Drones, bombers, fighters target Islamic State group while US also begins strikes against a deadly al-Qaida offshoot
The US and a group of five Arab nations began airstrikes against Islamic extremist targets in Syria late Monday, following through on President Barack Obama’s promise to expand the war against the Islamic State group while also targeting a separate insurgent network there believed to be a direct threat to the US homeland.
A mix of American fighters, bombers and drones, along with ships operating in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf bearing Tomahawk cruise missiles, began targeting key Islamic State group strongholds in Syria, including Raqqa, Dayr az Zawr, al Hasakah and Abu Kamal late Monday. In all, 14 strikes were conducted by aircraft from the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The USS Arleigh Burke and USS Philippine Sea launched 47 Tomahawks.
Also participating in the strikes were the militaries of Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Arab participation was a key component in the plan Obama first outlined earlier in September to fight the Islamic State group, which he said would only be successful if other predominantly Muslim countries denounced the group’s hard line brand of Islam and shared the burdens of war with the US.
The American military, under the authority of US Central Command, continued its ongoing attacks against the Islamic State group in Iraq on Monday, bringing the total strikes carried out this year in the former US war zone up to 194.
The new offensive in Syria included U.S. attacks against the Khorasan Group, an extremist network the Pentagon says is comprised of “seasoned al-Qaida veterans,” who have established a safe haven in Syria.
The Pentagon said in a statement it had disrupted an “imminent attack plotting against the United States and Western interests.” The Khorasan Group has used its base in Syria to develop external attacks, build and test improvised explosive devices and recruit Westerners to carry out these operations.
US warplanes operating under CENTCOM carried out eight strikes against this group in training camps near the Syrian city of Aleppo.
A Twitter user in the city of Raqqa began live-tweeting some of the events as they unfolded late Monday. The airstrikes were concentrated near government buildings, he said, observing “the sky is full of drones over Raqqa now.”
It remains unclear whether the Syrian regime under President Bashar Assad followed through on his threats of retaliation of the U.S. violated Syrian airspace and began conducting strikes there. Syrian air defenses are considered among the most advanced in the world. But Washington did inform Syria’s UN envoy of the pending strikes, according to The Associated Press. The Pentagon said all coalition aircraft participating in Monday’s strikes exited Syrian airspace safely.
In a seemingly unrelated event, the Israeli military says it shot down a Syrian fighter jet over Israel early Tuesday morning.
There are as many as 30,000 Islamic State group fighters according to some government estimates. The group began as al-Qaida in Iraq and was chased out of the country during the Iraq War. It fled to Syria where it rearmed and regrouped, and began a sweeping advance across the Syrian border toward Baghdad earlier this year, catching Western governments by surprise.
Following US strikes and ground attacks by Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, the extremist fighters have largely retreated into urban centers, such as Fallujah and Mosul, where fighting continues.
Part of Obama’s plan includes relocating Syrian rebel fighters, weary from more than three years of a brutal civil war against Assad, to training bases in Saudi Arabia to become a more advanced and well-organized militia. The vetting process for selecting the rebels to train could take as long as 5 months, Pentagon spokesman Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said last week. The subsequent training could take as long as a year.
The Defense Department estimates it may be able to produce 5,000 trained Syrian fighters each year once the process starts.
One can only say that Americans have forced these countries to be their partner just like they did with Saddam Hussain and then partners were left behind the timne Iraqi occupation and by Dividing it into Three belts namely Shia, Kurd and Sunni. Now the same devils game with new enemy created by the wicked policies of the West.
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