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US Spec Ops Already On The Ground In Syria Sources Say, As Russian Troop Presence Grows To 4,000
On Tuesday evening, we noted that the US is set to send F-15C Eagle twin-engine fighters to Incirlik. This suggests that the Pentagon is preparing for air-to-air combat with the Russians.
As hyperbolic as that might sound, there’s really no alternative explanation for why Washington would send the fighters to Syria unless of course ISIS and/or the mishmash of rebels and militants fighting for control of the country have air forces no one has ever heard about.
Indeed, Russia made a similar move by sending Sukhoi Su-30s to Latakia and according to several sources, those planes had a run-in with Israeli jets over Lebanon last month.
The interesting thing, from our perspective anyway, is that Lebanese sources were out on Wednesday claiming that US spec ops are already on the ground - and they’re operating in the west. Here’s Sputnik:
US military advisors are alleged to have started training so-called moderate rebels near the city of Salma in the Latakia province in what amounts to breaking a pledge not to put US boots on the ground in Syria, Lebanon's satellite television channel al-Mayadeen reported, citing an unnamed military source.
And here’s Salma:
Now bear in mind, this is Russian media citing an unnamed Lebanese source, so that would be a bit like American media citing an unnamed Saudi correspondent, but still, even the suggestion that Washington has placed "advisers" in Salma is alarming. That is, the going assumption was that these spec ops forces would be placed with the YPG or somewhere near Raqqa to avoid even the appearance that The Pentagon is set to place troops with soldiers that are in direct contact with Iranian ground forces and as such could potentially get hit with Russian airstrikes.
Of course we won't get much in the way of clarity from Washington. US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that the "the activities and location of the special forces are classified." Patterson also said that "Russia's military intervention has dangerously exacerbated an already complex environment," on the way to claiming that "the opposition puts up a very strong fight."
Obviously, it's difficult to know where even to start in terms of analyzing that bit of nonsense. First, the situation is indeed "already complex" thanks to Washington, Riyadh, Ankara, and Doha who collectiively decided that "start civil war via the funding of terrorists" was the proper "strategy" for bringing about regime change in Damascus. Second, it's not clear that the "opposition" is putting up a "very strong fight," and even if it were, that's at least partly attributable to the Pentagon handing rebels things like anti-tank weapons. If Patterson thinks that's constructive, well, maybe she needs to find a new occupation.
Meanwhile, Western media reports indicate that there are as many as 4,000 Russian troops in Syria (so, i) just "slightly" more than the 50 Obama is sending, ii) far less than the number of militants the US and its regional allies have trained, and iii) far less than the Iranian contingent, which, between Shiite militas from Iraq, Hezbollah, and the Quds, probably number more than 10 or 15,000). Here's Reuters:
Moscow's military force in Syria has grown to about 4,000 personnel, but this and more than a month of Russian air strikes have not led to pro-government forces making significant territorial gains, U.S. security officials and independent experts said.
Moscow, which has maintained a military presence in Syria for decades as an ally of the ruling Assad family, had an estimated 2,000 personnel in the country when it began air strikes on Sept. 30. The Russian force has since roughly doubled and the number of bases it is using has grown, U.S. security officials said.
The Russians have suffered combat casualties, including deaths, said three U.S. security officials familiar with U.S. intelligence reporting, adding that they did not know the exact numbers.
Russia's foreign ministry declined to comment on the size of the Russian contingent in Syria or any casualties it has suffered. It referred questions to the Russian Defense Ministry, which did not respond to written questions submitted by Reuters.
The Kremlin has said there are no Russian troops in combat roles in Syria, though it has said there are trainers and advisers working alongside the Syrian military and also forces guarding Russia's bases in western Syria.
A U.S. defense official said Russian aircraft are now operating out of four bases, but multiple rocket launcher crews and long-range artillery batteries are deployed outside the facilities.
"They have a lot of people outside the wire," he said.
The main Russian base is at the Bassel al-Assad International Airport near the port city of Latakia. All of Moscow's fixed wing aircraft are flying from there in support of ground offensives by the Syrian army and foreign Shiite militias, the defense official said.
Three other bases - Hama, Sharyat and Tiyas - are being used for helicopter gunships, he said. The Russians began operating from Tiyas only this week, the official said.
Russia's air fleet in Syria comprises 34 fixed-wing aircraft and 16 helicopters, the U.S. officials said.
In a testament to what we said above, Reuters goes on to note that the rebels' ability to fight off pro-regime forces stems largely from the delivery of U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missiles. Saudi Arabia is supplying them to forces battling Iran near Aleppo:
Despite the Russian air strikes, the offensives have failed to make significant advances, the U.S. officials and independent experts said. A key factor appears to be significant losses by pro-government forces of tanks and other armored vehicles to U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missiles that Saudi Arabia has been supplying to the anti-Assad rebels.
Once again, this is just about the silliest damn thing imaginable. Here's Riyadh giving US-made anti-tank missiles to anti-Assad forces who are using them to target the very same Iran-backed militias who are driving Abrams tanks in Iraq and helping the US-trained Iraqi regulars battle ISIS. Clearly, Washington has gotten itself so intertwined in the Sunni-Shiite battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia that the Pentagon no longer knows what to do, leading to a schizophrenic strategy that varies by country.
