A Reddit-user suggested ( archived) the numbers prior to the ordinal number refers to the Battalion or even Company level. Listed are the 2nd Armoured Brigade (First Army), the 16th Mechanised Brigade (Second Army) in Diyarbakır, the 5th Armoured Brigade (First Army) based in Gaziantep, the 39th Mechanised Brigade (Second Army) in İskenderun, and the 20th Armoured Brigade (Second Army) in Şanlıurfa. The ‘unit’ column should thus correspond to the number plate. The following two digits then refer to the military unit within that army. The sheet only lists plates starting with either ‘1’ or ‘2’, referring to the Turkish Land Forces’ First and Second Army. The first digit of those military plates are reserved for the part of the military, such as the Navy or the Gendarmerie. Turkish vehicle registration plates for military vehicles have a distinct appearance, unlike other number plates: six black numerals on a white rectangular plate. The sheet lists the plate numbers of the vehicles. This investigation aims to authenticate the claims on the sheet, and does so by using open sources: openly available sources to anyone with an Internet connection, as well as satellite imagery obtained via DigitalGlobe.Īn English translation of the alleged leaked sheet of Turkish military vehicle losses in Syria. The sheet includes columns for the number plate, the military unit, a rough location, and a comments section, mostly referring what part of the vehicle was damaged by what kind of weapon. No less than eleven tanks, three infantry (mobility) fighting vehicles, and an armoured personnel carrier are on the list. A sheet listing Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) vehicles which are damaged, hit, or of which the status is unknown, near al-Bab started making rounds on news websites and social media on December 23, 2016. Within four months, over 2,000 square kilometres were captured from so-called Islamic State (IS) and Kurdish factions, and the forces are entering the city of al-Bab at the time of writing.īut the operation comes at a cost, especially since Turkey started an offensive on the same city of al-Bab, around 40 kilometres east of Aleppo. The Turkish military operation dubbed ‘Euphrates Shield’ (ES) began on August 24, 2016, aiming to clear an area of 5,000 square kilometres of Syrian territory, and is conducted jointly with Syrian rebel factions of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
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