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.
Bump
Thanks for the book. I’ll look it up.
IIRC, Ankara was more *hard-lined* toward Americans. Airmen said they were spit upon, in Ankara. Lots of student protests; Young Turks graduated from university and there were no jobs for them ...they preferred to stay at home, than go to Germany for a job. No such thing in Izmir-area; we lived on the economy, in a middle-class Turkish neighborhood; Our Turkish neighbors were lovely people.
I could have written a book too, on all the adventures we had.
Hmmm. Interesting as a Tech Control Operator (Army 32D, 31S primary)) in Tehran 72-74, our HF link was with Ankara but I remember the references to comms traffic to Incirlik and not Adana.
I can understand that during the 70s. By the 80s, they loved us.
Also spent time doing staff augmentation at the missile site in Alemdag. Lived on the economy in the Asian side of Istanbul. Also had a great time there.
I do feel sorry for folks in the Eastern part of the country (Malatya, Diyarbakir, even Adana). Could well imagine that life there would be a lot more challenging...but, if John Tulane is to be believed, it was still fully possible to have a blast...
I’ve seen this reported other places.
To say Debka is mostly incorrect is wholly correct.
FWIW, just checked Turkish language media. The two bugout stories I could find were sourced back to Debka and some unnamed Israeli media outlet.
It’s DEBKA. It’s garbage.
I agree!
Kurds took the airbase, I believe looks like a proxy war to get Iran out of there..
Ain’t ‘buyin just yet, but a good thing if true.
It is speculation whether we will pull out of Incirlik or not (and Debka is notoriously suspect in its speculation), but we are building up airfields in the Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria.
Rmelian, near the Iraqi and Turkish borders in the extreme NE was the first reported. The existing airfield near Kobane has had its runway extended, so it can handle our largest planes. Recently captured Tabqa Airbase is close to Raqqa, and will provide excellent support to the Raqqa offensive. Tabqa is a nice big defensible piece of land, with a good bit of development already done. You really could make a big base out of it.
The Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq is also talking more seriously about independence from Iraq, and could really benefit from American Security guarantees - so they might offer a location to develop as well.
Everybody needs to have an alternative to Incirlik, if Erdogan goes full Caliph, after this Sunday’s referendum in Turkey. He is not a reliable ally.
“American use since 2002” Incirlik, was used by Special Forces during the first Gulf War and for Operation Northern Watch in the 1990’s. This article is full of $h1t.
No, it’s part of the siege of Raqqa.
True all.
Incorrect on Incirlik which was only recently reoccupied. As for the other information:
Mar 6, 2016 |U.S. builds two air bases in Kurdish-controlled north Syria: Kurdish report;
The United States has nearly finished setting up an air base in Kurdish-controlled northern Syria and was proceeding with the construction of a second base for dual military and civilian use, a Kurdish website said on Sunday.
A spokesman for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said, however, the United States was not taking control of any airfields in Syria.
The Erbil-based news website BasNews, quoting a military source in the Kurdish-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), said most of the work on a runway in the oil town of Rmeilan in Hasaka was complete while a new air base southeast of Kobani, straddling the Turkish border, was being constructed.
I’m incorrect on what about Incirlik? I have colleagues there now, and some who have recently left there. Two of them were there during the coup. The base was never closed and there is no closing going on. So what are you talking about? It is true that dependents have left. It is not true that airmen or other service members have left, and without going in to details I will tell you for a fact that missions supporting American interests are ongoing from that Air Base.
Yes. Thousands killed. I can’t remember how many either.
Husband was camping on a riverside. He said the land
just looked like a huge giant was rolling over underground;
the trees going in all different directions. Was worried
sick; communications were delayed.
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