Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
The deadliest strike on Syria in terms of casualties was carried out by Israel on November 20, with American military complicity. Most of the dead were officers and soldiers in the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), the only national army in Syria.
Israel struck the Industrial School and the western residential area near the bakery in Palmyra, the city best known for its Roman-era antiquities and a UNESCO World Heritage site in the central desert, and under the administration of President Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in the UK, 82 persons were killed when the Israeli jets bombarded Palmyra after being launched from within the airspace of the illegal US military base, Al-Tanf, in eastern Syria. Locals reported numerous ambulances transported the wounded to Tadmur National Hospital.
Al-Tanf base is an area near the Iraqi border, illegally occupied by the US military, and is approximately 218 kilometers from where Israel struck in Palmyra on Wednesday. Earlier this month, troops from the SAA foiled an ISIS ambush that originated from the area in the vicinity of the US military base.
According to detailed reports over the last couple of years, ISIS and other Radical Islamic terrorist groups have received training inside the Al-Tanf base. They are given logistical support to carry out attacks against the SAA in the desert region.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since 2011 targeting the SAA. Israel claims many of their targets in Syria are linked to Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance organization. Following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, the strikes on Syria have intensified. Last week, Israel carried out attacks in the Homs province bordering Lebanon.
Syria and Iran have accused the US and Israel of arming and giving medical attention to ISIS while using them to attack the SAA and Hezbollah.
The US troops occupying Syria use ISIS sleeper cells when needed, and are operating out of the US base in Al Tanf. Because the US force is so small in Syria, they rely on local mercenaries the US has trained, weaponized, and paid to provide security to the illegal base.
The mercenaries are Mugawir al-Thawra, a group of Syrian men following the same Radical Islam ideology as ISIS, Al Qaeda, Jibhat al-Nusra, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Although their paychecks are cut at the Pentagon, that doesn't change their ideology. The US military uses what assets they have at hand, and terrorists are rebels against the central government.
In late 2015, a small force of 50 American troops arrived in northeast Syria to defeat ISIS. The US claims the US coalition defeated ISIS; however, it was the US, the SAA, Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah all fighting ISIS which contributed to the defeat of ISIS. ISIS was finally defeated in early 2019.
The US chose not to partner with the SAA, Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah who had the biggest fighting force on the ground against ISIS. Instead, a political decision was taken to train, weaponize, and pay a Communist separatist group in Syria, the Kurds, which has about 225,000 fighters.
The US choice to militarily and politically support a Kurdish separatist group, linked to the PKK, angered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. The PKK is an internationally banned terrorist group which have killed over 30,000 people over three decades. The PKK is the biggest enemy and security threat to Turkey, which shares a long border with Syria and is near the US-sponsored Kurdish militias, the SDF and YPJ.
For years, Turkey has asked the US to stop their partnership and support of the Kurdish separatists in Syria. Although Turkey and the US are members of NATO and have been close allies for decades, Washington has insisted on supporting the Kurdish separatists in Syria.
On November 21, Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, stated that the essential elements of Turkey's policy toward Syria include purging the country of terrorist elements. He referred to the SDF and YPJ and their links to the PKK, and called for continuing the war against a "separatist terrorist organization".
The Kurdish Communists occupy the northeastern region of Syria in what they call The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). Recently, they began conducting non-declared municipal elections in Deir Ezzor province, one more step toward declaring an independent state.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
