Community Organizer in Chief at War

[Newt]

CIA-armed militias are shooting at Pentagon-armed ones in Syria

Syrian militias armed by different parts of the U.S. war machine have begun to fight each other on the plains between the besieged city of Aleppo and the Turkish border, highlighting how little control U.S. intelligence officers and military planners have over the groups they have financed and trained in the bitter 5-year-old civil war.

The fighting has intensified over the past two months, as CIA-armed units and Pentagon-armed ones have repeatedly shot at each other as they have maneuvered through contested territory on the northern outskirts of Aleppo, U.S. officials and rebel leaders have confirmed.

In mid-February, a CIA-armed militia called Fursan al Haq, or Knights of Righteousness, was run out of the town of Marea, about 20 miles north of Aleppo, by Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces moving in from Kurdish-controlled areas to the east.

"Any faction that attacks us, regardless from where it gets its support, we will fight it," said Maj. Fares Bayoush, a leader of Fursan al Haq.

Rebel fighters described similar clashes in the town of Azaz, a key transit point for fighters and supplies between Aleppo and the Turkish border, and March 3 in the Aleppo neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsud.

The attacks come amid continued heavy fighting in Syria and illustrate the difficulty facing U.S. efforts to coordinate among dozens of armed groups that are trying to overthrow the government of President Bashar Assad, fight the Islamic State militant group and battle one another all at the same time.

"It is an enormous challenge," said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who described the clashes between U.S.-supported groups as "a fairly new phenomenon."

"It is part of the three-dimensional chess that is the Syrian battlefield," he said.

The area in northern Syria around Aleppo, the country's second-largest city, features not only a war between the Assad government and its opponents, but also periodic battles against Islamic State militants, who control much of eastern Syria and also some territory to the northwest of the city, and long-standing tensions among the ethnic groups that inhabit the area, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen.
Once they cross the border into Syria, you lose a substantial amount of control or ability to control their actions. — Jeffrey White, former Defense Intelligence Agency official

"This is a complicated, multisided war where our options are severely limited," said a U.S. official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. "We know we need a partner on the ground. We can't defeat ISIL without that part of the equation, so we keep trying to forge those relationships." ISIL is an acronym for the Islamic State.

President Barack Obama recently authorized a new Pentagon plan to train and arm Syrian rebel fighters, relaunching a program that was suspended in the fall after a string of embarrassing setbacks, which included recruits being ambushed and handing over much of their U.S.-issued ammunition and trucks to an al-Qaida affiliate.

Amid the setbacks, the Pentagon late last year deployed about 50 special operations forces to Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria to better coordinate with local militias and help ensure U.S.-backed rebel groups aren't fighting one another.

But such skirmishes have become routine.

Last year, the Pentagon helped create a new military coalition, the Syrian Democratic Forces. The goal was to arm the group and prepare it to take territory away from Islamic State in eastern Syria and to provide information for U.S. airstrikes.

The group is dominated by Kurdish outfits known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG. A few Arab units have joined the force in order to prevent it from looking like an invading Kurdish army, and it has received airdrops of weapons and supplies and assistance from U.S. Special Forces.

Gen. Joseph Votel, now commander of U.S. Special Operations Command and the incoming head of Central Command, said this month that about 80 percent of the fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces were Kurdish.

The U.S. backing for a heavily Kurdish armed force has been a point of tension with the Turkish government, which has a long history of crushing Kurdish rebellions and doesn't want to see Kurdish units control more of its southern border.

The CIA, meanwhile, has its own operations center inside Turkey from which it has been directing aid to rebel groups in Syria, providing them with TOW antitank missiles from Saudi Arabian weapons stockpiles.

While the Pentagon's actions are part of an overt effort by the U.S. and its allies against the Islamic State, the CIA's backing of militias is part of a separate covert U.S. effort aimed at keeping pressure on the Assad government in hopes of prodding the Syrian leader to the negotiating table.

At first, the two different sets of fighters were primarily operating in widely separated areas of Syria — the Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeastern part of the country and the CIA-backed groups further west.

But, over the past several months, Russian airstrikes against anti-Assad fighters in northwestern Syria have weakened them.

That created an opening that allowed the Kurdish-led groups to expand their zone of control to the outskirts of Aleppo, bringing them into more frequent conflict with the CIA-backed outfits.
We'll fight all who aim to divide Syria or harm its people. — Suqour Al-Jabal Brigade fighter

"Fighting over territory in Aleppo demonstrates how difficult it is for the U.S. to manage these really localized and, in some cases, entrenched conflicts," said Nicholas Heras, an expert on the Syrian civil war at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank in Washington. "Preventing clashes is one of the constant topics in the joint operations room with Turkey."

Over the course of the Syrian civil war, the town of Marea has been on the front line of the Islamic State's attempts to advance across Aleppo province toward the rest of northern Syria.

On Feb. 18, the Syrian Democratic Forces attacked the town.

A fighter with the Suqour Al-Jabal Brigade, a group with links to the CIA, said intelligence officers of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State know their group has clashed with the Pentagon-trained militias.

"The MOM knows we fight them," he said, referring to the joint operations center in southern Turkey, which is known as MOM from the acronym of its name in Turkish, Musterek Operasyon Merkezi.

