The Kurdish YPG has claimed a Monday incident in which Russian warplanes attacked one of their military positions in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor Province. They claimed a fighter was killed and two wounded.
This isn’t the first time the YPG has made such a claim, and as with the past, Russia issued a statement denying that any such incident took place, with Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov saying that Russia is “always careful” to ensure their strikes don’t hit anyone but their intended targets. The US said they couldn’t confirm the incident either, though they said some “rounds” had hit the area.
This is a growing concern in Deir Ezzor, however, because the YPG and Syrian military have both advanced into the ISIS-held province, trying to carve out territory of their own. The US and Russia have had recent meetings trying to improve information sharing to prevent accidental attacks.
There’s more than just danger of accidents, however. Russia accused the Kurds of twice shooting at them in Deir Ezzor, including once from a position which included US troops. Russia threatened retaliation, and tensions remain high.
It makes it hard to know, then, whether the incident did or didn’t happen, as exchanges of fire followed by blanket denials have become the norm in eastern Syria.
It’s safe to say that they and especially their US special ops commanders can expect more of that since Pentagram started bumping of Russian generals and service men.
This some odd 5-6 months after CIAs killing spree on Russian officials, the “heart attacked” Russian ambassador to U.N. Vitally Tjurkin most notably but also own Putins own freaking Chauffeur for Christ sake, in Moscow. Each of them enough to start WW3. If Pentagram interprets the lack of (overtly at least) Russian retaliation as “weakness” as they usually do, they are gravely mistaken.
“It makes it hard to know, then, whether the incident did or didn’t
happen, as exchanges of fire followed by blanket denials have become the
norm in eastern Syria.”
Sometimes ‘blanket denials’ are preferable to confirming an incident in which one party loses face unless it acts. Better still, the USG has no business in Syria and should get out.
I hope so.
All I can say is good. It’s long past about time.
The Russians have been releasing aerial photos of SDF and US Special Forces seeming to work closely with ISIS. They show the SDF with their Special Forces minders moving unopposed in the ISIS controlled area, and show them taking no efforts at setting up defenses or patrols thus indicating that they feel very confident that ISIS won’t attack them.
The statement I read from the Russians was actually rather nuanced. They denied attacking SDF, but said that they were attacking IS. The nuance was that they way they said it they left it open that if SDF looked like IS and was firing on the Russians, then of course they got bombed.
At the very least, the SDF and US SOF have given ISIS in Raqqa a big break by moving away from that battle and trying to go seize the oil and gas fields in this province instead. Remember all the propaganda hype about clearing IS out of Raqqa? That’s now been shown to be less important that coming south to fight Assad’s forces.