US begins armed drone flights from Turkey

U.S. warplanes already struck last week, bombarding Al Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels who had attacked the Pentagon-backed force.

“Otherwise, the U.S.-led coalition will hit headquarters of Syrian regime forces“.

He added that the U.S. and its coalition partners are “committed to using military force where necessary to protect the coalition-trained and equiped Syrian opposition fighters that are operating against ISIL inside of Syria right now”.

Additionally Saturday, Syria’s state media and the primary Kurdish militia within the nation stated authorities forces and Kurdish fighters have captured the final pocket that was held by the Islamic State group 5 weeks after the extremists stormed the town and captured a number of southern neighborhoods. “US air power would be at severe risk of being shot down with all that being shot down entails including US pilots falling into Assad’s hands”, he concluded.

There was no official comment from Damascus. Subsequently, on multiple occasions, policymakers appropriately pressed administration officials for further clarification of precisely when, how, and on what legal basis the United States would support and directly defend Pentagon-trained rebels. Officials told The Wall Street Journal they have no reason to believe Assad’s forces would attack the U.S. trained rebels.

That has gone so far as vetting potential rebel trainees that they regard their main enemy as Isil, not Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president – something that is true for only a minority of rebel forces. Elissa Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman. “We demonstrated our resolve in this respect on Friday‎”. He called the airstrikes another measure “to protect them”.

“These are people we are working with and training, and we will be providing them defensive support”.

He said the US had provided fire support against the opponents who looked “an terrible lot like al-Nusra“.

The airstrikes ended months of ambiguity about whether the U.S. would provide that firepower for the Syrian rebels.

But U.S. officials in recent weeks have walked a careful line, arguing that they have an obligation to defend the Syrian rebels that have been trained by the U.S.to help battle the Islamic State. But Al Nusra Front and other hard-line Islamic groups have a major presence in the proposed safe zone.

Speaking to ARA News, Syrian political analyst Alaa Ahmed said: “Everyone knows that pro-Assad forces don’t dare to target the U.S.-backed opposition forces”.

The Observatory said sporadic fighting was continuing on the western outskirts of Aleppo on Saturday morning, with regime planes carrying out air strikes and rebels firing rockets on loyalist positions.

What is most striking about the event is the unconcealed dismay and surprise on the part of both the US-backed militia and Washington itself at being attacked by the Nusra Front. There, he quickly joined the anti-regime Free Syrian Army, before moving to a smaller Turkmen brigade and then to the so-called 30th Division, created by the United States and its allies as the vanguard of Washington’s effort to roll back the Islamic State’s territorial gains.

Davis says this is the first time the U.S. conducted defensive strikes against anyone other than Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants in Syria. 1st Class Sheryl L. Lawry, U.S. Central Command spokeswoman. What has been sold to the American people as a war against terrorism is in actuality being waged in a de facto alliance with Al Qaeda.

The White House on Monday echoed those hopes that Assad would stay out of the way, but made clear there is no formal agreement with the Syrian leader.