Cuban paramilitary and special forces are in Syria in support of Bashar al-Assad. General Leopoldo Cintra Frias (photo), head of the Cuban armed forces, recently visited Syria with an armed contingent. According to rumors close to the Pentagon, the Cubans would have arrived in Syria aboard Russian-made aircraft. The contingent should also be made up of personnel specialized in the maintenance of Soviet-made tanks, the same guarded by Assad and for which specific training is required.
Note the excellent relations between Cubans and Russians. Cuba, in the 1970, deployed troops in support of Soviet-led operations in Africa. Moscow, on the other hand, has always supplied Havana with military supplies. Then another pawn moved in the Syrian chessboard. On the one hand the United States and that moderate Syrian opposition that has less and less air coverage. On the other hand Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and now Cuba. In the middle is the Islamic State, the al-Nusra front and other small factions.
In four years of war, the Syrian civil war has demanded a price of 250 thousand victims and millions of refugees.
Secondo globalfirepower.com, the Cuban army is at the 110 th place three the most powerful armed forces in the world. However, it is structured for unconventional guerrilla warfare (actually, for 50 years have been trained for a possible US invasion) and their experience can be decisive in a context without fixed structures, dynamic and improvised like the Syrian one.
Cubans have operated on behalf of the Soviets in several African countries since the 1970. Cuba also sent troops to Syria, in the 1973, during the Yom Kippur war and deployed officers to study Israeli military tactics. Raul Castro has publicly expressed his support for the Syrian government and has aligned himself with the Russians and Iranians in the Middle East. This new Cuban internationalism confirms once again that the Castro brothers are more interested in their role as opposition to the United States than at the end of their 50 years of isolation policy.
Does another front open?
The United States deployed around 90 soldiers in Cameroon last Monday as part of an effort to help Cameroon and other regional governments in their efforts against extremist groups in the region. President Barack Obama informed the new deployment with a letter sent to Congress. Obama has confirmed that other 250 soldiers will soon be sent to Cameroon in the role of assistance.
The US responded to an official request from the Cameroonian government.
(photo: web / US Army)
