Update: Syria, the US and the Continuing Story

| October 27, 2019

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/10/25/russia-says-it-sent-hundreds-of-additional-troops-to-syria/

MOSCOW — Russia has sent hundreds of additional troops to Syria to help patrol the country’s Turkey-Syria border after a deal between Moscow and Ankara, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

The ministry said about 300 military police have arrived in Syria to patrol the northeastern areas along the border with Turkey and oversee the pullout of Syrian Kurdish fighters from there. Military cargo planes also airlifted 20 armored vehicles for the mission, it added.

After Turkey invaded northeastern Syria this month, an offensive enabled by President Donald Trump’s abrupt pullout of U.S. troops, Moscow and Ankara struck a deal splitting control of northeastern Syria. – article

It appeared last week that the US was completely withdrawing all personnel. What some people missed in the real reports, which were linked here, was that the US still has people there.  While the bulk of US troops have exited, the US is still involved with the Kurds.

From the article:  A large wedge of eastern Syria remains in the hands of the Kurdish-led fighters. That includes the bulk of Syria’s oil fields, which deprives Damascus of control over a crucial resource and gives the Syrian Kurds a major bargaining chip. Trump has said some U.S. troops will remain there to help Kurds “secure” the oil fields.

The Kurdish fighters captured the main fields from the Islamic State group and since then have helped finance their self-rule by selling the crude, mainly to the Syrian government.

Pentagon chief Mark Esper said the U.S. is considering sending troops and armored vehicles into the area around the oil fields in northeastern Syria to ensure that IS militants don’t get access to the oil, enabling them to rebuild.- article

We’re still dropping supplies in that area. The tonnage has, in fact, increased exponentially.

https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2019/10/24/the-us-is-pulling-troops-out-of-syria-and-afghanistan-but-the-tonnage-of-airdropped-supplies-is-spiking/

From the article:  Despite a drawdown of troops, the U.S.-led coalition to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria dropped more tons of supplies in 2019 than during the large scale operations to liberate Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria, from the Islamic State, according U.S. Air Forces Central Command.

The command did not respond to a question posed by Military Times regarding why the U.S. was dropping the immense quantity of food and equipment to forces on the ground, despite America’s withdrawal from the region. But the increase in airdrops could be directly related to the drawdown of troops in the region as ground logistics efforts become more difficult, a former veteran of the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command told Military Times. Air Mobility Command is tasked with providing airlift, air refueling and airdropping supplies and goods. – article

While we may be done with the in loco presence, it does not mean we’ve abandoned anyone. But we are not, as many have observed, the world’s police force, nor should that be expected of us.

Category: Afghanistan, Isis, Syria

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Ret_25X

the change in concept from “defeating ISIS” to “protecting territory” means that the mission will be easier to explain and conduct.

If the Pentagon is capable of explaining anything rationally anymore…

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Looks like things are getting SyriaS in Syria now

Poetrooper

There’s been a second strike, this one taking out a prominent ISIS spokesman, Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir:

https://www.newsweek.com/us-strikes-kill-isis-spokesperson-day-after-baghdadi-death-syria-raid-1468018

Go get’em Commander-in-Chief!

A Proud Infidel®™

GOOD SHIT, and didn’t some little yakking seagull of a zampolit tell us in NO uncertain terms that our “withdrawal” was going to result in ISIS regrouping like never before? NEVER MIND waiting for him to show up and squawk, I’m sure that he’s in some corner biting his fingernails to a pulp while reciting “Orange man Bad,Professors say so… Orange man Bad, Professors say so…

OldManchu

Exactly!

5th/77th FA

Very good article and linkys Mi’Lady. Trying to play catch up. As we all know, there has been not.one.single.word on this in the news. Not. one. single. word! It has all been, Trump abandoning the Kurds blah blah blah bad Trump ad nauseum. “More supplies dropped than during large scale operations…” Hmmmmm

A Proud Infidel®™️

And I’m betting that those who are still braying about “We abandoned the Kurds, yap yap yap…” are ignorant of the strategy played upon our enemies!