Mission Incomplete
"[The attack] lends credence to the widespread concern that arose following President Trump's order to withdraw from Syria, that doing so was extremely premature."
"President Trump's order was reckless and driven far more by domestic political concerns that it was by facts on the ground."
"Today's attack shows to all concerned not only how dangerous that decision was, but that the reality on the ground is not at all what the president told his people and the battle against ISIL is far from over."
Charles Lister, director of countering terrorism and extremism, Middle East Institute, Washington
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"It was a nice restaurant — incredibly welcoming — the people around us there were from different backgrounds trying to hold the city together."People become vulnerable when they let their guard down. It has happened everywhere that conflict rages. The assumption that local authorities' assurances that a segment of an assault-besieged country where troops are gathered is secure, because the government sees the necessity of guaranteeing safety to the NGOs, the foreign diplomats, the members of foreign militaries in the centre of a capital city while the conflict rages elsewhere. As in Afghanistan and in Iraq and now in Syria, fundamentalist Islamists operate with the impunity guaranteed that they can meld with the local population undetected.
"It breaks my heart if it's the same restaurant. It breaks my heart no matter what happens. But if it's the same restaurant, it tells me all I need to know about what's going on in northeast Syria ... This is the beginning of what happened in Iraq."
Sen. Lindsey Graham
An area is deemed a 'green zone', unassailable, so well protected that no dangerous elements can conceivably get past the guards. Totally wishful thinking. But because one wishes it to be so, a sense of relaxation grips the unwary, relieving the constant level of stress, and making them vulnerable to surprise. Can anything be more surprising than when comfortably seated in a popular restaurant surrounded by comrades and the elite of the local population, with the sense of security pervading, suddenly an eruption when a suicide bomber releases his deadly cache?
Nothing pleases Islamic State operatives quite so much as inspired surprises and a significant death toll, all the more when among those dead can be counted military members of their most powerful enemy supporting the most effective fighting force that has succeeded in shrinking their numbers and their territory. The very force that is in control of Manbij. To demonstrate that despite losing that territorial caliphate and being pressed on all sides, they still have the power and determination to wreak devastation becomes a triumph of their collective will.
Contested Manbij where U.S. coalition forces were on patrol; nonetheless the death count was significant; four U.S. servicemen, 16 others, among them local officials and civilians, not to mention the injured. The deadliest single attack suffered by American forces in years and the second since the declaration that the U.S. will withdraw its 2,000 military support personnel, leaving the YPG to continue their mopping up of Islamic State while they must also now be alert to the very real potential of Turkey's plans to eradicate their presence.
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A week earlier Islamic State fired a heat-seeking missile toward a group of coalition troops further south in Deir Ezzor where five British Special Forces personnel on patrol became casualties. "We'll stay in the region and we'll stay in the fight to ensure that ISIS does not rear its ugly head again", assured vice-President Mike Pence, even while the wait is on for one of those impetuous tweets from U.S. President Donald Trump in the hope that he will feel pressed to reverse himself on the Syria pullout.
The seeming agreement with Turkey to take up the slack and install its Turkey-friendly Syrian Sunni militias in Manbij, threatening the existence of the Kurds remains a painful scenario of deadly potential.
Labels: Islamic State, Kurds, Syria, Turkey, United States
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, January 19, 2019
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