Kurdish claims that they had taken the “last” village held by ISIS went
as well this past week as they usually do, with the weekend seeing a
major ISIS counter-offensive launched against the town of Souseh, and
heavy fighting.
10 hours of fighting and a lot of casualties were reported on Saturday,
though the Kurdish SDF’s assessment of who was killed and how many was
quite a bit different from other accounts. The SDF reported they’d lost 11 fighters, but that 56 airstrikes were launched supporting them, and that 82 militants were killed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, by contrast, saying that 42
people were killed overall. At least 13 were civilians. They added that
401 civilians were documented killed since early December in strikes
against the ISIS-held region.
SDF gains seem to heavily be connected with US air support, and when the
weather does not permit planes to get involved, ISIS tends to be able
to take substantial gains. This is a big part of why months of
offensives against three towns and some adjoining villages have been so
inconclusive.
This is the reason why the region must be turned over to Syrian government control. ISIS would have been long gone. The existing actors, both US and Kurds have interest in fighting ISIS for ever. Syria is not a huge country. And the only reason we keep hearing “ISIS” — is within US area of control. Elsewhere it is gone. Who is arming and feeding them while staying entirely within US/Kurdish area of control. Beyond ridiculous.