US airstrikes

Russian Civilian Contractors Killed in US Airstrikes Of Assad Loyalists

There are increasing reports that Russian military contractors were among those killed when a U.S.-led coalition airstrike wiped out an attack by pro-regime Syrian forces loyal to President Assad.

About 500 Syrian and Russian forces attacked a coalition base where U.S. Special Operations troops were advising a Kurdish unit. At least a 100 of the attackers and possibly as many as 300 were killed. And Russian media sources are reporting that scores of them were Russian contractors.

“We detected and saw a tank that took a shot at us,” Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, the head of U.S. Air Forces Central Command told reporters said via teleconference from Qatar.
“It continued to move, so we… executed self-defense rules of engagement to protect ourselves.”
Without mentioning the U.S. strike, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday “Americans have taken dangerous unilateral steps.”
“Those steps look increasingly like part of efforts to create a quasi-state on a large part of Syrian territory — from the eastern bank of the Euphrates River all the way to the border with Iraq,” he said.
The attack comes just days after U.S. forces for several hours used drones and B-52 bombers against several hundred “pro-regime” fighters equipped with artillery and a tank in Deir el-Zour province, an area in eastern Syria where the last IS fighters have converged among oil fields.
Russian media have been reporting that dozens of Russians were among those killed when the U.S.-led coalition conducted air and artillery strikes on Feb. 7, killing an estimated 100 pro-regime fighters, according to a coalition statement.

The attack on the coalition base where U.S. troops were advising an SDF unit was supported by 122mm howitzers, tanks, and rocket launchers 5-miles east of the Euphrates River. The river has been used as a buffer zone between U.S. and Russian troops. The Russian troops reportedly manned T-55 and T-72 tanks and were firing rounds close to the base which is nearby the rich oilfields that the regime wants.

The U.S. responded with devastating air strikes consisting of AQ-9 drone attacks, B-52 bombers, AC-130 gunships, F-15s, F-22s, Army Apache helicopter gunships and Marine Corps artillery.

Despite what the Russians are saying officially, this provocation is a sign that they were trying to escalate the tensions there without official Russian troops there. They were attempting to take advantage of a situation where they can’t be “officially tied” to it, but there is no way that an attack of that size without the knowledge and approval of their leaders.

To read the entire article from Voice of America, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

US Airstrikes Kill 100 Syrian pro-Assad Forces in Syria

US-led coalition troops came under attack by Syrian forces loyal to President Assad which prompted artillery and air strikes in retaliation, killing 100 pro-regime fighters, said a spokesman for the US coalition on Wednesday.

The coalition said the strikes had been carried out after forces allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “initiated an unprovoked attack” against a well-established Syrian Democratic Forces headquarters where coalition advisers were working with US-backed Syrian fighters.
Some 500 pro-regime troops carried out the attack using artillery, mortar fire and Russian-made tanks, a US military official said.
“Syrian pro-regime forces maneuvered T-54 and T-72 main battle tanks with supporting mortar fire in what appears to be a coordinated attack on Syrian Democratic Forces approximately 8 kilometers east of the Euphrates River de-confliction line in Khusham, Syria,” the military official said.
The official said that about “20 to 30 artillery and tank rounds landed within 500 meters” of the Syrian Democratic Forces headquarters before the US-backed fighters and coalition forces “targeted the aggressors with a combination of air and artillery strikes.”
The official said no coalition or US personnel had been killed or wounded in the engagement but that one member of the Syrian Democratic Forces was wounded.
He said the coalition suspected that pro-regime forces were attempting to seize territory, including lucrative oil fields, that the Syrian Democratic Forces had liberated from ISIS in September.
They “were likely seeking to seize oilfields in Khusham that had been a major source of revenue for Daesh from 2014 to 2017,” the official said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

While rumors persist, that Russian contractors were with the loyal forces of Assad attacking the coalition, that hasn’t been confirmed. Nor has the fact that those forces were from an Iranian militia fighting for Assad.

The U.S. had been in contact with Russian forces on the agreed upon hotline and informed them that the pro-regime forces were building up near the de-confliction line but what the Russians did was unknown.

Coalition forces did not fire on pro-regime forces that returned across the river.

To read the entire article from CNN, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

US Airstrikes in Syria Kill 150 ISIS Fighters, “Fight Far From Over”

U.S. airstrikes blasted an Islamic State headquarters in Al-Shafah, Syria, killing around 150 of the terror group’s fighters, US military officials reported on Tuesday.

The military said the strikes were a result of “extensive intelligence” that helped it confirm the location of an “ISIS headquarters and command-and-control center in an exclusively ISIS-occupied location in the contested Middle Euphrates River Valley.” The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took part in the operation, it added.
ISIS has lost virtually all of the territory it previously controlled across Iraq and Syria––roughly 98 percent of the land it held, the military said. But the airstrikes highlighted the fact that the fight against the group is ongoing.
“The strikes underscore our assertion that the fight to liberate Syria is far from over,” Army Major General James B. Jarrard, commander of the Special Operations Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, said in a statement.
“Our SDF partners are still making daily progress and sacrifices, and together we are still finding, targeting and killing ISIS terrorists intent on keeping their extremist hold on the region. We cannot take our focus off our mission, and we must not lose our momentum in taking these terrorists off the battlefield and preventing them from resurfacing somewhere else.”
By August 2017, the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS had conducted 13,331 strikes in Iraq, and 11,235 strikes in Syria, for a total of 24,566 strikes against the militant group as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, according to numbers from the U.S. military. The campaign against ISIS began in August 2014 under former President Barack Obama.

The bombing shows that the fight for ISIS continues and it is the people of Syria, the ordinary citizens who bear the brunt of it. With the increased bombing thru airstrikes, the US military has killed many civilians.

To read the entire article from Newsweek, click here:

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US Bombs ISIS Camp in Libya, 17 Terrorists Dead

The United States conducted six airstrikes on an ISIS camp on Friday that killed 17 terrorists and destroyed three vehicles. The US Africa Command said in a statement that the strikes targeted an ISIS site about 240 km (170 miles) southeast of Sirte, once a stronghold of ISIS in the country.

“The camp was used by ISIS to move fighters in and out of the country; stockpile weapons and equipment; and to plot and conduct attacks,” AFRICOM said.

“ISIS and al-Qaeda have taken advantage of ungoverned spaces in Libya to establish sanctuaries for plotting, inspiring and directing terror attacks,” it said, using another acronym for ISIL.
The strikes were carried out in coordination with Libya’s Government of National Accord, it added.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the air raids were carried out by armed drones.

After the fall of the Gadhafi regime in 2011, ISIS took advantage of a power vacuum and moved into Sirte in 2015 and imposed their strict regime in the city. The used that area as one of their largest bases to bring in foreign fighters and according to AFRICOM, controlled about 250 km of the Mediterranean coastline.

But they were forced out by a combination of Libyan troops and US airstrikes and have had to move their operations out into the desert. The political situation in Tripoli is still fluid with three competing factions vying for power.

However, as this shows, the Trump administration, while not choosing to get involved on the ground in Libya in a large way, has not forgotten about ISIS and will continue to target the terrorist group when the opportunity arises.

This was the first airstrike in Libya against ISIS since President Trump took office, but probably won’t be the last.

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

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