The rumor comes directly from the USA, promptly rebounded by the Iranian newspaper PressTv. According to Scott Rickard, an ex-US intelligence analyst, the United States would be tightening up the time to prevent evidence of their involvement in the creation and training of Islamic State militias, starting with the 2012, to remain evident.
To confirm Rickard's suspicions there would be the current intensification of the US bombing of Raqqa, the self-proclaimed capital of the Caliphate in Syria and above all the request for a greater number of ground forces to be employed in the Arab country supported by none other than General Votel, commander of CENTCOM, the American command center responsible for all operations in the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. To further fuel the allegations there would be rumors of a secret visit to Syria by Senator McCain in mid-February, officially aimed at visiting US special troops in the north-east of the country, but presumably aimed at meeting with Kurdish militia leaders.
The Raqqa campaign is declining these days on three parallel axes:
- the Damascus troops supported by their allies (mainly Russian and Iranian air forces and Hezbollah), arrive so far on the western bank of the Euphrates at the height of Deir Hafer;
- the operation Shield of the Euphrates led by the Turkish regular forces supported by the Free Syrian Army (which has now become a branch of Ankara in Syria), attested for now in the area of Al Bab;
- le Syrian Democratic Forces, multi-ethnic cartel dominated by the Defense unit Kurdish (YPG), advanced rapidly in these hours, up to about ten kilometers from the outskirts of Raqqa.
Faced with an apparently common objective, the three components aspire to radically different goals.
Damascus is pressing to continue to regain as much territory as possible for both the fundamentalists of the Caliphate and the anti-Assad rebels, of which the SFD they are a variant.
The Turks try to stem the fortification of an autonomous Kurdish entity, at the cost of entering into friction with American interests. The intention to proceed south was supported in February by President Erdogan.
On the real intentions of the SDF instead there are many shadows. The Syrian Democratic Forces within the Governorate of Raqqa they employ more than other Arab departments (not Kurds, therefore, ed), given that they would imagine the real intention of entering the city and freeing it from a three-year jihadist occupation. US support for the cartel militias would grow in recent weeks to create suspicions about the true role that the liberators of Raqqa should then play once they get to the heart of the Islamic State.
With news from Iraq talking about the Iraqi army's capture of Mosul airport, the squeeze on Raqqa seems unequivocally set in motion towards the final stages.
Rickard claims that American involvement could be progressive in the coming hours. Meanwhile, central-eastern Syria is on fire, with military and political balances also linked to a clear decoding of the Middle East strategies of the new American administration.
(photo: DoD)
