Posted on 12/03/2014 2:56:59 AM PST by Timber Rattler
Whether they're directly cooperating or just "deconflicting," the US air force is operating alongside the Syrian and the Iranian air forces over Iraq and Syria.
On Monday, an unnamed US defense official told the Huffington Post that the US was aware that the Iranian Air Force was carrying out air strikes against ISIS targets in eastern Iraq.
"We are aware of that. I wouldn't say we're necessarily concerned with it — we kind of have our eyes on it," the official told the Huffington Post. The official noted that the Iranian strikes occurred close to the Iran-Iraq border, away from where the US coalition has normally carried out airstrikes.
(snip)
In Syria the US and the government of President Bashar al-Assad have even reached an uncomfortable tacit alliance. Within the past week both Damascus and Washington have carried out independent air strikes against the Syrian city of Raqqa, ISIS's de facto capital.
“What do you expect any sane person to think here? One day American airplanes and the next Bashar’s, how do they not crash or shoot each other? It is simple, they call each other and say today is my turn to kill the people of Raqqa, please don’t bother me, it will be yours tomorrow,” a Syrian resident of Raqqa told Syrian citizen journalist Edward Dark.
(snip)
“This is all quite awkward for Washington,” Imad Salamey, a professor of international relations at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, told The Washington Post. “It definitely seems like the Syrian regime has craftily manipulated the coalition agenda to help its own agenda.”
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
It can’t be too awkward, Barry gets bent over by our enemies all the time. He must think it’s pretty comfortable by now.
It’s not awkward. It’s deliberate. We went over there to help the bad guys. We just pretended that we weren’t.
“What do you expect any sane person to think here? One day American airplanes and the next Bashar’s, how do they not crash or shoot each other? It is simple, they call each other and say today is my turn to kill the people of Raqqa, please don’t bother me, it will be yours tomorrow,” a Syrian resident of Raqqa told Syrian citizen journalist Edward Dark.
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