Assad says U.S. forces in Syria are ‘invaders’
Turkey’s military chief this week discussed Syria with his USA and Russian counterparts. The group’s leaders are also reportedly fleeing the city in anticipation of the advance, relocating to the relative safety of ISIS-occupied Deir al-Zour province. It may be just the first of many, as the battle for the vitally important city heats up.
The Marines’ deployment, meant to back local forces in the campaign against the Islamic State group, came just days after another intervention. They have captured large areas from IS since then under the cover of airstrikes of the US -led coalition. “The Americans lost almost every war”, he continued. Turkey says no decision had been made yet on who would carry out the final assault while the US-led coalition said a possible Turkish role remained up for discussion. Turkey has declared the YPG a terrorist organization and considers it to be linked to its own home-grown Kurdish insurgency.
A member of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) stands watch at the frontline of Raqqa fights against ISIS a year ago. The new mission comes as the Trump administration weighs a plan to take back Raqqa, the so-called capital of the Islamic State, that includes more Special Operations troops, attack helicopters and artillery.
He said: “We always have hope that this year is going to be the last year”.
Citing the deployment of U.S. Marines, an analysis of U.S. involvement in Syria at The Washington Examiner predicts the U.S.is planning for a post-ISIS peace deal in the war-ravaged country. It did not require a presidential authorization since they were already in the Middle East and the movement of troops into Syria was not associated with the proposals presented to President Trump last week to accelerate the fight against ISIS.
The troop increase - which includes a team of Army Rangers and a Marine artillery unit that have both already arrived in Syria - represents a near doubling of the number of USA troops there.
Recently, U.S. forces in Manbij in northern Syria have acted as a barrier between Kurdish and Turkish forces.
Those 300 troops have been working with the SDF in fighting ISIS in northern and eastern Syria.
Some would posit that this marks a heightened escalation on the part of US imperialism, which has relied mainly on proxy forces of so called “moderate” terrorist groups and the “Free Syrian Army”, a group financed by Gulf State monarchies and Western imperialist states, since the conflict began some six years ago.
“Obama gave the U.S. the bad name of a state that does not stand behind its commitments”, Mordechai Kedar, a professor at Bar Ilan University with a long past in Israeli military intelligence, told The Media Line.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan heads to Moscow Friday to discuss this issue, among others, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The campaign against the city, Islamic State’s Syrian base of operations, is gathering pace as Iraqi forces press ahead with their efforts to recapture Mosul, the jihadists’ base in Iraq.