Syrian Kurdish Forces

Two British SAS Operators Wounded in ISIS Rocket Attack

The fighting in Syria with the U.S. led coalition has claimed more Allied casualties. The British press has reported that two British Special Operations troops were seriously wounded in a missile attack by Islamic State fighters in eastern Syria.

The two British troops who are reported to be members of the British 22nd Special Air Service Regiment (SAS), who, like the American and French Special Operations troops, are working with the Kurdish, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and were operating near the Al-Shafah area of eastern Deir Ezzo. Four soldiers were injured, one Kurdish fighter was killed along with the two British troops.

The troops were hit by an anti-tank missile this weekend while trying to clear the southern area of Deir Ezzo of ISIS. One SAS member was supposedly hit in the throat with shrapnel. ISIS fighters have been pushed out of the remaining part of the town but are holding on in the south. The two wounded British troops were medevaced by U.S. aircraft immediately.

With the coalition and SDF pushing the remaining ISIS presence out of Syria with the assistance of heavy artillery bombardment and air strikes from coalition aircraft, the Islamic State fighters are holding just a small swath of territory. There are reports that they’re mixing in with civilians in the area.

An SDF official told the news media, Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet, “Due to a smart missile attack by ISIS, a fighter of the YPG [Kurdish forces] was killed and another wounded, in addition to two British soldiers.”

The British Ministry of Defence (MOD), as is their custom, refused to acknowledge any reports of British SOF. “We do not comment on Special Forces,” they released in a terse statement. However, it is a generally accepted truth that British SOF are among the coalition troops working with the SDF.

Back in March, a British soldier, Sgt Matt Tonroe of 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, was killed by an IED while embedded with US forces during an operation in Manbij, Syria.

ISIS took advantage of the chaos in the Syrian Civil War to take large amounts of territory in both Syria and Iraq where they declared its “caliphate” in 2014. They used the city of Raqqa as their de facto capital.

Mustafa Bali, spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces took to Twitter where he said: “heavy clashes are taking place currently between our forces and ISIS terrorists due to an attack by ISIS on one of our points in Dier ez zor.”

He added, “everybody should be aware that ISIS is not defeated.”

That last message was no doubt geared toward the United States. Last week, President Trump announced that the U.S. would be withdrawing from Syria as ISIS had been defeated.

“We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump presidency,” Trump said. This move caused much consternation among both the US’ allies and within the Trump administration.

U.S. Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, and a top US official in the fight against ISIS, Brett McGurk, resigned soon after. Trump has also been roundly criticized by several former generals for this quick about-face on the Syrian situation. However, some U.S. defense department officials have stated that the withdrawal of the U.S. troops, thought to be around 2000, will be slowed down to take months rather than days and that some troops may remain.

However, the coalition has amped up their airstrikes in Syria, carrying out .469 strikes between December 16 thru December 29, which destroyed nearly 300 fighting positions, more than 150 staging areas, along with multiple supply routes, oil lubricant storage facilities, and equipment.

With their area shrinking to just the southern part of Syria along the Euphrates River and northern Iraq, with airstrikes taking an ever-increasing toll, Middle East experts believe that ISIS will revert to a rural insurgency where it will use the vastness of the desert to carry out guerrilla-style attacks.

Meanwhile, two Americans, two Pakistanis and an Irish man were among the prisoners that the Kurdish SDF captured in Syria.

The Kurds identified the men as Warren Christopher Clark (Abu Mohammad al-Ameriki) and Zaid Abed al-Hamid (Abu Zaid al-Ameriki). Clark is reportedly from the Houston area originally. Clark, according to the New York Times submitted a cover letter and a resume to ISIS seeking a position as a “teacher” with ISIS.

“Dear Director, I am looking to get a position teaching English to students in the Islamic State,” Clark reportedly wrote. “I believe that a successful teacher can understand a student’s strengths and weaknesses and is able to use that understanding to help students build on their understanding of the English language.”

U.S. coalition spokesman said that the coalition is “aware of open source reports of reportedly American citizens currently in custody believed to be fighting for ISIS.”

Photo: MOD

Assad Vows to Retake Areas of Southern Syria Held by US-Backed Kurds

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has upped the ante and warned Kurdish forces that are trained and equipped by the United States that he wouldn’t hesitate to use force to retake the roughly one-third of the country they currently control.

Assad also tried to sound ominous and said in an interview with Russian television that the U.S should learn the lessons of Iraq and remove their troops from Syria.

“The only problem left in Syria is the SDF,” Assad said, referring to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which spearheaded battles against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
“We’re going to deal with it by two options: the first one we started now opening doors for negotiations, because the majority of them [SDF] are Syrians. Supposedly they like their country, they don’t like to be puppets to any foreigners,” Assad said.
“If not, we’re going to resort … to liberating those areas by force. It’s our land, it’s our right, and it’s our duty to liberate it, and the Americans should leave. Somehow they’re going to leave,” he added.
“They came to Iraq with no legal basis and look what happened to them. They have to learn the lesson. Iraq is no exception and Syria is no exception. People will not accept foreigners in this region any more.”
Assad said a confrontation between Russia and US forces over Syria had been narrowly avoided.
“We were close to having direct conflict between the Russian forces and the American forces,” he said. “Fortunately it has been avoided – not by the wisdom of the American leadership, but by the wisdom of the Russian leadership.”

Assad in his comments about foreigners neglected to mention the scores of Iranian troops that have been spoiling to start a fight with Israel and have been being hammered …on Syrian soil nor the attack by Syrian and Russian “contractors” on a US base that resulted in a stinging defeat at the hands of the US-backed Kurds.

To read the entire article from Al Jazeera, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

US-Backed Forces Regain Lost Villages Seized by Syrian/Iranian Troops

In an interesting development, the oil-rich territory of Northern Syria, held by US-backed SDF Forces was attacked by Syrian government troops and backed by Iranian militias. The government forces briefly took some villages before the SDF, backed by coalition airstrikes forced them back. It is the first time that Iranian militias and coalition troops have come into contact.

A U.S. army statement sent to Reuters confirmed the attack on SDF forces by what it called pro-regime forces near Deir al-Zor city and said the “coalition used established deconfliction channels to de-escalate the situation”, without elaborating.
“The coalition remains committed to our SDF partners in the campaign to defeat Daesh (Islamic State) in eastern Syria,” the statement added.
Earlier, the Syrian army said it had captured a string of villages east of the Euphrates near the border with Iraq held by Kurdish-led forces, state television said. It gave no explanation for the move.
There have been elaborate “deconfliction lines” separating the coalition forces on the eastern side of the river from the Russian and Iranian backed forces on the western side to prevent clashes, U.S army officials and defense analysts say.
Before the announcement that the Syrian army had taken control of the villages, the SDF said they were engaged in heavy clashes with Syrian army troops on the outskirts of the village of Janin near the Euphrates.
They accused Syrian authorities of seeking to disrupt preparations by the U.S.-led coalition to resume an imminent offensive against Islamic State in several pockets of territory along the middle Euphrates River Valley that they still control.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Thursday he expected a “re-energized” effort against Islamic State militants in eastern Syria in the coming days.

This is an interesting and potentially explosive development in that the Syrian government, after the chemical weapons fallout, is pushing the tempo up and with Iranian support was playing a dangerous game of chicken here.

We saw what happened in February when government forces backed by Russian mercenaries attacked a coalition base. The deconflicting lines have been broken again. And it won’t be the last time.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Turks, Free Syrian Army Forces Capture Afrin City

Turkish military forces and their Free Syrian Army (FSA) proxies continued their offensive in northwest Syria on Sunday and captured the city of Afrin.

Operation Olive Branch has been steadily moving forward and the Kurdish fighters who had taken the city from the Islamic State were themselves removed by the Turks who consider the Kurds terrorists. The Kurds, seeing the writing on the wall, abandoned the city to regroup and fight on elsewhere.

Turkey’s military said in a tweet on Sunday that troops were searching for landmines and other explosive devices in the area.

“Many of the terrorists had turned tail and run away already,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech in western Turkey.
He announced that Turkey-backed forces took complete control of the city centre at 8:30am local time (05:00 GMT). He said 3,603 “terrorists had been neutralised” in Afrin since the launch of the cross-border operation on January 20.
Erdogan said the Turkish flag and the flag of the Syrian opposition fighters were raised in the city, previously controlled by the Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG.
Later on Sunday, limited fighting was reported in some pockets in Afrin.
“Our special forces and members of the Free Syrian Army are cleaning the remains and the traps they left behind,” Erdogan said. “In the centre of Afrin, symbols of trust and stability are waving instead of rags of terrorists.”
Footage by Turkey’s private Dogan news agency showed Syrian fighters shooting in the air in celebration. In another Dogan video, a Syrian fighter is seen shooting at a statue of Kurdish hero Kawa, a symbol of resistance against oppressors, before a bulldozer pulled it down.
Turkey – together with the FSA – launched the military operation into Afrin in the northwest of Syria to vanquish the US-backed YPG fighters near its border.

Over 150,000 civilians have fled the city, and despite the Turks calls for them to return now as it is safe, most will probably stay away for the time being. The Kurds have vowed to continue fighting with guerrilla tactics.

To read the entire article from Al Jazeera, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Syrian SDF Rebels Moving Into Small Neighborhoods of Raqqa

The US-backed Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) are slowly tightening the noose around the Islamic State (IS) enclave of Raqqa. While forward elements are already getting a foothold in the city’s east side, other SDF units are busy securing the areas surrounding the city.

There are reports of US Special Operations troops being with the SDF rebels but only in an advisory capacity and not engaging in close-quarters combat but by staying with the SDF’s command elements as they begin the battle for the IS “capital” of Raqqa.

