How The U.S. Enabled ISIS To Take
Deir Ezzor
By Moon Of
Alabama
January 17,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- "MOA"
-
- The city
of Deir Ezzor (Deir ez-Zur) in east-Syria is on the
verge of falling into the hands of the Takfiris of the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). More than
100,000 civilian inhabitants of Deir Ezzor and thousands
of soldiers defending them are in immediate danger of
being murdered by the savage ISIS forces. The current
situation is a direct consequence of U.S. military
action against the SAA and non-action against ISIS.
Deir Ezzor is
besieged by ISIS since September 2015. But the city was
well defended by its garrison of Syrian Arab Army (SAA)
and all further attacks by ISIS were repelled. Supply to
the city was hauled in by air through the Deir Ezzor
airport and through air drops by the Syrian and Russian
airforces. Relief by ground forces and ground supplies
are not possible as Deir Ezzor is more than 100 km away
from the nearest SAA positions west of Palmyra and as
the desert in between is under the control of ISIS.
Google map -
bigger
Four days ago a
new attack by ISIS on Deir Ezzor was launched and has
since continued. ISIS reinforcements and resupplies had
come over months despite air interdiction from the
Russian and Syrian airforces. Yesterday ISIS managed to
cut off the airport, where the local SAA command and its
main supplies are hosted, from the city proper. It is
now attacking in full force from all sides. Bad weather
makes air support from the outside sporadic and
difficult. Unless some unforeseen happens it is only a
question of time until the airport and the city fall to
ISIS.
Map by Peto
Lucem -
bigger
The U.S. has
condoned and/or even actively supported the imminent
ISIS taking of Deir Ezzor by (at least) three measures:
- a massive
U.S. air attack on SAA forces in September 2016
enabled ISIS to take a controlling position and to
cut off SAA resupplies
- a U.S.
attack against a power station in January disabled
the last electricity supplies to the city
- U.S.
non-intervention enabled ISIS reinforcements from
Mosul and west Iraq to Deir Ezzor in east-Syria
On September 16
2016 an hour long U.S. led
air attack on SAA positions on the Tharda hills to
the south of the airport killed over 100 SAA soldiers,
destroyed a big SAA supply dump and several SAA tanks
and artillery pieces. Immediately after the U.S. attack
ISIS took the hills and has since held them. The
positions allow for fire control over the airport of
Deir Ezzor.
The U.S.
military claimed that the attack was a mistake but a
thorough reading of the investigation report of that
"mistake" shows that
the U.S. military attack was intentionally targeting the
SAA to make a political point against an announced
U.S.-Russian cooperation agreement to fight ISIS.
(Danish airforce F-16 planes and drones under U.S.
command had taken part in the attack. After the report
was published, the Danish government
pulled all air elements from its participation in
the U.S. coalition against ISIS.)
Since the U.S.
attack in September no significant air supplies have
reached Deir Ezzor. Even helicopter landing at the
airport is only possible at night and by taking very
high risks. The city inhabitants and their defenders are
completely cut off.
Early January
U.S. airforce attacks
destroyed the electricity plant at the Omar oilfield
near Deir Ezzor. The plant was the last one to supply
the city of Deir Ezzor. Since then only a few military
generators and dwindling fuel supplies are left for
medical and communication equipment.
When the Iraqi
Army plans for retaking the ISIS held city of Mosul were
developed and commenced in October the U.S. insisted on
leaving a western corridor open for ISIS forces inclined
to flee from Mosul into the direction of Deir Ezzor.
Hundreds if not thousands of ISIS fighters
used the corridor. The U.S. controlled Kurdish
forces in north Iraq
let ISIS pass from Iraq to Syria. Fearing
(correctly) that an ISIS move out of Mosul towards Deir
Ezzor would mean the fall of Deir Ezzor Russia and Iran
intervened with the Iraqi government. Despite U.S.
wishes the Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi ordered his
Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU) to cut off the western
exit:
Iran was not
the only country pressing for the escape to be
closed west of Mosul. Russia, another powerful Assad
ally, also wanted to block any possible movement of
militants into Syria, said Hashemi. The Russian
defence ministry did not immediately respond to a
Reuters request for comment.
One of
Assad’s biggest enemies, France, was also concerned
that hundreds of fighters linked to attacks in Paris
and Brussels might escape. The French have
contributed ground and air support to the Mosul
campaign.
...
Still, the battle plan did not foresee closing the
road to the west of Mosul until Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi agreed in late October to despatch
the Popular Mobilisation militias.
Despite a fast
advance by the PMU from the south against Tal Afar to
cut off the escape road many ISIS fighters in west Iraq
were able to flee across the border and towards Deir
Ezzor with their equipment in tact. They reinforced the
ISIS troops now attacking Deir Ezzor. The U.S. has
uncontested air superiority over west Iraq and east
Syria but did not once intervene against the large scale
move.
If ISIS takes
Deir Ezzor it will likely kill (as it did on other
occasions) all captured SAA troops and anyone it
believes to have cooperated with them. The soldiers know
this. They will fight down to the last bullet. But
without any reinforcements and resupplies their chances
are slim.
When the Syrian
government besieged al-Qaeda forces in east-Aleppo the
"western" media and the various "Syrian opposition"
propaganda outlets were running an all out campaign in
support of the besieged Takfiris. There is no such
campaign in support of the civilians and soldiers in
Deir Ezzor. In their few reports about the imminent fall
of Deir Ezzor "western" publications even resort to
outright lying. Thus
claims the Daily Telegraph:
The US-led
coalition, as well as the Russians, have been
bombing the jihadists in Deir Ezzor for the last 18
months but have been unable to dislodge them.
No significant
U.S. air attacks have been flown against ISIS forces
around Deir Ezzor at all. All attacks flown by the U.S.
in the area have been against Syrian government troops
or their supporting infrastructure.
The U.S.
official rhetoric about fighting ISIS is not supported
by observable facts on the battle field. One can only
conclude that the U.S. military does not only condone
but supports ISIS in gaining control over Deir Ezzor
despite the extreme high risk for anyone left in the
city.
This likely to
further the larger long term plan of installing a "Salafist
principality" in western Iraq and eastern Syria that
creates a justification for the U.S. military to stay in
the area to "fight ISIS" and which can be activated
against the Syrian and Iraqi government whenever
convenient. U.S. President Obama and Secretary of State
Kerry have both
admitted that they earlier allowed ISIS to grow in
Iraq and Syria for exactly such political purposes. |
