US forces in Syria have begun airdropping troops behind ISIS lines near the town of al-Tabqa, and near the important Tabqa Dam. The exact details of the airdrop are still emerging but they are said to include some US Marines as well as a number of Kurdish forces.
The area around Tabqa is just the latest in a series of targets for the Kurdish YPG as they attempt to surround the ISIS capital of Raqqa. Tabqa is about 25 miles west of the capital, and Kurdish YPG forces mostly control the area north of the city, though they’ve also made some efforts to take the northeast.
The US launched multiple airstrikes against the surrounding area to provide cover for the airdrop, which included an airstrike which hit a local school sheltering displaced civilians. The attack killed at least 33 civilians, with some reports suggesting the toll could rise further.
The airdrops, which began on Tuesday, were the first US airdrops of Kurdish forces so far in Syria, and the deployment of US Marines with them points to the continued escalation of direct US military involvement on the ground by the Trump Administration.
In recent weeks, the US has also deployed hundreds of other US Marines with howitzers into the area north of Raqqa, aiming to provide support for advances toward the city. While the Pentagon officially labeled the howitzer Marines “advisers,” there appears to be little doubt that they, along with the new airdropped troops, will be involved in combat in the course of this deployment.
The standoff between the US and Russia is coming soon to a Syrian theater far from you.
A marine howitzer can give pretty convincing advice.
Control of the Tabqa dam gives the U.S. considerable influence upon Iraqi water supplies as well.
There is the strong chance the U.S. will have their allies secure Raqqa Governate and simply surround Raqqa city, rather than move right in to seize it.
USA is up to its stinky armpits in another regime-change caper. Candidate Trump promised to end these criminal enterprises.
Did you notice that Likud shills like Charles Krauthammer, and flower girl Lindsey Graham are now on board with Trump? This happened after Likudist Netanyahu meet with Trump
ISIS (and Al-Qaeda) are fake terrorist groups according to former VP Joe Biden, former Secretary of State (and war criminal) Hillary Clinton, as well as 4 Star US General Wesley Clark, and US General Martin Dempsey. Some in the know believe that the Trump administration really illegally invaded secular Syria to go after Iranian assets, and the fake Saudi proxy force ISIS is secondary
Any article discussing overt deployment of military personnel into a country that did not invite them should acknowledge that is an aggressive act of war and violation of international law.
This. Not mentioning it normalizes the war crimes.
There would be no ISIS but for the US funding of Al Nusra Front the parent organisation of ISIS, that Al Nusra front, America’s so called Moderate Insurgents former name was Al Qaeda in Iraq! United States of America STATE SPONSORS of Terrorists!
Oh, and it’s also a violation of the War Power Act of domestic law.
I’ve suggested before in this forum that ISIS is serving as a discardable “foil” for the advancement of Kurdish and Israeli interests in the Middle East. Here’s what Seymour Hersh, writing in 2004, had to say about Israel’s longstanding close regional partnership with the Kurds:
“The former Israeli intelligence officer acknowledged that since late last year Israel has been training Kurdish commando units to operate in the same manner and with the same effectiveness as Israel’s most secretive commando units, the Mistaravim”
“Syrian and Lebanese officials believe that Israeli intelligence played a role in a series of violent protests in Syria in mid-March in which Syrian Kurdish dissidents and Syrian troops clashed, leaving at least thirty people dead. (There are nearly two million Kurds living in Syria, which has a population of seventeen million.) Much of the fighting took place in cities along Syria’s borders with Turkey and Kurdish-controlled Iraq. Michel Samaha, the Lebanese Minister of Information, told me that while the disturbances amounted to an uprising by the Kurds against the leadership of Bashir Assad, the Syrian President, his government had evidence that Israel was ‘preparing the Kurds to fight all around Iraq, in Syria, Turkey, and Iran. They’re being programmed to do commando operations.'”
“A top German national-security official said in an interview that ‘an independent Kurdistan with sufficient oil would have enormous consequences for Syria, Iran, and Turkey’ and would lead to continuing instability in the Middle East—no matter what the outcome in Iraq is. There is also a widespread belief, another senior German official said, that some elements inside the Bush Administration—he referred specifically to the faction headed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz—would tolerate an independent Kurdistan. This, the German argued, would be a mistake. ‘It would be a new Israel—a pariah state in the middle of hostile nations.’
Why would anyone want to reward the architects of the breakup and destruction of the Middle East with another Israel? America’s interest is in a Middle East consisting of strong, stable nations. Israel’s interest is in a Middle East torn by sectarian conflict, chaos, and destruction. Will Donald Trump stay true to his professions of patriotism and nationalism by promoting America’s interest in a sovereign and stable Syria — or will he bow before a foreign nation, as so many traitors have before him, and play the role of Israel’s murderous errand boy in the region?
Destroying secular Syria is the gateway for their planned WWIII against Iran