SDF said they captured al-Romaniya neighbourhood west of Raqqa city early on Monday.
Al-Romaniya is the third neighbourhood of Raqqa city to be captured by the SDF since the launch of the fifth phase of the Raqqa offensive last week.
The SDF, a group of Kurdish and Arab fighters, are currently battling ISIL for control of Sinaaya and Hetin neighbourhoods east and west of Raqqa city, the press release said.
ISIL captured Raqqa from rebel groups in 2014 and has since used it as their home base.
The US-led coalition said 3,000 to 4,000 ISIL fighters are thought to be holed up in Raqqa city, in which about 160,000 civilians remain, according to the UN.
The SDF forces have captured several neighbourhoods in Raqqa city since Tuesday, including the eastern neighbourhood of Mashlab.
Backed by US- coalition air strikes, the SDF began a major offensive on Tuesday to seize the city.
Ahmad, a Tabqa-based activist who would only give his first name, told Al Jazeera that civilians are expecting ISIL to retreat or surrender in a matter of days.
“People are barely surviving inside Raqqa. ISIL basically told residents if they want to leave, they can leave but without taking any of their belongings.
“If the Kurds take Raqqa, displaced people can go back to their homes. We are literally left with just three options: the Syrian government, ISIL or the Kurds. We choose the Kurds,” he said.
Many of those leaving Raqqa are heading north in search of safety towards Ain Issa, Manbij, Mahmoudli and Tal Abyad, all within a 120km radius of the northern Syrian city.
Some, however, have headed for ‘the Berm’– the border area between southern Syria and Jordan, almost 700km away, where humanitarian assistance is almost non-existent, Doctor’s Without Borders (MSF) said in a report released on June 9.

The coalition airstrikes have reportedly killed a number of civilians, who are caught between the Islamist State fighters and the SDF’s mainly Kurdish troops. Thus far, the numbers have been low but as the fighting moves into the neighborhoods of Raqqa, the number of civilian deaths is sure to rise, a thorny subject for the US-backed coalition.

To read the entire article from the Al Jazeera click here:

Photos courtesy Reuters

Flynn Allegedly Axed Military Plan While Receiving 500K From Turkey

The hits keep coming for the Trump administration. The latest report states former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn blocked a plan to take the Islamic state’s caliphate in Syria at Raqqa using Kurdish forces. This was while receiving more than $500,000 from Turkey to do lobbying for them. The Turks opposed the plan and consider the Kurds to be terrorists.

Flynn was fired by Trump in late February, but was registered in Washington as a lobbyist and was paid $530,000 before the November election.

Paperwork filed in March with the Justice Department’s Foreign Agent Registration Unit said Flynn and his firm were voluntarily registering for lobbying from August through November that “could be construed to have principally benefited the Republic of Turkey.”
The McClatchy news service reported that President Obama’s national security team asked for Trump’s approval on a plan to retake the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa, because it was more than likely to be carried out under his presidency.
Timelines distributed by members of Congress show that Flynn told then national security advisor Susan Rice to hold off, delaying the operation for months.
Trump eventually approved the plan, but only after Flynn had been fired in February for misleading Vice President Mike Pence and other white House officials about his ties to Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.
It was only weeks later in March when Flynn disclosed to the Foreign Agent Unit Registration Unit of the Justice Department that he was paid for work that “could be construed to have principally benefited the Republic of Turkey.”

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported Wednesday that Flynn informed Trump’s transition team that he was under federal investigation before he was hired.

The Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as the head counsel to investigate charges of undue Russian influence on the Presidential election.

To read the entire article from Fox News, click here:

Photo courtesy NBC

Syrian Forces Claim to Have Taken Damascus Suburb

The forces of the Syrian Army have claimed to have taken parts of a Damascus suburb away from Syrian rebels.

Syrian state-run television has reported the Army has taken a major suburb on the east side of the city, driving out the rebels.

The opposition Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says rebels remain in control of parts of the Qaboun neighborhood, which along with Barzeh and Jobar, formed an arc from the northern to the eastern edge of Damascus.
The Syrian media report says the military recaptured Qaboun Saturday, as the evacuation of adjacent besieged rebel-held neighborhoods was underway.
If confirmed, this increases the government’s security belt around the capital and strips the opposition of another prized territory in the area. Rebels had held onto a number of neighborhoods on the edge of Damascus since the early days of the uprising, representing the most threatening opposition presence near the government’s seat of power.
The evacuation of hundreds of residents of the Barzeh and Tishreen neighborhoods began last week. They were bused out to a rebel-held province in the north following an agreement with the government, emulating previous successful evacuations in other besieged areas that were also criticized as forced displacement.

Meanwhile, Syrian Kurdish rebels have reportedly moved on the de-facto capital of the Islamic state, in Raqqa, capturing a cotton factory that is 2.5 miles, (4 kilometers) north of the city. Kurdish forces say that their plan is to move on Raqqa this summer.

They earlier had captured a strategic dam 25 miles, (40 kilometers) west of the city. There are reports that the markets in Raqqa have closed, giving speculation that the fighting is getting increasingly close to the city.

President Trump has vowed to aid the Kurdish rebels by furnishing them heavy weapons, which has angered the Turks who consider the Kurds terrorists.

To read the entire article on Fox News: click here