With Kurdish YPG forces taking part in the battle, US troops recently airlifted into the area west of the ISIS capital city of Raqqa captured a Syrian military airport near the city of Tabqa, a site which had been held by ISIS forces for some time.
The airport’s capture is being presented as part of the ongoing effort by the US and YPG to surround Raqqa before invading the city. Kurdish forces surround the city’s north, and now have some presence in the northeast and northwest, though the city still appears far from totally surrounded.
The escalation of US airstrikes in the area west of the ccity has led to an exodus of civilians from Tabqa, with hundreds of families trying to get out of the city in anticipation of further US strikes and further fighting, as well as major concerns about the Tabqa Dam.
The state of the hydroelectric dam, nearly 50 years old, is like a lot of dams in the region in serious doubt, and ISIS has warned that they think the dam faces imminent collapse because of rising water levels. US-backed Kurdish forces control the primary emergency spillway.
Going to turn it over to the Russians? Syrian government (as still recognized by the UN). Did I miss the declaration of war on Syria? when was that vote held?
U.S. Shadow Government votes and declarations are none of your business or mine; we just pay the price, and a far lighter one than the Syrians.
In any case, everyone seems to assume the U.S. will invade Raqqa city after surrounding it. They don’t have to, and choosing not to on whatever pretext really screws the Syrian-Russian alliance. The use of air-mobile forces is a changeup the IS seems ill-prepared to counter. Its just speculation, but the scenario is there.
Unlike Iraqi Shia cannon fodder, the U.S. has no incentive to bleed off Syrian Kurds in city warfare. Kurds are somewhat reliable allies and all they have left in Syria, having alienated their traditional Sunni base and never having got along with Shia.
With Raqqa surrounded by U.S.-SDF forces, the Syrian-Russian alliance can’t go in on their own and finish the war. Furthermore, control over Raqqa Governate gives control over the critical waters of Lake Assad and the central-Syrian stretch of the Euphrates river, a very strong negotiating position against Syria-Russia overall and influential on Iraq.
All under the nose of the Russian no-fly zone, exploiting what little trust Trump earns with the Russians to cooperate and coordinate.
There’s little Syria can do about this possibility either. The Wiki has a good map of the Syrian civil war, and following it over time with the news imparts a sense of Syrian allied operational tempo. They’ve plateaued again, barely able to hold onto new gains in Aleppo and Palmyra.
Quickly establishing a secure front of their own into Raqqa city may not be possible for Syria-Russia-Hezbollah without jeopardizing what they hold. More or less on-schedule a massive attack was carried out by DAESH in the Damascus cauldron. Simultaneously, Israel not only makes air raids with what appear to be F-16 drones, they are threatening to invade south Syria. Such pressures force Syria-Russia to hold more forces in defensive reserve rather than committed to attack.
Much depends on how well the IS cooperates with this arrangement; if they still think of themselves as other than American dogs they will resist being encircled by just the U.S./SDF alone. If U.S. marines are spearheading the fight, the IS are unlikely to resist encirclement anyway.
Again, this is all just speculation. However, if the U.S. intends to drag out the Syrian war and keep tentacle in Syria, its one of the few ways to do so, and deceiving Russia can be interpreted loosely as still not directly confronting Russia.
Rising water levels in a region suffering long term drought? That sounds like deliberate sabotage.
Will this one be Trump’s escalation of his country’s wars that will finally take the wind out of Raimondo’s sails that drive Trump’s boat?
This could be the one that makes all Americans patriotic and on their country’s side again!