US abandons Syrian rebel allies
Another refugee crisis looms at Syrian border with Jordan, Israel
The United States told its Syrian rebel allies not to expect military help as the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad moved in to regain southwestern Syria bordering Jordan and Israel. The message was made public as Russia launched airstrikes on the area known as the “Triangle of Death.” Thousands of Syrians fled their homes in what is shaping up to be another refugee crisis.
AMMAN— The United States told its Syrian rebel allies not to expect military help as the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad moved in to regain southwestern Syria bordering Jordan and Israel.
“You should not base your decisions on the assumption or expectation of a military intervention by us,” read a message that Washington sent to Free Syrian Army groups.
The message, seen by Reuters, was made public as Russian jets struck rebel positions in southwest Syria on Sunday, its first air operation in almost a year, to support an Assad offensive to recapture the strategic area.
Military aircraft tracking centers told Reuters five Russian jets set off from their Hmeimim air base in the Mediterranean port city of Latakia and performed 25 raids.
‘Triangle of Death’
Their target area is between the Syrian provinces of Daraa, Quneitra and Damascus, and has come to be known as the “Triangle of Death” because of the battles fought there since the start of the civil war in 2011.
Assad had sworn to recapture the area that harbors not only rebel forces and remnants of the terrorist Daesh, but also 750,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.
More than 6 million people have been displaced since the start of the war, excluding 12,000 more who fled their homes at the start of the offensive last week, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The operation, however, threatens a “de-escalation” zone agreed by the United States and Russia last year.
De-escalation zone
US ally Jordan said the zone had brought relative calm to its northern border and hoped Washington and Moscowwould agree to preserve the zone and prevent a wider confrontation.
“We stress the importance of respecting the agreement and we are working to prevent the explosion of the situation,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said in a tweet on Friday.
Unless an agreement is reached between Moscow and Washington over the fate of southern Syria, a big offensive risks an escalation that could draw the United States deeper into the war.
Kurd allies
Another similar zone, called a “de-confliction line,” was drawn along the Euphrates River, 480 kilometers away from northeastern Syria, where the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Arab alliance also backed by Washington, are fighting Islamic State (IS) remnants.
The SDF and its allies are battling the IS east of the Euphrates while Assad and Russian troops are on the western bank.
The SDF announced on Saturday that it had cleared Syria’s Hasakeh province of IS jihadists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
“The SDF finished their combing operations through three IS positions in Hasakeh province,” observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. “For the first time since 2013, the province is completely empty of IS.”—