You have commented 358 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US airstrikes help Kurds connect 'cantons' in Syria
2015-06-25
[AA.TR] Pentagon data on U.S.-led coalition Arclight airstrikes in Syria shows that of nearly 1,800 strikes, at least 1,200 have supported Kurdish rebels connect the self-declared "cantons" in northern Syria.
Everybody else bitched and moaned about their sovereignty or accepting help from The Great Satan. The Kurds, not being Arabs, simply said "Sure. How do you work that air-ground integration again?"
According to data from the U.S. Central Command in the last 10 months, the alliance has conducted a total of 4,624 Arclight airstrikes against Daesh targets -- 2,850 inside Iraq while 1,774 in Syria. The U.S. has conducted 3,596 of the strikes with 1,930 in Iraq and 1,666 in Syria.

The remaining 1,028 Arclight airstrikes have been conducted by coalition partners Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, La Belle France, Jordan, Netherlands, UK, Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
 and United Arab Emirates.

Coalition forces have coordinated Arclight airstrikes inside Iraq with the Iraqi government, but in Syria there is no single force contributing to intelligence sharing for Daesh targets which raises the question about how the coalition is conducting Arclight airstrikes inside the country.

Unlike in Iraq, anti-Daesh forces in Syria are diverse with different agendas that caused the U.S. to drag its foot on conducting Arclight airstrikes there.

The strikes on Daesh targets in Syria began in September, one month after similar action in Iraq, following weeks of debate in the U.S.

The debate about Arclight airstrikes in Syria has heated up as the Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD's military wing -- People Protection Units, known as YPG -- recently captured the northern Syrian city of Tell Abyad and allegedly forced local Arabs and Turkmens from their lands while uprooting Daesh from the last piece of Syrian land bordering The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
.

PYD is considered by Turkey as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) that has fought against Turkey for decades.

By capturing Tell Abyad, Kurdish forces connected the two pieces of land they have controlled in northern Syria along the Turkish border, which Kurdish rebels call Jazirah and Kobani "cantons".

Last year, Kurdish rebels declared three areas in northern Syria as Kurdish "cantons". They call the area around al-Afrin city in the northwest corner "Afrin Canton"; the area around the city of Ayn al-Arab, a few hundred miles east of al-Afrin as "Kobani Canton" and the area covering the cities of Tal Hamees, al-Hasakeh, al-Qamisli and Ra'sal Ayn as "Jazirah Canton".

It's no secret that the success of YPG in connecting the forces in these two areas is due in part to the intense coalition Arclight airstrikes. But Syrian opposition groups that are also fighting Daesh and Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
's regime, claim that Kurdish rebel groups have exploited the Arclight airstrikes for political motivations in northern Syria.
Posted by:Fred

00:00