The article from Washington Post is perception management extraordinaire!WaPo in blue
"Rapid advances by Russian- and Iranian-backed government forces in eastern Syria are thwarting the U.S. military’s hopes of pressing deeper into Islamic State territory after winning the battle for Raqqa"
Since Syria has actually been fighting terrorists and terrorism I'm unsure how it can be construed that they would thwart the US fight against ISIS- That statement only makes sense if one understands the US has NOT been fighting ISIS- Rather they've been redrawing borders. And ethnically cleansing the populace of Syria .WaPo article features that huge banner of cult/PKK leader Ocalan
"An expansion of territory held by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad is also likely to provide Assad with additional leverage in political negotiations over Syria’s future, talks the United Nations hopes to reconvene next month"
Of course the US doesn't want Syria's elected government to have leverage.
"In a statement this week, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said the “latest developments” in Syria pointed “to the urgent need to reinvigorate the political process.”
Related: Syria surprised over inability of UNSC to stop and condemn Israeli aggressions
"The recent government gains have cut off the approach of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to remaining militant strongholds in the southeastern part of the country, including the crucial town of Bukamal near the Syria-Iraq border."
Oh dear, Syrian forces and friends have impeded the US from aiding the PKK in anymore land grabbing! This point of no return has been covered on several previous occasions.Flashback: Razors Edge 2: US Faces Imminent Decision on Race for Syria's East
Flashback Syria: Walkin' the Razor's Edge? US Shells SAA/Casualties
"Aided by Russian airstrikes, in apparent violation of a deconfliction line along the Euphrates River that U.S. officials said had been tentatively agreed on with Moscow."
There was no deconfliction agreement with Moscow in that area, which is why WaPo calls it 'tentatively'
(Syrian) "government forces have encircled and claimed control of another location that had been on the wish list of U.S. military planners — the town of Mayadeen"
Flashback: Razors Edge 2: US Faces Imminent Decision on Race for Syria's East
Reports from today state SAA and allies have (re)taken Mayadeen (there was a bit of back and forth there- finally resolved on or about October 14/17)Trend & JordanTimesIf SAA and allies are able to hold Mayadeen what will be the American/Kurdish/Israeli response? SAA and allies have now blocked the SDF out of Mayadeen. Can that be left as is?
Wapo continues
"The advance has also taken government forces, and supporting Russian strikes, east of the river and into Syria’s main oil-producing region of Deir al-Zour province, once a key source of Islamic State revenue"
“I’m not going to address whether or not an agreement or deconfliction line has been broken,” Army Col. Ryan S. Dillon, spokesman for counter-Islamic State military operations, said in a telephone interview from Baghdad. “That’s why we maintain an open dialogue” with Russia."
Dillon isn't going to address it because no such deconfliction line/agreement in that area exists!
"After Raqqa, the intention was to proceed downriver through Mayadeen to Bukamal, where SDF fighters would link up with Iraqi government forces trying to regain control over the Islamic State-controlled town of Qaim, just across the border inside Iraq. A major goal was to block Iran from securing a land corridor, through Iraq, between Tehran and Damascus.
Dillon declined to say whether the U.S. military’s plans had changed.“There are always plans,” Dillon said. “You don’t fight the plan, you fight the enemy . . . where they are.” The military, he said, was not concerned with “greater policy decisions” over who fought the militants or who controlled Syria, as long as it was not the Islamic State.“We’re not in a race, we’re not in the land-grab business. We’re here to defeat ISIS,” he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State"
Dillon is such a liar!! That is a bold faced lie! Brazen!
"On Thursday, female YPG (PKK) fighters marked the victory in Raqqa by raising a giant banner of the (PKK) Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan over the central square where the Islamic State carried out most of its grisly executions. Ocalan, who heads Turkey’s militant Kurdish movement, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, is serving a prison sentence in Turkey for terrorism.The public declaration of fealty to Ocalan by the Syrian Kurds who led the Raqqa offensive points to one of the many challenges confronting the Trump administration as it seeks to forge a coherent policy for the post-Islamic State era. Although the Syrian Kurds have admitted many (how many? Not many) Arabs into their ranks, they have retained overall control of the SDF (PKK)coalition’s command and ideology."
How many years have I been correctly linking YPG and PKK together?? Is everyone ready to accept that they are in fact, as repeatedly stated, one and the same?
"Turkey, which shares a long border with the autonomous enclave the Kurds have established in northeastern Syria, is enraged at the U.S. military’s support for the SDF, which it considers an appendage of Ocalan’s terrorist movement.Many Syrian Arabs are also deeply uncomfortable about the prospect of being governed by Kurds. Raqqa is an almost wholly Arab city, and the photographs of the Ocalan banner that circulated on social media triggered widespread condemnation by Arabs on Thursday."
All the fake supporters of Syria who cheered on the so called "Syrian Kurds". PKK rebranded.
"Remaining in Syria to protect its Kurdish allies (PKK Terrorists) risks embroiling the United States in possible future conflicts between Arabs and Kurds, and between Turkey and the Kurds.
The Kurds are also vulnerable to the Syrian government’s declared ambition to reclaim all of the territory ( It is Syria's territory- Why should it be expanded Israel?) it lost in the war that began as a political rebellion in 2011. Much of what happens in Raqqa will depend on the speed and success of reconstruction there. U.S. special envoy Brett McGurk is visiting the Raqqa area, accompanied by Saudi Arabian Minister for Gulf Affairs Thamer al-Sabhan, whose government the Trump administration hopes will put up funds for the effort."
And that's how you funnel money to terrorists- Through construction contracts. Particularly with certain connected persons or construction firms. Think Osama bin Laden & Bin Laden construction I've begun work on a post regarding the reconstruction of Raqqa and the ease with which money can be diverted to fund all manner of terrorism. This is how ISIS came to be in Iraq.We'll revisit that soon enough.......... From earlier: