Syrian
opposition asks
US-led coalition to halt attacks on Isil after dozens of civilian
deaths. “(Syria)
condemns, with the strongest terms,
the two bloody massacres
perpetrated by the French and US warplanes and those affiliated to
the so-called international
coalition
which send their missiles and bombs to the civilians
instead of directing them to the terrorist gangs,”
it said in a letter sent to the
United Nations this week, according
to state news agency SANA.
By
Bill Van Auken
The
Pentagon has prepared recommendations to be submitted to President
Donald Trump at the beginning of next week for a major escalation of
the US military intervention in Iraq and Syria.
According
to unnamed US officials cited Friday by the Wall
Street Journal,
the proposal is expected to include “sending additional troops to
Iraq and Syria” and “loosening battlefield restrictions” to
“ease rules designed to minimize civilian casualties.”
The
new battle plans stem from an executive order signed by Trump on
January 28 giving the Pentagon 30 days to a deliver a “preliminary
draft of the Plan to defeat ISIS [Islamic State] in Iraq and Syria.”
According
to independent estimates, as many as 8,000 civilians have already
died in air strikes carried out by US and allied warplanes against
targets in both Syria and Iraq, even as the Pentagon routinely denies
the vast majority of reported deaths of unarmed men, women and
children resulting from US bombings. The new policy to be rolled out
next week, which the Journal reports
is aimed at “increasing the number and rate of operations,” will
inevitably entail a horrific intensification of this bloodletting.
Speaking
before the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the
Brookings Institution in Washington on Thursday, the chairman of
Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford, said that the
Pentagon would be presenting Trump with a “political-military plan”
to deal not only with ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but to “advance our
long-term interests in the region.”
Referring
to the intense contradictions besetting the US intervention in the
region, which has relied on the use of Kurdish militias as proxy
ground troops in Syria, even as Washington’s NATO ally, Turkey, has
intervened to militarily counter their influence, Dunford insisted
that Washington “can’t be paralyzed by tough choices.”
Pointing
to the regional scope of the planned US military escalation, Dunford
echoed earlier bellicose rhetoric from the administration against
Iran, listing it alongside Russia, China, North Korea and
“transnational violent extremism” as the major targets of the US
military.
The
US military commander stated that “the major export of Iran is
actually malign influence across the region.” He said that the US
military buildup against Iran was designed to “make sure we have
freedom of navigation through the Straits of Hormuz, and that we
deter conflict and crisis in the region, and that we advance our
interest to include our interest in dealing with violent extremism of
all forms.” All of these alleged aims are pretexts for continuous
US provocations aimed at countering Iran’s regional influence and
furthering the drive for US hegemony in the Middle East.
In
relation to Iraq, Dunford signaled US intentions to maintain a US
military occupation long after the campaign against ISIS is
completed. He referred to a “dialog about a long-term commitment to
grow the capacity, maintain the capacity of the Iraqi security
forces,” adding that Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Abadi had
spoken of “the international community continuing to support
defense capacity building.”
Dunford’s
comments echoed those of Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog”
Mattis during a trip earlier this week to Baghdad. While disavowing
Trump’s crude comments last month—“We’re not in Iraq to seize
anybody’s oil,” Mattis said—he also suggested that plans are
being developed for a permanent US military presence in the country.
“The
Iraqi people, the Iraqi military and the Iraqi political leadership
recognizes what they’re up against and the value of the coalition
and the partnership in particular with the United States,” Mattis
told reporters Monday. “I imagine we’ll be in this fight for a
while and we’ll stand by each other.”
Currently,
Washington has more than 5,000 US troops in Iraq and another 500
Special Forces troops operating inside Syria. These forces are backed
by tens of thousands of military contractors as well as other
military units that are rotated in and out of the region. The plan to
be presented next week will likely involve the deployment of
thousands more US combat forces.
Trump
has repeatedly indicated his support for establishing “safe zones”
in Syria, an intervention that would require large numbers of US
soldiers backed by air power to seize and control swathes of Syrian
territory. It would also entail threats of military confrontation
with Russian warplanes operating in support of the Syrian government.
As
the Pentagon prepares its plans for military escalation in the
region, US ground forces have reportedly entered Mosul, operating on
the front lines with Iraqi forces in the bloody offensive to retake
Iraq’s second-largest city from ISIS. American Special Forces
“advisers” joined Iraqi troops Thursday in the first incursion
into western Mosul, with the retaking of the Mosul International
Airport as well as a nearby military base. The operation was
conducted with close air support from US warplanes.
The
airport and the base, located in the southern part of western Mosul,
are to be used as the launching pad for a major assault into the most
densely populated area of the city, where an estimated three quarters
of a million civilians are trapped with no means of escape.
The
International Rescue Committee warned that this stage of the
offensive would represent the “most dangerous phase” for
civilians.
“This
will be a terrifying moment for the 750,000 people still in the west
of the city, and there is a real danger that the battle will be
raging around them for weeks and possibly months to come,” said
Jason Kajer, the Iraq acting country director for the humanitarian
group.
Referring
to the increasingly desperate plight of civilians in western Mosul,
the International Committee of the Red Cross’s field coordinator in
Erbil, Dany Merhy, said: “Supply routes have been cut from that
side of the city and people have been facing shortages of food,
water, fuel and medicine. We can only imagine the state people will
be in.”
As
in previous US-backed offensives against Fallujah and Ramadi, Mosul
faces the prospect of being reduced to rubble. It is in this city
where the proposed changes in the “rules of engagement” will find
their first expression in the elevated slaughter of Iraqi civilians.
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