Also, the Kurds have been very careful to only fight for Kurdish majority areas, this is being pragmatic as they don't want to fight for Arabs (Kurds are an Irani people) and also if they DID move into Arab territory, it would cause bad blood
Posted on 05/26/2016 11:58:04 AM PDT by BeauBo
Sources said on Thursday that ISIL's foreign commanders... have been transferred to Mosul.
...ISIL is transferring its heavy weapons and equipment from Raqqa to Deir Ezzur, while preventing Raqqa residents from leaving the region.
..."ISIL has been transferring a large number of its forces and their heavy military equipment to the energy-rich regions in the Eastern Syria, mainly in Deir Ezzur and Eastern Homs, to save its revenues from smuggling of oil and gas," sources said,
(Excerpt) Read more at en.farsnews.com ...
Their story is that the US colludes with ISIS, allowing their leadership to retreat, while they send their local Syrian recruits to hold back the assault from the North.
The largely Kurdish SDF continues to advance on the ISIS "capital" of Raqqa, several miles per day, liberating villages and farms, and killing scores of ISIS.
Pictures of purported US Special Operators with them, wearing YPG (and YPJ!) patches have been posted on twitter - probably calling in the air strikes and gathering intel.
...feeding them to starving dogs if they retreat too quickly.
The end of the beginning
Rats leaving a sinking ship...
Of course they did. Bath House ordered the dropping of leaflets on them a few days ago, warning them.
What is ISIL?
“What is ISIL?”
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
It is the English translation of the Arabic name that they used initially, before starting to call themselves just “The Islamic State (IS).
Their original name was ISIS, where they used the old Arabic name of al “Sham”, for the “Levant”.
So they are still often referred to as ISIS, ISIL or IS.
Another popular name for them (which they hate) is Daesh - which is pronouncing their old acronym like it was an Arabic word, which sounds like the vulgar Arabic for “Feces” (Daess). Anyone calling them Daesh, is announcing that they are against them.
ISIL means the elimination of Israel.
That’s why Obaama and the US State Departmentt use it all the time.
Also, the Kurds have been very careful to only fight for Kurdish majority areas, this is being pragmatic as they don't want to fight for Arabs (Kurds are an Irani people) and also if they DID move into Arab territory, it would cause bad blood
yes, it is very easy to destroy the Islamic state using aircraft -- the Russians showed that.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me. ..................
“Mosul is closer to Kurdish territory, so why would they advance on Raqqa?” ...”Why would they advance on Arab areas?”
There are different Kurdish political parties, with different interests. Sometimes in the past their internal fighting has been bloody, but nowadays they compete politically, but often cooperate militarily.
In Northern Iraq, The KDP, headquartered in Erbil (dominated by the Barzani family) and the PUK, headquartered in Sulemaynia (dominated by Talabani family), are the main groups. They coordinate with each other, and present an effectively united Kurdish position to the national government in Baghdad. Those are the Kurds that the US and Iraqi Government would like to participate in liberating Mosul.
In Syria though, the dominant Kurdish political party is the new PYD, which is closely affiliated with the longstanding PKK party - which has been engaged in violent conflicts with the Turkish Government over the last decades. Those are the guys moving toward Raqqa.
Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish political parties compete for influence and control over Kurdish populations, but the Syrian Kurds have effectively pushed the Iraqi Kurdish parties from growing their influence in Syria, and vice versa. Despite their political differences however, they cooperated with each other in driving ISIS from the Mount Sinjar area, near their border. They have gone so far as to man joint checkpoints and share ammo during firefights.
The US started seriously providing the PYD in Syria, and their armed militias the YPG (men) and YPJ (women) support last year, after years of supporting “moderate” Arab rebels proved ineffective. Those Syrian Kurds have been kicking ISIS butt and taking their territory ever since. They don’t want to go into Arab Raqqa, but it is the price for their support from the US. (The Democrats need some high profile victories against ISIS before the election, to inoculate themselves from charges of losing to ISIS.)
The Syrian Kurds really want to consolidate their control of the ethnically Kurdish areas of Northern Syria, creating a semi-autonomous Kurdish Region (which they call Rojava - West Kurdistan), similar to the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq. They really want to close the remaining 50 mile gap that separates their two strongholds (Afrin and Kobane), by capturing the cities of Manbij and al Bab (North of Aleppo). They Need US air support, ammo supply, and protection from the Turks to do that. The Turks have often marched in and slaughtered Kurds across the border in the past - they are firing artillery across the border at Kurds everyday.
The current Turkish Government (AKP Party, dominated by the Erdogan family) actually gets along well with the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (especially the KDP Party and Barzanis). The Iraqi Kurds ship their oil out through Turkey, and Erdogan’s family makes a fortune on it.
The Turkish Government and Erdogan hate the Syrian Kurds though, and are dead set to prevent a Rojava from surviving along their border. Without US (or Russian) Support, Turkey has overwhelming military power to crush the Syrian Kurds.
To get around the ethnic problem of having Kurds attack ethnically Arab Raqqa, the Americans had the Syria Kurds join into a coalition, which they call the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which includes Assyrian Christians, Arabs, etc. Although the military of the SDF is overwhelmingly the Kurdish YPG/YPJ, they recruit and train locals to occupy and administer Arab areas which they liberate from ISIS - as they have done in nearby Shadadi and Hasakah.
Both in Iraq and Syria, Kurds are head and shoulders above the other ethnic or sectarian groups in their military effectiveness for the USA. During years of conflict in Iraq, with over a half million US troops rotating through, not one American was killed in the Kurdish-controlled North. In both Iraq and Syria, the various Kurdish groups have been the most consistently effective against ISIS, but as you rightly say, they don’t want to fight beyond their historically Kurdish areas, unless they really have to.
“this is being pragmatic as they don’t want to fight for Arabs (Kurds are an Irani people) and also if they DID move into Arab territory, it would cause bad blood”
Not just “bad blood” because they are Irani people. It’s also a matter of numbers & equipment. There are far less Kurds (all *active & fighting* political groups inclusive ) than Turks and/or Arabs. No point in fighting a losing battle or war - it’d be high risk just based on numbers and necessary, modern equipment.
Totally agree about Fars News being an Iranian regime mouthpiece.
“Their story is that the US colludes with ISIS, allowing their leadership to retreat, while they send their local Syrian recruits to hold back the assault from the North.”
My understanding is that it isn’t so much about the US colluding directly with ISIS - it’s high risk. After all, even Assad’s regime has at least economic or trade relations (be it under the table and out of necessity) with ISIS leadership occupying parts of Syria last few years.
It is more about not defining who those Islamic-Arab “rebels or moderates” are. In that part of the world, as am sure you know, loyalty is fleeting. And, loyalty is very often based on 4 factors + 1:
1. Ethnicity & identity
2. Religion (sect)
3. Language
4. Money
5. Fear
ISIL is what the Iranian mullahcracy calls its allies, ISIS or Daesh. ISIL is also Zero's preferred name for them.
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