I've been so extremely busy the past few days.... Had that not been the case I would have informed my readers that I was expecting the coalition to escalate against Syria and why it was this was expected by your's truly.The reasoning for this will be provided as background, hopefully, tomorrow.For now the latest news has the US Led Coalition Striking Syrian Army Positions
"Forces of the US-led coalition fired several missiles toward the positions of our units in the area of Al-Ghurab mount, to the south of the city of Al-Sukhnah at around 8:00 p.m. [18:00 GMT]," the source told the Al-Ikhbariya television channel.
Syria’s state news agency says the U.S.-led coalition has fired several missiles at Syrian army positions in the country’s east, causing material damage. The SANA report says the positions targeted Sunday night are in the Ghorab Mountains south of the eastern town of Sukhna.
Syrian state media claimed that the US-led Coalition fired missiles at its forces in Homs governorate on Sunday night. The claim comes amid rumors on social media that the Coalition targeted Syrian forces in the desert north of the Coalition-controlled Tanaf Garrison.After 8pm several accounts that follow conflict in Syria claimed that the Syrian regime’s 21st mechanized brigade was struck by 14 rockets. They claimed the rockets had been fired from Tanaf, an area in Syria near where the Jordanian and Iraqi borders meet. According to these reports either the US air force or rockets fired from an M142 HIMARS battery had been used when Syrian regime forces came within 55km of the Coalition garrison in Tanaf.
Crisis Group - Al Tanf: Flashpoint
A Direct Confrontation Could Occur. Now that ISIS’s territorial control is all but eliminated, attention among most relevant actors will shift more markedly toward means of improving the balance of power on the ground in their favour, so as to strengthen military positioning and negotiating leverage.
Iranian forces and their allies might seek to target U.S. forces in and around al-Tanf in retaliation against U.S. actions elsewhere or in an effort to drive the U.S. out of Syria.
There is no clear military path to the latter objective, as the U.S. can continue to destroy forces that cross into exclusion zone for the foreseeable future. Yet this could strengthen more hawkish elements in Washington and invite the U.S. to take retaliatory measures of its own, thus starting an escalatory spiral.
