"No, we don’t expect to encounter Russian or Syrian forces," Gedney told news hounds on Tuesday. "We have confidence that the deconfliction mechanisms we have in place will work."
Gedney said planning for the final stage of Operation Round Up is ongoing and has as its goal clearing the last remaining ISIS*-held pockets in the city of Hajin in the Abu Kamal district.
Completing Operation Round Up can only mean liberating the territory east of the Euphrates River after which the coalition must support stabilization efforts to ensure a lasting defeat of ISIS in the region, Gedney said.
​Gedney pointed out that the coalition expects a difficult fight in the final stage of the operation because hardcore Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
fighters have congregated in a densely populated area, which is the last area they presently control.
​The US-led coalition of more than 70 countries is conducting military operations against the ISIS terror group in Syria and Iraq. The coalition’s operations in Iraq are conducted in cooperation with Iraqi officials, but those in Syria are not authorized by the government of
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
or the UN Security Council.