For the first time in about a year, Syrian pro-government forces and the US-led coalition found itself engaged in what seems to be direct clashes near the village of Tal al-Dhahab in northeastern Syria.
Syrian sources said that on August 17 an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter struck a checkpoint of the Syrian Army in the province of al-Hasakah after the Syrian Army and pro-government locals blocked a US military convoy in the area. According to state-run news agency SANA, the strike killed a soldier and injured two others.
It is interesting to note that according to the US-led coalition version of events, the US military convoy came under gunfire from unidentified persons, when it was passing the army checkpoint. Then, US forces returned fire. No airstrikes were conducted according to the US statement.
Tal al-Dhahab is located south of the city of Qamishli. A large number of positions of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and the US-led coalition are located the countryside of the city. US forces regularly conduct patrols around the city. These patrols often try to block the movement of the Russian Military Police convoys in the very same area. In its own turn, the Syrian Army, pro-government locals and even the Russian Military Police also block try to block US military convoys. However, the August 17 situation became the first incident when such developments led to a real confrontation between the sides. Taking into account the intensity of interactions in the Syria-US-Russia triangle, this situation is setting up a dangerous precedent that may lead to a wider confrontation between the sides.
ISIS conducted several successful attacks on positions of the Syrian Army and the National Defense Forces in the provinces of Homs and Deir Ezzor. According to pro-opposition sources, at least 5 soldiers and several civilians were killed there in the last few weeks. As of August 18, the army and its local allies are reportedly preparing to conduct another series of anti-ISIS raids in the desert. The ISIS threat still remains an important but destabilizing factor in the central Syrian desert, but government forces lack resources to fully eliminate it.
Meanwhile, the military situation once again dangerously escalated in Greater Idlib. On August 17, a joint Turkish-Russian patrol came under an attack near the village of Arihah on the M4 highway. The explosion of supposed an improvised explosive device targeted a Turksih Kirpi armoured vehicle. The attack took place in the same area where the joint Russian-Turkish patrol was hit by a car bomb on July 14.
In both cases, Turkish sources almost immediately speculated that the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) or the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) may have been behind the attacks claiming that the groups supposedly active in the area .This is a lie. Neither the YPG nor the PKK have any active presence in southern Idlib. Contrary to Turkish fairy tales, the only terrorist groups active in this part of Idlib are Turkish-sponsored terrorists like Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Turkistan Islamic Party and others. The Turkish unwillingness to get rid of its pocket al-Qaeda supporters is the main source of the instability there. Therefore, Turkish soldiers in Idlib die to protect al-Qaeda from the inevitable defeat in the event of a direct confrontation with the Syrian Army and its allies.
The US has severely over-extended itself in the region, as successive US adminstrations, try to outdo the previous adminstration, in who can carry the most water for Israel.
The more they place Israeli interests above core US national interests, the more their power and prestige ebb away.
Today, the US – facing $ trillions in debt, record unemployment, a health crisis and a recession- gurantees Israel almost 11 Million dollars per day.
And if that is not more than enough, members of Congress compete against each other to see who can find creative ways to vote even more to the Zionist entity.
The US Senate just recently approved an additional $500M for Israel’s anti-missile program – no question asked and opposed by no one:
https://www.cufi.org/us-senate-approves-500m-for-israels-missile-defense-program/
The US is in Syria, not because it serves their national interests, but because the Israeli-Firsters who call the shots in Washington, believes it would not be in Israel’s national interests for US troops to leave Syria.
Thats why even when the majority of Americans favor leaving and the president says he will authorize a pull out, we find US troops hanging on in Syria with the flimsy justification of fighting ISIS or securing oil.
Selah
First-ever attack on one of the 12 military facilities, created by the United States since 2015 in Syria’s governorates of al-Hasakah, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. This comes on the heels of the death of a Russian general who was killed and two servicemen wounded in a Syrian explosion. Are these incidents related and is this the beginning of retaliation for the general’s death?
Syria’s SANA news agency reports rocket attack on US base in Deir ez-Zor
?he attack targeted a US base near the Conoco oil field controlled by US troops and Kurdish units
© Darko Bandic/AP
BEIRUT, August 19. /TASS/. Several rockets exploded on Tuesday on the territory of a US military base in the north of Syria’s Deir ez-Zor governorate, the SANA news agency reported.
According to the agency, the attack targeted a US base near the Conoco oil field controlled by US troops and Kurdish units. No information about casualties is available so far.
This is the first-ever attack on one of the 12 military facilities, created by the United States since 2015 in Syria’s governorates of al-Hasakah, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. US forces, together with Kurdish groups, control oil-rich areas on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river, including the oil fields of Al-Omar, Tanak, Al-Jafra and Conoco, which accounted for 80% of all oil produced in Syria before the war broke out.
Late last year, US President Donald Trump approved the plan of US troop withdrawal from Syria, according to which only a few hundreds of US soldiers will remain in the country. Their main task will be to ensure control over oilfields in the northeast of the country.
Russian general killed, two servicemen wounded in Syria explosion
An improvised roadside bomb exploded 15 km from the city of Deir ez-Zor when a Russian military convoy was returning to its base after a humanitarian mission
MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. A military adviser in the rank of a major-general was killed in an explosion in Syria while two servicemen were wounded, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday.
An improvised roadside bomb exploded 15 km from the city of Deir ez-Zor when a Russian military convoy was returning to its base after a humanitarian mission on August 18, the ministry’s press office said.
“Three Russian servicemen were wounded in the blast. During the evacuation and the provision of medical assistance, a Russian senior military adviser in the rank of a major-general died of heavy wounds,” the press office said.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu recommended conferring a state decoration on the killed officer posthumously. Russia’s Defense Ministry will also provide all necessary assistance to the killed officer’s family, the statement says.
Why do you think the Russians should waste more of their time and resources bringing this to “the (useless) UN”?
Why? To make it clear the the RF supports international law and the US does not.
Video of the incident shows an Apache circling above …
It does all the time. It just did again recently. As did Iraq.
It just never gets mentioned in the media.