“ISIS Free Zone” Plans Lead To Even More Chaotic Situation In Syria And Iraq

July 31, 2015

The fifty something mercenaries the U.S. military trained to act as Forward Air Controllers to direct U.S. air attacks towards whatever target in Syria have run into trouble. Shortly after entering Syria some were abducted by the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and last night some were killed and more wounded when Jabhat al Nusra attacked their headquarter. The defenders then used their new skills to direct U.S. air attack on the attackers. Nusra released a statement saying that it would now fight against any "American project" in Syria.

The U.S. wants its mercenaries to occupy parts of Syria that will allow resupplies to be safely transported for further attacks on the Syrian government as well as for attacks on the Islamic State. It markets the areas to be occupied as Islamic State free zones. Turkey wants those areas to be Kurd free zones as it wants to keep them to resupply the Islamic State and other extremist organization which operated with Turkish, Saudi and Qatari support against the Syrian and Iraqi government.

The plan to insert these Forward Air Controller specialists to direct air capabilities is on top of the CIA program which for years now trains, equips and pays some 10,000 mercenaries to attack the Syrian government at a cost of $1 billion/year. Another force that will soon be inserted into Syria are Syrian Turkmen trained and supplied by Turkey:

Turkish jets (and artillery when necessary) will hit targets mostly in this region for “cleaning” it of ISIL forces. This is planned to be executed with the help of a 5,000 strong army mainly consisting of Turkmens living in Syria. One source said that this force, which has been assisted by Turks, would be in coordination with the U.S.-led coalition.

One wonders how Jabhat al-Nusra will react to that "Turkish project".

Last night a warehouse in Reyhanli on the Turkish side of the Syrian border and allegedly controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood welfare organization IHH went up in flames. A while ago trucks allegedly belonging to IHH with supplies on their way to Syria were stopped by Turkish police who found that those trucks were actually under control of the Turkish secret service M.I.T. and carrying weapons and ammunition into Syria. (The policemen were later arrested for doing their job.) The IHH warehouse that went up last night might well have been a M.I.T. depot with supplies for the Turkmen mercenaries.

If the U.S. really wants to use its newly hired Forward Air Controllers against the Islamic State it will now have to protect them not only against the Islamic State but also against Jabhat al-Nusra and probably also against the Turkmen on the Turkish payroll.

A U.S. general said today that "All credible anti-ISIL forces on the ground in Syria will receive coalition support as required." Which groups does he actually mean? "Credible anti-ISIL forces" are the Syrian Arab Army and Hizbullah? The Syrian Kurds with the YPG and PKK who the Turks are currently bombing? The Jabhat al-Nusra al-Qaeda affiliates who, on and off again, also fight against the Islamic State? Who the hell does he mean? Does he know who he means?

As it looks now the whole "ISIS Free Zone" attempt is likely to make the fight against ISIS more difficult.

Is it this chaos that the White House really wants?

Posted by b on July 31, 2015 at 17:40 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Inflection point: “US led managed chaos”in ME has now just become US created uncontrollable contagion?

Posted by: Steve | Jul 31 2015 17:53 utc | 1

More something to the something in today’s Today’s Zaman:

US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner said on Thursday that the US will use military bases in Turkey to provide air support for rebel Syrian groups fighting radical terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), including the People’s Protection Units (YPG) Kurdish militia, only one day after a Turkish official said the recent deal to allow the US expanded access to air bases does not encompass support for the YPG.
Speaking at a daily press briefing, Toner confirmed earlier remarks by State Department Spokesman John Kirby, who had said that Turkish air bases would be used to provide air support for YPG forces in Syria and other groups battling against the ISIL. The remarks came despite Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç saying on Wednesday that providing air cover for the YPG was not part of the Turkish-US agreement. […]

Posted by: CE | Jul 31 2015 18:28 utc | 2

So much for the Treaty of Westphalia. Let us now weep for the death of the Nation State … sniff sniff boo hoo … … well you all know what crying sounds like.

Posted by: Some Guy | Jul 31 2015 19:01 utc | 3

Something exciting must occur, like Iraq, Syria, Kurds, Hezbollah, and Iran agreeing to form the core of a Coalition of the Willing to drive Daesh back into the lands of its Zionist benefactors. Imagine Russia and China joining such a coalition, and both have strong national interests in that regard. I doubt Daesh could last till yearend.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 31 2015 19:37 utc | 4

Karlof1 The option of asking Iraq, Iran and any other groups in the region to join with Syria in a coalition of the willing, whose combined populations number over 100 million people is entirely feasible,and well within international law. Maybe Assad has things well in hand. Because Islamic State has designs on all the nations above and pose an existential threat to them all. Such cooperation should not be ruled out.

Posted by: harry law | Jul 31 2015 20:10 utc | 5

Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that certain American-Zionist Middle East “specialists” were conducting a PR campaign to relabel Jabhat al-Nusra as moderate? Poof! The US is in way over it’s head in Syria and Iraq. The choice is fail big or fail disastrously big.

