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[Xando]

BREAKING: US official confirms to @BuzzFeedNews that the US-led Coalition hit Assad regime forces with air strikes in southern Syria today

https://twitter.com/mike_giglio/status/865241594550726658


https://www.buzzfeed.com/nancyyouss...ssad-forces-in?utm_term=.mfEwr2m97#.xfr3egd9b

The US military launched airstrikes against pro-Assad forces in southern Syria on Thursday, three US defense officials confirmed to BuzzFeed News.

It marked the second time under the Trump administration that the US has struck out against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces with airstrikes and first in the apparent vicinity of US troops operating inside Syria.

BuzzFeed News is the first to have reported US confirmation that it launched these new strikes.

The strikes were believed to have hit a regime-allied militia mixed with Syrian government forces, US officials said. They hit advancing vehicles outside a base called Tanf, near the Jordanian border. As BuzzFeed News reported last week, US Special Forces are deployed at the base with a unit of Syrian rebels. The Special Forces are training the rebels to fight ISIS — and also accompanying them on combat missions against the militants.

But the Syrian regime and its allies — including Iranian forces, Shiite militia, and Hezbollah — are also based some 40 miles outside Tanf, a rebel commander based there told BuzzFeed News last week, allowing them easy access to Tanf via a highway that cuts through the desert.

Unlike the US strike against the al-Shayrat air base in March, which the Trump administration ordered in retaliation for a regime chemical weapons attack, Thursday’s strike seemed designed to protect the US forces based at Tanf.

One of the defense officials — who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal details that the Pentagon had yet to make public — said that the US acted to stop an advance of pro-regime forces toward Tanf. Pro-regime forces had crossed a pre-agreed deconfliction zone and continued to advance despite warning strikes, he added. The strikes destroyed several vehicles. It was unclear if they resulted in any deaths.

The 5th Special Forces Group has been training and mentoring pro-Western rebel groups in and around Tanf for about six months as part of the anti-ISIS campaign developed under then-President Barack Obama and continued by the Trump administration.

While contact with ISIS units is to be expected considering the mission, this is the first instance of American air power being used against pro-Assad forces to support American troops and their rebel allies.

With a mission that focuses completely on ISIS, US troops have rarely had to worry about operating in close proximity to Syrian forces and their aligned militias. The last encounter between the groups occurred last month when Syrian troops passed near a special operations group in the Kurdish areas, but that remained peaceful. As the territory dominated by ISIS collapses in the face of advances by Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq forces in Mosul, though, the world’s most crowded battlespace further shrinks.

While the Trump administration has been firm in its opposition to ISIS, its policy towards the Assad regime has shifted rapidly at times. Prior to the chemical attack in April, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and others indicated that Assad may remain in power as part of a deal to end the ongoing civil war. Since then, Tillerson and Trump have called for Assad’s exit.

 

[Volimar]

How much of a head start did we let Russia give them this time?

 

[TheCochese]

Please look over here at my war. Please look.

 

[thechristoph]

Wag the dog...

 

[Kurdel]

Please look over here at my war. Please look.

Considering his base doesn't care about the recent events, this will only strengthen his position.

 

[SlickShoesRUCrazy]

There is the war.

 

[SwipeLeftHoney]

good way to distract from all the other Trump talk. GOP supporters will be eating this up...

 

[sangreal]

Please look over here at my war. Please look.

good way to distract from all the other Trump talk. GOP supporters will be eating this up...

I'm sure letting the soldiers get ambushed at al-Tanf would've drawn more attention

Not everything is political

 

[Kyzer]

good way to distract from all the other Trump talk. GOP supporters will be eating this up...

Probably has more to do with the civil war in syria...

 

[Brandon F]

If I hear anyone say "Trump is presidential" again...

 

[Frustrated_me]

There is that distraction again, right on cue.

It was so obvious the last time this happened, when USA bombed that Syrian airfield, it's so obvious now.

 

[Trojita]

Trump probably had no involvement in this..

Our SF are there training rebels. They probably setup a boundary as a "if they pass this we'll shoot" and that's what happened.

Bigger problem is that this is happening in their country without an actual declaration of war.

 

[cackhyena]

Lol, you guys with this distraction bullshit. Pretty sure it takes a lil more time than that to coordinate this stuff. Also pretty sure Trump wouldn't be the main driver of what's happening.

 

[Lord Frieza]

Considering his base doesn't care about the recent events, this will only strengthen his position.

It didn't last time, and it won't this time either.

 

[TheRealTalker]

Then a multi month pause until the next Trump scandal.

I don't mind hitting Assad aligned militia though...

Screw them, but don't assume people will just forget about Trump's other disasters/criticisms.

 

[TheRealTalker]

reading reports and apparently the Assad forces were warned countless times but approached the base regardless

this was after multiple statements by Assad allied forces saying they would take the fight to the South

this is the first time (at least in along while) that US air support backed FSA ground counter offensives


Also Iran was changing their supply routes after US build up in the North

 

[reckless]

So both Russia and the U.S apparently tried to tell them to stop and they didn't so really doubt its gonna be a big incident.

 

[brian577]

reading reports and apparently the Assad forces were warned countless times but approached the base regardless

this was after multiple statements by Assad allied forces saying they would take the fight to the South

this is the first time (at least in along while) that US air support backed FSA ground counter offensives


Also Iran was changing their supply routes after US build up in the North

So...can we get of the sensationalist headline?

 

[TheRealTalker]

one of the worst things that could happen is to have the border with Jordan under Assad/Iranian/or ISIS rule


how many refugee camps are settled there

 

[TheCochese]

I'm sure letting the soldiers get ambushed at al-Tanf would've drawn more attention

Not everything is political

He'll make it that way, which is the point.