The "Race To Raqqa" Is Quickly
Intensifying
By Moon
Of Alabama
February
14, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- "Moon
Of Alabama"
-
This is a look
at the larger picture of forces developing around
Syria. Several foreign armies are aggregating at the
Syrian borders with the intent to invade Syria and
to occupy its eastern part. But before we dive into
that, a short look at the curious situation
developing in the north-west.
Near Azaz
the U.S. ally Turkey is currently
shelling (video)
the U.S. ally YPG which is fighting the CIA
supported FSA.
![](http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/syria-map-afp.jpg)
Map by AFP(?)
The
Syrian-Kurdish YPG troops were heavily supported by
the U.S. in their fight against the Islamic State in
north-eastern Syria. Under U.S. tutelage they united
with Arab anti-IS fighters under the label Syrian
Democratic Forces.
In
north-west Syria the SDF has used the recent success
of the Syrian army against Jihadis in the area to
take northern parts of the Azaz corridor which once
connected Aleppo to Turkey. That corridor is held by
a mixture of al-Qaeda Jihadist from Jabhat al-Nusra,
"Turkmen" Islamists from various Turk speaking
countries and local Islamist gangs supported by the
CIA under the label Free Syrian Army. All three get
money and weapons from Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
The Syrian
army is moving north and south from the red strip in
the map. The SDF is moving east from the Kurdish
enclave around Afrin. During the last days the SDF,
supported by the Russian airforce, captured the
Minnagh airbase which was held by al-Qaeda aligned
forces. The SDF then proceeded north to take Azaz,
the last major town the Turkish supported Islamist
are holding in the area.
Turkey
today used 155mm artillery to fire from Turkey
against SDF positions on Minnagh airbase and around
Azaz. There will be Turkish special forces observers
in Syria to direct the fire.
The NATO
member Turkey is shelling the YPG, which is backed
by Russia and the U.S., and the SDF which is backed
by the U.S. for attacking the FSA and Islamists who
are backed by the U.S., Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
A nice
little clusterfuck the smart (not) girls and boys
around Obama created.
But
as described here two days ago in
The Race To Raqqa Is On,
a much bigger clusterfuck is currently in the making
in and all around Syria.
The Russian
and Syrian airforce will likely respond to the
Turkish attack with an intensified bombing of
positions held by Turkish proxy forces in Syria.
Those forces just received
new artillery ammunition and
new TOW anti-tank missiles.
There is
yet
unconfirmed news that this situation will
escalate very fast:
The
Int'l Spectator @intlspectator
BREAKING: Turkish official says
there will be a 'massive
escalation' in Syria over next 24 hours.
The Turkish
Foreign Minister
said today that the fight against ISIS must
include (Turkish) ground operations.
The Syrian
government and its Iranian and Russian allies are
determined to liberate the whole country from the
foreign supported terrorists and the Islamic State.
The want to keep the country united.
The aim of
outside forces, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, the UAE,
the U.S., Britain, France is to occupy east Syria to
gain political concession from the Syrian government
and its allies. They will demand the reconfiguration
of the independent, secular Syrian state under
President Assad into a dependent Sunni Islamist
entity. Should that demand not be fulfilled they
will form a new "Sunnistan" Islamist protectorate
from the currently ISIS held carcasses of east Syria
and west-Iraq.
Turkey
today threatened further and wider attacks on
Kurdish held areas in Syria. The Turkish 2nd Army
is positioned to attack Syria from the north. It
could come through the ISIS held corridor between
Azaz in the west and Jarablus in the east and move
south towards the Islamic State held Raqqa while
other forces, see below, would reach Raqqa from the
south and south east. Syria would be thus split into
a government held western half and an ISIS and U.S.
allies held eastern half.
Russian
advisers have trained one Syrian brigade
specifically for the purpose of holding off a
Turkish invasion. But that brigade is probably not a
big enough deterrence for the large Turkish forces
and could soon be overwhelmed.
The Saudis
today claimed again that Assad must be overthrown to
defeat the Islamic State. That is of course nonsense
but the Saudi family dictatorship has a personal
grudge against Assad. The Syrian President once
called the Saudis "only half men". (IMHO He was too
generous.)
Twenty
Saudi F-15 jets arrived today in Incirlik airbase in
Turkey to, allegedly, join the U.S. coalition force
against the Islamic State. The Saudis also promised
to send ground forces if those would fight under
some allied command "against ISIS". The United Arab
Emirates promised to send special forces for the
same purpose. Some Saudi ground forces have already
been observed making their way through Jordan.
At least
1,600 British troops with heavy weapons and
equipment are
currently arriving in Jordan. The Brits claim
that this is just for some normal training maneuver
but we can expect the British government to paid off
enough by the Gulf Arabs to take part in the fight.
The British units would likely lead a Saudi/UAE/(maybe
also Egyptian?) combined force from east Jordan up
through the Syrian desert towards Raqqa and Deir
Ezzor. These forces are currently
explained as "trainers" who will enter Syria to
instigate Syrian Arab tribes to fight ISIS. If there
were enough forces in such tribes at all, these
could be trained in Jordan. There is currently no
Syrian or Russian force in the desert that could
prevent such a move.
An
additional brigade from the U.S. 101st Airborne
is deploying to Iraq without much public
announcement. Its task is an invasion of Syria from
the south-east along the Euphrates to first capture
Deir Ezzor and to then move on to Raqqa.
The Syrian
army is
on its way to ISIS held Raqqa to prevent any
foreign force reaching there first. It will have to
hurry up. The race to Raqqa is intensifying.
The
Russians have alarmed several airborne brigades and
air transport units of their Southern command to be
ready for a fast intervention should such troops be
needed in Syria. The Russians could airdrop an
airborne brigade into the government held, ISIS
besieged
parts of Deir Ezzor (vid) to prevent that city
from being attacked or taken over by Saudi and/or
U.S. forces. Two additional Russian missile ships
are
on their way to the Syrian coast. They carry
long distance Kalibr cruise missiles which can be
used against other ships as well as against land
targets.
Iran is
ready to send as many men from its Revolutionary
Guard and Quds brigades to Syria as are needed to
sustain the governments fight. These folks salivate
over the prospect of having some regular Saudi
forces for breakfast.
There are
active attempts to
draw all NATO nations into the phony "fight
against ISIS". When the war over Syria gets hotter
NATO will likely try to create diversions elsewhere
to keep Russia distracted from reacting properly in
Syria. The U.S. will tell its Ukrainian puppet
government to reengage in massive attacks on Russian
supported Ukrainian rebels in east Ukraine.
The war
against Syria, waged by the U.S., Turkey, Qatar and
Saudi Arabia, was so far carried out by proxy forces
and foreign mercenaries within Syria's borders. When
the Syrian government was on the verge of losing the
successful Russian intervention turned the war
around. German intelligence no
asserts (in German) that the Syrian government
is winning the war against the foreign supported
forces.
As the war
by proxy against Syria has now failed, the
anti-Syrian powers have decided to join the action
on the ground with their own forces. The "fight
against ISIS" (which the Syrians and Russian are
fighting more than anybody else) is now the
pretext to capture eastern Syria, to split the
country in half and to destroy the Syrian government
and state.
The "civil
war" in Syria is now developing into an large
international conflagration over the future of Syria
and the whole Middle East.
Meanwhile the
Islamic State, confused by this U.S. created
clusterfuck in Iraq and Syria, decides to relocate
its headquarters from Iraq and Syria to Libya, the
other failed state and Charly Foxtrot the U.S. (F,
UK) recently created. There it will find rich oil
fields, lots of new weapons and no capable enemies. |