The US-Backed Fight In Syria To Retake Raqqa Faces Complex Divisions

Defence officials told the Washington Post they would establish an outpost from which they could fire artillery at IS positions some 32km (20 miles) away. Their presence is meant to prevent the possibility of Turkish troops and US -backed Kurdish forces attacking each other.

Clashes erupted between the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Syrian regime forces on Thursday, sources on the ground said.

What are the marines going to do?

U.S. Marines from the The 11th MEU fire their M777 Lightweight 155mm howitzer during Exercise Alligator Dagger, Dec. 18, 2016.

“Retaking Mosul will also be a symbolic victory after ISIS announced the birth of its “phony” caliphate from Mosul’s great mosque in 2014, it said, noting that without a power base in Iraq, ISIS’ claims of legitimacy as a credible, alternative state are being exposed as a fallacy”.

Several hundred Special Operations troops have already been in Syria training local forces for months. However, their numbers were limited to 500. Proponents of the deployment say it will allow United States commanders on the ground with greater flexibility to quickly respond to unforeseen challenges on the ground.

Casualties are mounting. On Thursday, warplanes thought to belong to the US-led coalition against ISIS attacked the countryside around Raqqa and allegedly killed 23 civilians, including eight children, Reuters reported, citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Also Friday, Turkey’s military said Turkish troops and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces have killed – or “neutralized” – 71 Syrian Kurdish fighters in northern Syria this week.

U.S. officials have taken the unusual step of publicly talking about the Ranger deployment and where they are located to protect against them inadvertently coming under fire from forces fighting in the region or Turkish, Russian or Syrian forces. And so given the fact that there are enormous sacrifices involved in any military action, it’s best that we don’t shoot first and aim later. The news comes after the announcement from President Donald Trump’s administration about a conference with ministers from 68 countries to be held in Washington over two days on March 22 and 23, which will focus on defeating ISIS. Earlier this week, US intelligence reported that ISIS leaders are attempting to leave the city, where there are about 4,000 ISIS terrorists. The Islamic State is under growing military pressure in Iraq and Syria. “If we go to Manbij and the PYD is there, we will hit them”.

The military official said the deployment to Syria had been long-planned, but that the final decision to send them was only made recently by military commanders at U.S. Central Command.

In total, about 6,000 USA troops are in the countries, but largely in advisory roles.