Posted on 04/12/2017 3:21:20 AM PDT by drewh
Several US engineering teams are working round the clock to build a big new air base in northern Syria after completing the expansion of another four. They are all situated in the Syrian borderland with Iraq, military forces report.
This was going on over the weekend as senators, news correspondents and commentators were outguessing each other over whether the US missile attack on the Syrian Shayrat air base, in retaliation for the Assad regime’s chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun, was a one-off or the start of a new series.
As the White House parried those questions, the Trump administration was going full steam ahead on the massive project of preparing to pull US air force units out of the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, in active American use since 2002.
Those units were in the middle of a big moving job to the five new and expanded air bases in Syria. Their hub is to be Tabqa, which is just 40km west of the Islamic State’s Syrian capital, Raqqa. The other five are Hajar airport in the Rmelan region, two small air fields serving farm transport in Qamishli, which have been converted to military us; and a fifth in the Kurdish Kobani enclave north of Aleppo near the Syrian-Turkish border. Tabqa is also becoming the main assembly-point for the joint US, Kurdish, tribal Arab force that is coming together in readiness for a major charge on Raqqa.
When the work is finished, the rising complex of air bases will enable America to deploy twice as many warplanes and helicopters in Syria as the Russians currently maintain.
The site of the Tabqa air field was captured as recently as late March by the Syrian Democratic Force (Kurdish-Arab fighters) which were flown in and dropped there by the US Air Force’s Air Mobility Command. It was quickly dubbed “Incirlik 2” or after the US command center running the Iraqi military offensive against ISIS in Mosul.
Tabqa is designed to accommodate the 2,500 US military personnel housed at Incirlik. Like the Americans, the German Bundeswehr is also on the point of quitting Incirlik and eying a number of new locations in Cyprus and Jordan. The Germans are pulling out over the crisis in their relations with Ankara. The Americans are quitting because President Donald Trump wants to chill US ties with Turkish President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan and cooperation with the Turkish army.
The five US bases in Syria are part of Trump’s three-pronged strategy which aims at a) fighting Islamist terror; b) blocking Iran’s land and air access to Syria; and c) providing the enclaves of the Syrian Kurdish-PYD-YPG with a military shield against the Turkish army.
Most of this is not correct.
OK, I with held comment before.......
what part is correct?
I would hope not, though I’m all for getting out of Incirlik.
Debka.
**in active American use since 2002**
In the 1960s, we always referred to Incirlik as *Adana*.
Probably the new bases but not the closing at Incirlik. That will be a big and very important thing when or if it ever happens.
From whom did we get permission to even build a temporary air base in Syria?
I know Erdogan has been threatening to pull the welcome mat for Incirlik for some time now and the writing may already be on the wall for that but don’t we need permission from the host country, in this case Assad, before we can do this without actually being at war with them?
Something doesn’t smell right or possibly we just don’t have the right info yet.
Air Force don’t say Adana much now, but Incirlik is right by that city.
In the 70's too...
We took an airbase from ISIS not long ago. I’m sure we’ll give it back to Syria in due time.
Fang was stationed at Incirlik back in the 1960’s. There
during a big earthquake.
German government finds eight alternatives to Incirlik military base in Turkey (DW, 3/29/17)
As for the US situation at Incirlik
Incirlik ensures safe departure of families from Turkey (AF Public Affairs, 4/1/16)
Turkey's power cutoff to Incirlik Air Base a problem for Pentagon - CNN, 7/19/16
Turkey Raises Possibility of Opening Incirlik Air Base to Russia - Military.com 8/23/16
Turkey questions U.S.-led coalition presence at Incirlik air base - Reuters, 1/5/17.
Why Turkey's referendum matters to the U.S. - USA Today, 4/11/17
Bottom line: while this might be fake news (it is Debka, after all), it is fully believable and consistent with available facts. Turkey has always been an issue as far as NATO membership and our operations in the region. You will recall that they initially were going to support operation Desert Storm -- allowing for the opening of a Northern Front -- but then, at the last moment, pulled their permission...and that was over 25 years ago, when there was a fully friendly government in power. With the current maniac, Sultan Erdogan, in power, the US government would be more than foolish to not at least have contingency plans in place to relocate operations immediately if and when needed.
OMG...We were at Cigli AFB/Izmir during that.
What an experience; having never been in an earthquake B4.
10s of thousands killed, can’t remember how many.
Well, they also used the unclassified designastion of your units as well (TUSLOG DET ____)
(From a veteran of TUSLOG Det 16, TUSLOG Det 16-2, and JUSMAT)
Yes. I forgot what the TUSLOG # was.
I sure wrote the address enough, so I should. :(
In Ankara (where, fortunately, I was near for all of my tours), most of the facilities were within the city of Ankara before they got the base at Balgat fully made. Between my first tour there and my last, more and more stuff was in the base (eventually virtually everything was on base). I know in Izmir, everything was downtown as they never really built a base there. Do you think that the case in Adana, before the base at Incirlik was fully built out?
BTW, if you haven't ever read it, you might enjoy this book:
From one of the reviews (pretty well concisely captures the book):
For anyone who was in the Air Force in Turkey during the late 60's or early 70's this is a must read. The book is full of humor and brought back a flood of memories for me. I was stationed at a detachment in Turkey in early 1970-71 with a Tumpane employee. John Tumpane had a number of hijinks that will keep you laughing through out the book.
Fake story.
You could go and discover some big deadly spider infestation on Incirlik, and it wouldn’t matter....the US military won’t leave that base.
Dang
Didn’t know we had an agreement with the government of Syria to build military bases in their country
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