Ukraine.

Conflict in Syria has been ongoing for 11 years, with Russian troops getting involved in 2015 following an official request from the Syrian government for military aid.

Russian fighters in the country are claimed by the military to only target 'terrorists', though they have also been accused of killing mainstream rebels and civilians in the country.

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Ismail Al Abdullah, a rescue worker with the White Helmets organisation, said he 'wouldn’t wish Russian aggression on any person or anyplace in the world' as he described it as 'bloody' and 'brutal', saying: "It aims to break your will to live, and it never stops."

Through his own experiences living in opposition-held northern Syria, Al Abdullah has become used to scanning the sky and avoiding open roads and crowds, as well as knowing never to trust a Russian cease-fire.

Al Abdullah compared the conflict in Syria to the situation that has been unfolding in Ukraine over the last few weeks, claiming Russians are 'trying to besiege Kyiv in the same manner they besieged Aleppo, and Homs'. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, he described it as 'frustrating' to see the situation 'happening all over again'.

This month, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of committing a war crime by carrying out a strike on a maternity and children's hospital in the city of Mariupol.

Al Abdullah indicated the bombing was in line with 'Russia's strategy', claiming it is 'always to target hospitals, public facilities, rescue workers, anything that gives life or sustainability for civilians.'

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"Their true aim is to kill and destroy the will of the people and make them flee their homes," he added. Al Abdullah has himself been displaced three times by the war in Syria.

Another tactic said to be noted by Syrians is that known as 'double-tap' bombing, which involves warplanes bombing a site before waiting for crowds to gather and rescue teams to arrive, at which point they will circle back a second time.

Ibrahim Hamidi, a Syrian journalist and senior diplomatic editor for Syrian affairs at the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, has told The Independent he is in 'no doubt' the Russian intervention in Ukraine is an 'accumulation of a series of Russian military interventions in Georgia in 2008, Crimea in 2014 and Syria in 2015.'

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency there are 6.6 million Syrian refugees worldwide.

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