{"id":116993,"date":"2018-08-20T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T11:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=116993"},"modified":"2018-08-19T18:32:20","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T17:32:20","slug":"un-report-finds-isis-given-breathing-space-in-us-occupied-areas-of-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/08\/un-report-finds-isis-given-breathing-space-in-us-occupied-areas-of-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Report Finds ISIS Given \u201cBreathing Space\u201d in US-Occupied Areas of Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

By maintaining an ISIS pocket in the territory it occupies, the U.S. can continue to justify its illegal presence in the country for the long-term, ultimately substituting Iran for ISIS as its new regional boogeyman.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A U.S.-backed anti-government fighter mans a heavy automatic machine gun, left, next to an American soldier as they take their positions at Tanf, a border crossing between Syria and Iraq.
Hammurabi\u2019s Justice News | AP<\/p><\/div>\n

16 Aug 2018 –<\/em>\u2014 <\/strong>A recent report<\/a> from the UN Security Council\u2019s Sanctions Monitoring Team has found that many of the places in Syria where the terror group Daesh (ISIS) continues to operate, recuperate and extract oil for profit are in areas of the country occupied by the United States<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the report\u2019s executive summary:<\/p>\n

\u201cIslamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), having been defeated militarily in Iraq and most of the Syrian Arab Republic during 2017, rallied in early 2018 [owing to] a loss of momentum by forces fighting it in the east of the Syrian Arab Republic, which prolonged access by ISIL to resources and gave it breathing space to prepare for the next phase of its evolution into a global covert network.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While the text itself doesn\u2019t explicitly state who controls these areas of Syrian territory, maps of eastern Syria make it clear that the pockets of Daesh within U.S.-controlled territory have remained unchanged in size since November 2017<\/a> while the Daesh pockets in the Syrian government-controlled portion of eastern Syria have shrunk considerably<\/a> since last November.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A map of the territory held by ISIS (grey) at the Syrian-Iraqi border in the U.S. controlled zone north of the Euphrates (yellow). April 24, 2018. Source | Syria Live Map<\/p><\/div>\n

Furthermore, the UN report states that the areas where Daesh has rallied since the year began are located in \u201cpockets of territory in the Syrian Arab Republic on the Iraqi border\u201d where the group has mounted \u201cattacks, including across the border into Iraq.\u201d Again, area maps clearly show that the Daesh-controlled areas in only the U.S.-occupied portion of eastern Syria are along the Syria-Iraq border.<\/p>\n

Notably, in the sliver of Daesh-controlled land between U.S. and Syrian government-controlled areas in the border city of Abu Kamal, when the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has tried to attack Daesh positions in the area this year, they have been targeted<\/a> by U.S. coalition airstrikes. U.S. coalition airstrikes have also attacked Syrian civilian villages in the government-controlled portion of Abu Kamal. Survivors of that attack claimed<\/a> that their villages had been targeted for refusing the entry of the U.S.-backed opposition militias \u2014 such as the Qasad militia, which is largely composed of former Daesh fighters.<\/p>\n

U.S. coalition airstrikes targeting the SAA in Abu Kamal and elsewhere in eastern Syria have also been the key cause of the \u201closs of momentum\u201d of forces fighting Daesh that was cited in the UN report, as Syrian forces have declined to advance deep into U.S.-held territory in order to pursue Daesh after being bombed<\/a> numerous times<\/a>. In addition, the U.S.\u2019 own bombing campaign against Daesh can hardly be called effective<\/a> given that the U.S., along with their military proxy the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), frequently announce<\/a> on social media<\/a> when and where they will be bombing Daesh in eastern Syria days in advance.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/zana_med\/status\/1017729845730725888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1017729845730725888&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mintpressnews.com%2Fun-report-finds-isis-given-breathing-space-in-us-occupied-areas-of-syria%2F247795%2F<\/p>\n

Beyond eastern Syria, the report also notes that another Daesh-infested area of concern is also located farther south in the area around the al-Tanf military base, which has been occupied<\/a> by the United States since 2016. The UN report raises concerns about the Rukban refugee camp, which lies within the so-called \u201cdeconfliction\u201d zone that the U.S. has imposed on a 55-kilometer radius around al-Tanf.<\/p>\n

The report states:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe densely populated Rukban camp in southern Syrian Arab Republic contains some 80,000 internally displaced persons, including families of ISIL fighters, a situation which Member States fear might generate new ISIL cells.\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As with other Daesh-held areas under U.S. \u201cprotection,\u201d the U.S. has attacked<\/a> the SAA for attempting to enter the U.S.\u2019 unilaterally-imposed \u201cdeconfliction\u201d zone in an effort to attack Daesh militants.<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s Daesh-dependent long-game<\/strong><\/p>\n

The evidence that the U.S. presence in Syria is actually helping to strengthen Daesh flies in the face of the Pentagon\u2019s justification<\/a> for the U.S.\u2019 occupation of northeastern Syria as being necessary because the Syrian government is not strong enough to defeat Daesh on its own. However, as the recent UN report reveals, the Pentagon\u2019s portrayal does not appear to be the reality of the situation.<\/p>\n

As MintPress<\/em> has noted<\/a> in the past, this finding is hardly surprising given that the Defense Intelligence Agency report from 2012 revealed that the U.S. willingly allowed Daesh to be formed in order to destabilize the Syrian government and partition Syria through foreign military intervention. Since then, the U.S. has adapted its justifications for its presence in Syria, particularly after the failure of Daesh and foreign-funded opposition groups to depose the current government of Syria.<\/p>\n

By maintaining a Daesh pocket in the territory it occupies, the U.S. can continue to justify its illegal presence in the country for the long-term. Indeed, just last month, the Trump administration made it clear<\/a> that the U.S. military plans to stay in Syria for the long haul, substituting Iran for Daesh as its new regional boogeyman.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Whitney Webb is a<\/em> MintPress contributor who has written for several news organizations in both English and Spanish; her stories have been featured on<\/em> ZeroHedge, the Anti-Media, 21st Century Wire, and<\/em> True Activist among others – she currently resides in Southern Chile.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Republish our stories! <\/em>MintPress News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 mintpressnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By maintaining an ISIS pocket in the territory it occupies, the U.S. can continue to justify its illegal presence in the country for the long-term, ultimately substituting Iran for ISIS as its new regional boogeyman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":116994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-syria-in-context"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}