....Advance on Desert Outpost- Second News Item1-Link
"Syrian militias fighting in support of the Bashar al-Assad regime are reportedly amassing near a small base manned by coalition forces in southeast Syria, raising concerns of a looming confrontation between ground forces technically not at war with each other, according to Military Times."
The news seems to signal that tensions between the coalition and the Assad regime are escalating in southeast Syria, where U.S. bombs struck a convoy of pro-government militants on May 18.
Over the weekend, U.S. aircraft dropped leaflets warning pro-regime militants to stay out of the deconfliction zone around the base, which is located at the Tanf border crossing between Syria and Iraq. The garrison is used by U.S. and British special forces to train two Syrian opposition groups for the fight against ISIS.
U.S. Central Command officials told Military Times that hundreds of pro-regime militants have amassed in the vicinity of the deconfliction zone — which is 55-kilometers in radius — posing a “direct threat” to coalition forces at Tanf.
“These patrols are and the continued armed and hostile presence of pro-regime forces inside the deconfliction zone are unacceptable and threatening to coalition forces,” CENTCOM told Military Times. “Coalition forces are prepared to defend themselves if pro-regime forces refuse to vacate the deconfliction zone.”
The US and allies are THE hostile presence
Coalition forces stationed at Tanf have been tested before. On May 18, U.S. airstrikes struck a convoy of pro-regime militants approaching Tanf, resulting in the destruction of a a tank and bulldozer. The Pentagon believes the bulldozer was being used to construct a firebase on the edge of the deconfliction zone, Military Times reports.
What will happen to the U.S.-backed Syrian groups trained and armed for the fight against ISIS after that phase of the war is over is a major point of concern for both the Syrian regime and Iran, (And Turkey) and the arrival of more pro-Assad forces in southeast Syria indicates that a fight for territory may be on the horizon.
2-Russian jets halt advance on desert outpost, says FSA
Western-backed Syrian rebels said on Wednesday that Russian jets attacked them as they tried to advance against militias in a region of Syria’s southeastern desert.The announcement came as Syrian government troops pushed ahead in their offensive against Daesh and militants in central and northern parts of the country.They said six jets bombed their positions as they moved towards Zaza checkpoint near Sabaa Biyar, a small town near the Damascus-Baghdad highway and the borders with Iraq and Jordan.They identified them as Russian because they flew in formation and at higher altitude than Syrian jets.“A sortie of Russian jets bombed us to repel our advance after we broke the first lines of defence of the militia and took over advanced positions near the Zaza checkpoint,” Saad Al Haj, a spokesman for Jaish Osoud Al Sharqiya, one of the main groups in the area said.Haj said none of their fighters were killed. Another Free Syrian Army (FSA) official, Said Seif from the Ahmed Abdo Martyrs group, also said Russian planes hit the rebels when they began storming militia defences.The army and allied militias captured Zaza checkpoint and Sabaa Biyar this month to stop Western backed FSA groups taking strategic ground vacated by Daesh.
Related: Russia Launches Kalibr Missiles Hitting ISIS Targets Near Palmyra 3- Hurriyet News- Turkish Warning to the US, In Vain, But CorrectRegarding the arming of PKK/YPG
“Such steps are extremely dangerous for Syria’s unity and territorial integrity,” Çavuşoğlu said“These weapons could be used against all of humanity, not just Turkey,” he added. The statement came a day after the Pentagon announced that more arms had started to be delivered to Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), whose backbone is the YPG,
CENTCOM has been planning the Raqqa operation for a long time and Trump, occupied with a number of problems related to his power, is not likely to change all the planning due to Çavuşoğlu’s last-minute urgings.Ankara’s last-minute warning may be in vain and will probably not yield any result, but that doesn’t mean that it is wrong.
Of course it's not wrong, nor will the resulting worsening warfare be 'blowback'- It will be the intended consequence of the US/UK meddling- The Atlantacists and their Israeli outpost making life generally miserable for an entire swathe of the globe is not a new tactic. Related: Syria's Displaced Arabs Join Forces To Retake Lands from PKK/YPG
Strange bedfellows in Vietnam and Cambodia in the late 1960s proved disastrous. At least their destructive effect was regional, but again claimed hundreds and thousands of more lives.A worse example was in Afghanistan. It was the U.S. idea to train and equip the Islamist tribes with modern weaponry
But it seems American strategists do not care much about the consequences or aftermath of the action they take.
It would not be fair to say that Turkey is sinless in the Syrian civil war. Embracing refugees was something else but getting too involved and taking sides in the Syrian civil war was wrong. But what the U.S. is doing now is wrong as well, and it will be Turkey and other countries in the region which will suffer the consequences after CENTCOM’s soldiers pack up and head thousands of miles away.
The US intends that others in the area suffer- That's the plan