Posted by: Gareth | Jul 31 2015 20:19 utc | 6

If the US doesn’t keep unending war going in the ME then someone might ask about more serious questions about Fukushima and noticeable climate change, or racism, or……………
Or why we have private finance at all in today’s world?
All those folks believing all those religions must also have faith that the inherited rich are looking out for all of mankind’s best interest. What are the chances of that?
Maybe soon our extinction will be like a stinky fart in the Cosmos.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 31 2015 20:39 utc | 7

“If the U.S. really wants to use its newly hired Forward Air Controllers against the Islamic State it will now have to protect them not only against the Islamic State but also against Jabhat al-Nusra and probably also against the Turkmen on the Turkish payroll.”
There is a clear Drive by the US Empire in recent times to start getting involved more seriously itself for regime change in Syria. Organising with hegemonic allies such as turkey, instead of the U.S. relying on its created terrorist proxies in ISIL and Al Qaeda. Who have done a “fine job” destroying much of Syria and eliminating half of Syrias army.
That these mercenary target designators were takenout so quickly, not only speak to the absurdity of how fast they were defeated, but now that would put pressure on possibly the Turks to get more militarily involved than they have been.
Hiding behind mercenaries to do the dirty work against Al Qaeda and ISIL and then The Syrian government itself , may not be feasible any more if direct Western and allies regime change is wanted sooner than later

Posted by: tom | Jul 31 2015 21:14 utc | 8

Poor Nadeem Hassan. He didn’t get to do much Forward Air Controlling. Wonder how much al-Nusra will want for him.

Posted by: dh | Jul 31 2015 21:36 utc | 9

8
The Crypto-Zionist Crazed Crusader gene is strong in DoD, and most especially among their CarpetBmober Ilk. On to Tehran!
DynCorp International, Ft. Worth, Texas, was awarded a $17,313,518 ***modification*** (P00065) to foreign military sales contract W58RGZ-09-C-0143 (Saudi Arabia) for maintenance support to the Royal Saudi Land Forces Aviation Command.
DynCorp? What could possibly go wrong?

Posted by: Chipnik | Jul 31 2015 22:32 utc | 10

@2
So Turkish f-16s will be flying out of Turkish bases to destroy Kurdish YPG and US f-16s will be flying out of the same Turkish bases to protect Kurdish YPG? Why don’t just save fuel and fight each other at the bases in Turkey?
@4 @5
Exactly. If there is going to be a solution, that has to be it.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 31 2015 23:26 utc | 11

Someone should tell the bull that it wouldn’t have to spend so much time and effort “fixing” china shops if it would just stop smashing them up for once.

Posted by: guest77 | Aug 1 2015 0:03 utc | 12

@jfl|11
Seriously, there’s already Turkish airforce jets covering ISIS counter-offensives over territory US “coalition” jets had just helped to “liberate” with YPG ground forces days earlier. See here.

Posted by: CE | Aug 1 2015 0:06 utc | 13

@13
In the banking business it is referred to as churning where they get a little fee from every move. In the war business it is Big Oil and the MIC businesses that love the churn.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 1 2015 0:28 utc | 14

Yet another display of the inept USA foreign policy in the middle east and the dangerously infantile Turkey’s foreign policy.
More deaths, more destruction and another improvisation in a few months…
The Syrian government is watching with satisfaction the beginning of the collapse of Turkey under the megalomaniac Erdogan and his grinning hamster, Davutoglu

Posted by: Virgile | Aug 1 2015 2:05 utc | 15

“Is it this chaos that the White House really wants?”
I suspect it’s a blokey thing. Blokes who go supermarket shopping are much more likely than women to do so when they’re feeling hungry. This causes them to return home with a bagful of (unpalatable, seemed like a good idea at the time) Buyer’s Remorse. Blokes hate admitting they were wrong and find it much easier to paint a smiley-face on their blunders.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 1 2015 3:55 utc | 16

@15
May it be as you foretell … “the beginning of the collapse of Turkey under the megalomaniac Erdogan”, and may it roll back uphill to the USA under the CIA-compliant Obama.
If Erdogan bites the dust the sane Turks might join the Lebanese, Syrians, Iraqis, and Iranians and restore the Garden of Eden … it was somewhere in that bailiwick, wan’t it?
And of course if the big enchilada bit the dust the whole world could give peace a chance.

Posted by: jfl | Aug 1 2015 8:40 utc | 17

“So much for the Treaty of Westphalia.”
I had my high school education in Poland and I have read quite a bit more than required to get a passing grade. Before coming to USA I never knew about “significance of ToW”, just a treaty that ended a long war, and a principle that in Germany your freedom of religion was up to your prince, so if you were a prince and you felt like making short work of some group, say Lutherans or Anabaptists, other princes should not intervene in such domestic matters. Otherwise, the history of subsequent centuries in Europe is an almost monotone list of armed interventions in the domestic matters, a few of them were in Poland, but there were other notable examples like “War of Spanish Succession”.
“The Syrian government is watching with satisfaction the beginning of the collapse of Turkey under the megalomaniac Erdogan and his grinning hamster, Davutoglu”
While Erdogan clearly has enormous ego and short temper, and a careful comparison of Davutoglu with a hamster finds significant similarity — look how adorably they move their mustaches! — collapse is not a good word. It is better to say that AKP has some difficulties in proceeding as previously planned. However, right now AKP seems to be on course of being the sole ruling party in Turkey by fomenting domestic strife and repressions, they just need to gain cooperation of the anti-Kurdish party and outlaw the pro-Kurdish party, and prevent the third opposition party from getting into tactical alliance with Kurds. However, as all of that is and will be going on, Turkey will be distracted and it will be easier for Iran and Russia to help Assad and “popular resistance committees” in Iraq.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 1 2015 15:43 utc | 18

Is it this chaos that the White House really wants?

I’m not sure about the WH. It’s pretty clueless, but chaos is definitely what the MIC and CIA want. It’s the chaos that justifies their budgets and profits.

Posted by: Bill Rood | Aug 1 2015 16:14 utc | 19

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