(Image: SDF Press)
Is the US managing ISIS? Certainly, the western mainstream media will shun this question as unwarranted ‘speculation,’ but upon review of the actual evidence – there is strong grounds to suspect some degree of strategic coordination and collusion between the US military and ISIS.
Back in November, 21WIRE reported on a new arbitrary term which was unveiled as Washington’s rhetorical linchpin designed to keep US forces and its SDF Kurdish proxies entrenched in northern Syrian indefinitely. When asked when the US would leave Syria last November, US State Dept. Special Representative for Syria Engagement, James F. Jeffrey, said the US would not leave even if ISIS was defeated, but rather until there was an “enduring Defeat of ISIS.” The key word being enduring. Of course, he couldn’t provide any specific definition for what this term actually means. If the goal is unattainable based on Washington’s own perimeters of reference – like the ‘War on Terror’, then the war can never be won (and maybe it was never meant to be won).
Later, and ever since Trump’s Dec 2018 announcement of withdrawing US forces from their illegal occupation in Syria, the hawks in Washington have been working double time trying to find way to keep US asset in Syria.
The apparent lack of US resolve in ‘fighting ISIS’ over the last 5 years has led many to question what is the real relationship between Washington’s intelligence-military operations and terrorist groups like ISIS. A number of cases demonstrate an uncanny series of events which suggest ISIS is being allowed to move and carry out certain attacks which have hurt the Syrian Arab Army and Damascus government, including the recent ISIS massacre at Sweida in Syria where ISIS emerged from US controlled Al-Tanf, and also multiple US air attacks against the SAA which have helped ISIS take key strategic territory.
If ISIS is driven out of Syria, the US will no longer have their self-styled ‘national security’ mandate to be there. It’s worth considering then that Washington’s hawks will not want to completely wipe-out ISIS, much less allow the SAA, Russia and Iran to finish them off once and for all.
The following report is unconfirmed, but it poses a serious question which becoming more ominous the longer the US remain embedded in the Middle East.
South Front reports…
The US-led coalition and ISIS leaders in the middle Euphrates River Valley have reached an initial agreement after days of negotiations, the Deir Ezzor 24 outlet reported on February 9 citing special sources.
Under the agreement, the coalition will allow the terrorist group’s leaders and fighters to withdraw to an unspecified area. The sources believe that this area will be the al-Anbar desert in western Iraq or the desert near al-Tanaf in southeastern Syria, where a U.S. base is located.
The remaining women and injured ISIS fighters will be allowed to enter the areas controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). In exchange for that, the terrorist group will reportedly release several captives.
“The upcoming two days will witness the group [ISIS] final withdrawal from eastern Euphrates under the agreement … The agreement will be sponsored and directly protected by the US-led coalition,” Deir Ezzor 24 quoted one of its sources as saying.
Earlier, the SDF announced that it had launched its final attack on the ISIS-held pocket in the Euphrates Valley. However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the coalition and the terrorist group are still negotiating.
The SDF has a long history of faking battles against ISIS in order to cover its deals with the terrorist group. In October of 2017, the Kurdish group was claiming that its fighters are storming the last strongholds of ISIS inside the city of Raqqa, while in reality the terrorists were being transferred with their weapons to Deir Ezzor. This could be the case in the Euphrates Valley now.
READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files
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