Posted on 03/07/2018 8:12:38 AM PST by mac_truck
BEIRUT U.S.-allied forces in eastern Syria said Tuesday that they are withdrawing from the front lines of the war against the Islamic State in order to battle the United States NATO ally Turkey elsewhere in the country, jeopardizing the fight against the militants.
Citing disappointment with the United States, the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they were pulling fighters off the front lines in the province of Deir al-Zour, where Islamic State fighters have been putting up a fierce fight in a pocket of territory on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. The holdouts there are thought to include some of the most senior leaders of the organization who escaped the cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria last year, U.S. officials say.
The move follows an effort by the Trump administration to assuage Turkish ire over the U.S. militarys close relationship with Syrian Kurdish forces. Those forces have been instrumental in the capture of vast swaths of territory from the Islamic State over the past three years, including the militants self-styled capital, Raqqa.
According to a statement by the SDF, which has received arms and training from the United States, the fighters will relocate to the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin in northwestern Syria to help fend off a six-week-old Turkish offensive that has reportedly killed hundreds of civilians, displaced more than 10,000 people and contributed to one of the worst crises in U.S.-Turkish relations in decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Kurds let down by the U.S. ....again
Turkey is prosecuting a very protracted war with the Kurds, regardless of their attitude toward ISIS. Turkey is NOT an ally of the United States, in any way, shape, form or manner.
Unfortunately, in the geopolitical realities of the Cold War, we were forced to work with Turkey as a way of containing the Soviet Union, and in fact, maintained some forward “second strike” bases within Turkey, including nuclear weapons, particularly on Incirlik Air Base, also a fighter base and refueling center for overflights into Soviet-dominated territory. Turkey, before the rise of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2002, was a relatively secular country, but it has changed into an Islamic state, with some sort of idea or re-creating the Ottoman Empire, and they are effectively only in contention with both ISIS and Iran regarding who is to run the new World Caliphate. The objectives of President Erdogan are essentially the same as both, the difference being who is going to be Big Dog.
And for this they will blindly murder each other. Collateral damage be damned.
Time to kick Turkey out of NATO.
The sky is blue, water’s wet, the US makes fools of the Kurds.
And who crucified thousands of Christian Armanians (men, women, and children? The Kurdish mercenaries hired by the Turks. Odd isn’t it...
And they will be joining the SAA
One might ask how these ISIS managed to escape from Raqqa and Mosul?
And what role they are intended to play for the US plans to tear Eastern Syrian away from Western Syria and establish bases there??
And how any of this benefits Kurdistan if the US isn’t willing to take firm sides against Turkey
Welcome to the party pal. Get in line behind the Cubans, Vietnamese, and all the others who relied on the US for assistance and protection.
Make sure the Kurds are armed so that they ALL can continue killing each other? Might be hard to hide.
Turkey supports ISIS so this is a strange dance argument but I could see why.
Kurds are also not unified and there are some deeply antiAmerican factions which do these things for ideological reasons
Do they hope ISIS would turn on Turkey and install its kalifate there as a thorn to Turks?
Trust the WashPost to turn this into Fake News LOL!
Deir al-Zour is a big bargaining chip for the Kurds re Syria.
This news, and the presence of Syrian irregular forces in Afrin, shows that Syria and the Kurds are coming to agreement.
Which we want.
“shows that Syria and the Kurds are coming to agreement.
Which we want.”
We want an agreement, but not necessarily one where they agree to turn everything over to the Iranians (who control the “Syrian” irregular forces in Afrin - actually Shi’ite mercenaries paid by Iran).
When the Russians withdrew their air defense and invited the Turks to invade, this were likely results they desired - drive a wedge into US alliances in Syria, and draw Kurdish forces away from the valuable oil fields they occupy East of Deir ez Zour.
So what else is new?
It’s well past time to recognize Kurdistan and arm the Kurds directly and heavily. They’re one of the few allies we have in the region.
Actually its well past time for the United States to finish their mission of eliminating ISIS in Syria and go home.
It is unacceptable that ISIS senior leadership is being given an avenue of escape from an area under US/SDF control east of the Euphrates.
Clearly the United States military is engaged in something in Syria other than the mission given to them by the President.
ISIS is a clear and present danger to the civilized world and needs to be eliminated with extreme prejudice.
Not at all.
Some YPG fighters are goung to Afrin. We are calling it an operational pause.
They will likely be back soon as I don’t think Afrin can hold.
No one ever expected the Kurds to battle Iran. They’ve been well treated by Iran. That’s as much a pipedream as a Kurdish nation.
Countering Iran’s influence in Syria is Russia and ...China. The moneyman who wants peace so he can make his bucks.
Iran’s road to Lebanon is of no use to China and subject to Israeli, SA and Jordanian attack.
Syria is quite likely “a bridge too far” for Iran.
“No one ever expected the Kurds to battle Iran.”
The YPG has repeatedly been engaged in combat with Iranian commanded militias, as well as Russian Mercenaries and Syrian Arab Army units. They compete of the the control of land. US air and artillery support have kept large scale offensives at bay.
“Countering Irans influence in Syria is Russia”
Russia and Iran are allies in Syria. Russia provides air support to Iranian commanded militias on the ground, in a combined combat team. They have done so for years. Russia has been militarily supporting the expansion of Iran’s influence in Syria.
“Syria is quite likely a bridge too far for Iran.”
Well, they are there now. They have captured and held the border crossing town of al Bukamal, and have held it for months now. They have been able to convoy military materiel directly from Iran to Lebanon and the Israeli border - a long sought strategic goal. They are now massing missiles near the Israeli border, and building missile production facilities in Lebanon. War with Israel seems likely this year.
Terms of surrender of Kurds are too high, from what I have been told. The control of the National Militia in Syria my be under Iranians, but I saw no apparent Iranians in photos of troops. Most were from Aleppo and MMC from Manbij.
If Turk air strikes could be neutralized by SAMS, Kurds would whip the FSA decisively. Without that, it is bad situation.
Our military wants no part in betraying such good allies as the Syrian Kurds clearly are. They also know that Turkey is a terrorist state, in spite of NATO membership. That membership is totally incompatible with Turkey under Erdogan.
“I saw no apparent Iranians in photos of troops. Most were from Aleppo and MMC from Manbij”
Then they were probably photos from the Kurdish units.
There are very few Iranians in the Iranian-controlled militias anyway - overwhelmingly Lebanese Hizbollah, Afghan, Pakistani and Syrian mercenaries.
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