Following the words of US President Obama, the news of the deployment of 150 American soldiers in Syria and precisely in the city of Northeast Rumaylan, under Kurdish control, would be confirmed.
On paper, the military would be directed to training for Kurdish militias SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) Sisters of the most popular YPG, active on the entire northeastern front. A further Washington specification would suggest that the special forces present in the contingent would be needed to counter the Islamic State more effectively.
The Syrian government immediately declared illegal the presence of uninvited foreign troops on its territory, to be considered in all respects as an invasion force.
Although the White House has repeatedly prevented the use of ground troops in Syria, US forces would have already arrived at 300 units. To say that the event does not help to throw water on the fire in the Syrian landscape is an understatement.
Rumaylan is almost 400 km from Raqqa, but only 60 from Qamishili, a government enclave in a completely Kurdish region. The Turkish border to the north and the Iraqi border to the south are respectively at 15 km from the city increasingly at the center of an area now actually independent of Damascus.
Why would the US decide to get involved on the ground right now and why in that area?
The war against the Caliphate has had decidedly more dramatic moments. Just think of a year ago when the ISIS militiamen entered Palmyra. In those days no one in the West went beyond mere indignation and direct interventions against the then very strong Islamic State gave up even talking.
The most plausible interpretation is that Washington's choice is to bet to a soft deterioration of the central power in Damascus, placing it in front of the fait accompli once the war is over. Despite the successes of the Syrian Armed Forces and the liberation of at least one third of the territory in the hands of the Islamists, much remains to be done and move in time, according to the White House, it would be necessary to avoid a débacle total in the Syria quadrant.
Especially in the north east, the self-proclaimed federal statute of Rojava suggests that the Kurds, allied with Assad in anti-Islamist terms until yesterday, are in fact becoming his overt enemies. When the fundamentalist vessel is emptied, there will in fact be cash from Syria, first of all the northern Kurds, determined to collect the credit accrued in years of war and indirect support for the Damascus government.
It is no coincidence therefore that the Americans have decided to be present right there, behind the clashes between Kurdish forces and loyalist paramilitary troops.
Military sources would give the American contingent already operational in the direction of the northern area of the Governorate of Raqqa, not far from concentrations of ISIS troops. The figure does not shift the US strategic objective one iota. Even by fighting the Caliphate (they could have done it earlier and better), the real purpose of the American presence is to prevent a full Syrian (and Russian) victory. On the one hand by participating in the military campaign in a visible way; on the other hand, preventing the Kurds from collapsing, so as to keep bargaining power high over Damascus and prepare the ground for a loose federalism.
Likely that the forced choice of Obama as well as leaving a chestnut on the fire to the future tenant of the White House, create frictions with Turkey. Accepting the presence of an autonomous Kurdish entity on its southern borders would be for Ankara the admission of a total defeat in the management of the Syrian issue. After 5, years of intrigue and more or less direct involvement, Assad would still be in Damascus and the worst enemy ever, with a degree of independence he had never had before.
The next few hours in this regard will be decisive.
(photo: Al Jazeera)
