RSS Feed
September 9th, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, on Saturday, announced the launch of an operation to drive ISIS militants out of parts of Syria’s Deir Ez-Zor province. SDF forces will attack ISIS-held areas in the eastern province from the north and east, located on the Iraqi border east of the Euphrates River. Meanwhile, forces of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and allies have broken ISIS’s siege of Deir Ez-Zor city and continue anti-ISIS operations west of the Euphrates.
Ahmad Abu Khawlah (3rd-R), chief of the Deir ez-Zor Military Council — a coalition of Arab tribes and fighters that belongs to the broader US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces — speaks during a press conference in the northeastern Syrian village of Abu Fas, on the southern outskirts of Hasakah province, on September 9, 2017 (Courtesy YPG)
The SDF operation is called “Jazira Storm’, a reference to the predominantly “Arab” population in Deir Ez-Zor provinc as compared to the predominantly Kurdish forces that form the core of the SDF. Ahmad Abu Khawla, the commander of the local Military Council, said that they are thankful for the support they receive from the SDF, adding that the SDF will also take part in the operation.
Ryan Dillon, the spokesperson for the U.S.-led Global Coalition against ISIS told reporters that they are committed to supporting the SDF-led operation. He added that “Daesh will have no safe haven in the Euphrates River Valley.”
British Army Maj. Gen. Rupert Jones, from the Coalition, said last month that the military campaign to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria will end in the Euphrates River valley, an area between the Syria-Iraq border and Deir Ez-Zor.
Dillon described the forces tasked with the Jazira Storm as “indigenous Dayr az Zawr tribes” who are prepared to seize “their hometowns and their province from ISIS.”
Tala Silo, the SDF spokesperson, told reporters in a village south of Hassakeh province, that the Military Council has taken part in all operations launched by the SDF, and therefore it is normal that this time round the SDF will join the Deir Ez-Zor operation.
The Syrian Arab Army and its allied militia forces are also present in Deir ez-Zor as they made some recent advances from the west, backed by Russian air forces. The SAA succeeded in breaking the three-year-long ISIS siege. Staffan de Mistura, special UN envoy for Syria, welcomed the development and stressed that the reestablishment of a road link to Deir Ez-Zor city will help mitigate humanitarian needs in the city.
Asked about potential confrontations between the SDF-backed forces and the Syrian army, Silo said that the two forces are not in close proximity by any means and that they are located on opposite sides of the province. Khawla, on his side, warned that if attacked, the SDF has the right to self-defense and will respond through force.
With regard to Turkey, Syria’s northern border, that considers the SDF as an extension of Kurdish PKK insurgents in Turkey and therefore a terrorist organization, Silo said that their operation is an “internal affair”, that it is backed by the US-led Global Coalition, and that Turkey should not intervene in Syria.
The SDF, which is mainly Kurdish with some 60,000 YPG/YPJ fighters at its core, denies any links between it and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). It’s worth noting that U.S. special forces advised the PYD – YPG/YPJ to “keep a low profile” with regard to PKK “sympathies” so as not to create a PR problem between Turkey and the USA.
F/AK – nsnbc 09.09.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/09/09/syrian-democratic-forces-launched-operation-against-isis-in-syrias-deir-ez-zor-province/
Related posts:
Views: 0
Posted in 
Tags: 