"We'll fight all who aim to divide Syria or harm its people," said the fighter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Marea is home to many of the original Islamist fighters who took up arms against Assad during the Arab Spring in 2011. It has long been a critical way station for supplies and fighters coming from Turkey into Aleppo.

"Attempts by Syrian Democratic Forces to take Marea was a great betrayal and was viewed as a further example of a Kurdish conspiracy to force them from Arab and Turkmen lands," Heras said.

The clashes brought the U.S. and Turkish officials to "loggerheads," he added.

After diplomatic pressure from the U.S., the militia withdrew to the outskirts of the town as a sign of good faith, he said.

But continued fighting among different U.S.-backed groups may be inevitable, experts on the region said.

"Once they cross the border into Syria, you lose a substantial amount of control or ability to control their actions," said Jeffrey White, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official. "You certainly have the potential for it becoming a larger problem as people fight for territory and control of the northern border area in Aleppo."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... story.html

[Pine Mt Beagles]

President Obama is doing a very good Job with the Wars that the,Bush/Cheney War Criminals left America with.,,And after Bush / Cheney. Negotiated A Deal with Iraq that Insisted American Troops would leave Iraq.The President had no choice but to follow the Bush Deal, even though it gave BUSH / CHENEY's NEW FRIENDS ISIS --THAT Bush / Cheney CREATED --.in a much better Position ,Bush and Cheney Continues their financing of ISIS Through the. Bush Connections in Saudi Arabia.

Like Ronald Regan ,hired the Contras to hold the Hostages until AFTER THE ELECTION.

Republican Senators,tried to Pay Iran, to hold the Ten Hostages until after this election ,

Fortunately Iran ,feared what would happen ,if they did not Comply with President Obama's Demands.

Iraq,,Afganastan ,and ISIS ,ARE ALL REPUBLICAN CREATED AND FUNDED WITH TAX PAYER MONEY,ITS YOUR REPUBLICAN PARTY AT WORK.

[Pine Lakes]

President Obama is doing a very good Job with the Wars that the,Bush/Cheney War Criminals left America with.,,And after Bush / Cheney. Negotiated A Deal with Iraq that Insisted American Troops would leave Iraq.The President had no choice but to follow the Bush Deal, even though it gave BUSH / CHENEY's NEW FRIENDS ISIS --THAT Bush / Cheney CREATED --.in a much better Position ,Bush and Cheney Continues their financing of ISIS Through the. Bush Connections in Saudi Arabia.

Like Ronald Regan ,hired the Contras to hold the Hostages until AFTER THE ELECTION.

Republican Senators,tried to Pay Iran, to hold the Ten Hostages until after this election ,

Fortunately Iran ,feared what would happen ,if they did not Comply with President Obama's Demands.

Iraq,,Afganastan ,and ISIS ,ARE ALL REPUBLICAN CREATED AND FUNDED WITH TAX PAYER MONEY,ITS YOUR REPUBLICAN PARTY AT WORK.

Good Lord Rufus! Your infatuation with Bush needs to come to an end. The current President's policies are the worst in history and the mess that is the middle east is due to his lack of leadership. Rip on Cheney all you want, but the douche bag that is Joe Biden has done absolutely nothing. A waste of tax payer money, but that makes him a good fit for Obama.

Did you seriously say that Iran "feared what would happen if they did not comply with Obama's demands"? You can't be this stupid. It is literally impossible to be and maintain the ability to type, but I guess that is debatable also based on your posts. You should probably go wipe your chin off Ruffy.

[bluemouse]

Pinemooch the clown and his babbling idiot hero have a lot in common. They are both babbling idiots, no facts, no content , no truth just a bunch of babbling nonsense.

[bluegrass]

Like Ronald Regan ,hired the Contras to hold the Hostages until AFTER THE ELECTION.


WHAT???????????

Reagan hired Nicaraguans to hold Iranian hostages until after the election huh...???

Nicaraguans...holding the hostages for the Iranians at Reagans request...



You REALLY need to get off the narcotic pain meds douchebag...you're in bad shape.

[cris axtell/coal hill ken]

Long term Liberalism has destroyed PM's brain like a lot of people in America.

[Pine Mt Beagles]

Fools,,like you guys ,are what is wrong with this country, and as long as there is ,A Republican,America will never be as Great as it was, Before the Bush/ Cheney Tyranny,

Every one Knows, the Iran Contras, was fully funded and Planned by,,Regan and,Republican Senators and Congressmen.

Just like Republican Senators tried to Pay Iran to keep the Saylors until after the Election.

The Republican,party is the Most Immoral,and Horrendous,enemy America has ever faced,because they have been Cursed with the Reprobate Mind,,and Brain washed by,Republican Terrorist.

Friends and family, have no influence, on these People ,who are destroying ,this Country because they cannot be Reasoned with.they do not possess the mental ability.

In June of 2015 Rafael Cruz,and, Donald Trump were the most hated Prospective Candidates EVER to run on the Republican Ticket,
Now the good little Brain dead Republicans ,are getting in line just like they are told.

[bluemouse]

Clown you should post everyday just for the laughs. Then again to much of a idiot does get old. I'm sure you saw what the babbling idiot got from Castor after he tried kissing butt. Yeah clown he got disrespected in front of the world again!