In any event, the takeaway here is that reports now suggest US troops are operating near Latakia and that means they'll be in contact with Iranian ground troops, Russian fighter jets, and quite possibly with some of the 4,000 Russian troops stationed in the country. Perhaps now we know why The Pentagon sent the F-15C Eagles. Maybe US spec ops will indeed be engaging the Russians and Iranians on the ground and will need the air force to shoot down Moscow's warplanes in the event they try to hit US positions.
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That should be Trump's campaign slogan. Which of the candidates has more experience in strategic bankruptcy than him?
The sooner the Saudi Kingdom is removed from power the better for the world. Nothing but terrorism is coming from them.
Don't the Syrians have any heat searching radars to detect the TOW and either find a solution for the missile or just quickly abondone tank?
I know the Russians have some missile deffense systems and wonder why not employing them?
Oh you poor military grunts. What do you get paid? $40,000.00 a year to go fight in a desert because the oil companies want to put their pipeline through Syria. You dumb cunts should at least own shares in the companies that are profiting from your mercenary services.
Imagine yourselves as a bullet from an enemy rifle courses towards your body. Everything is slowed down a million fold. The bullet inches through the air on target for your chest. The tip of the bullet depresses the fabric of your uniform. At that moment your life flashes before your eyes at lightening speed. Your birth, your growing up, your friends, your family, the adventures you had as a child, the christmas and thanks giving with family, those sunny days, those autumn leaves, those winter chills. The sunrises and sunsets, the swims in the ocean, the warm hugs from a girl friend (or as the case may be boy friend). You are 18 and a bullet rolls off the press of one of the many factories of the military industrial complexes making billions in profits. It is scooped up by mechanical coveyors and deposited in a box destined for the ME. You are still at home just having enlisted in the US Army. Your fate is sealed. You have chosen the moment where that bullet presses on the fabric of your uniform. You had many chances to chose a life of love, hope and peace. You chose murder and destruction. The bullet pierces your uniform and now touches your flesh. A meeting of man and metal that could have been avoided. You were let down by your parents, your brothers and sisters, your teachers. In the end you let yourself down for not acting for good instead of evil. The bullet has now penetrated to the full depth of your skin. That agonising ache pierced by an intense sting enters your consciousness. The flash back couched in a white glow of contentment and love is snatched from your thoughts and the living hell you chose now assaults your mind. The bullets journey is just beginning as it smashes through a rib disintergrating it into thousands of shards. That same rib you pressed against your mothers chest when you last hugged before leaving on duty. That rib is now a thousand knives seeking out blood vessels in your body. You are moments from death. The bullet smashes into your left lung but now the pain overwhelmes everything. Blood gushes into that lung creating an immediate suffocation. Your eyes begin the glaze and you know what is lost. All that love. All the kindness of your friends and family. So tragically lost, so sickeningly lost for eterntiy. How could this be. How could I have let all that go for this evil shit that does nothing but wreak destruction on the planet. I had it all. everything enyone could have ever hoped for and I left it for this fucking desert. I left it to be with murderers, why, how could I have been so horribly wrong. The bullet pierces the backside of your left lung and air gushes out, life giving air. Once you blew a kiss to your girl friend with the air from that lung. Now it is being decimated by an enemy bullet. The final assualt of the bullet is on your spinal cord as it punches out through your back.
It's all gone. The family, the friends, the simple routine of day to day life. Coming home to loved ones, patting the family dog, throwing a ball with the kids, feeding the pet bird, mowing the lawn on a beautiful spring day. As your spinal cord is severed there is sweet relief from the pain the bullet has inflicted on your body. As you fall in a daze of final acceptance of your fate the last thing you see is the dusty sandstone wall you were using for cover. Your life, all those memories, all that love you could have chosen to surround your life with, ends, with you gazing at a dusty brown wall. The last thoughts that ebb from your mind is "why did I chose this fate, I had everything anyone could have wanted and I wasted it".
It goes dark, you drift to sleep. You are gone for eternity. The government calls you a hero and makes a fan fare of your coffin. They need the next generation of suckers to be coerced to choose the same fate to keep the whole charade going. They and their white shoe wearing buddies at the country club need lots of money for the new decor they intend to fit out their private jet with. One such silver haired fuck stares out the window of his private jet as it lifts off on a weekend shopping trip to Paris and he smiles distantly as he considers the brilliant racket they have established. He attended your funeral and played the role of an appreciative civilian beautifully. He reclines with a glass of wine and reflects on your flag draped coffin. He smiles distantly again and thinks, "better you than me son".
Whats amazing is that his dumbass parents probably applauded his dead ass joining the military. I know mine did.
I hate to be brutal but your paremts don't deserve the life gifted to them. They deserve to die in the same horrible ways many innocent people have died at the hands of the US government. There was great Arthur. C. Clarke novel, Rendevous with Rama. In it the advanced alien species were disgusted with human treatment of animals. At a bull fight as the matadors sword pierced the heart of the fallen bull the aliens caused the same pain in all the audience members. Spain never held another bull fight. Your and all the other parents who willingly send their kids into the armed forces simply deserve to feel the metal shards of a bomb shred their flesh to the bone. Maybe then people will realise how fucking evil this shit is.
People who were lucky enough to be born in the US in the last century have had more than any human being could have ever hoped for. More freedom, more wealth, more prosperity, more safety, better health, better jobs, better food. Given this fact yet the people still freely chose to wrreak havoc via military actions in all corners of the globe shows the depth of human depravity and evil. Humans in a situation where they have it all and still chose to commit horrendous acts of aggression and destruction, what the fuck else can you say. This sums up the absolute disgrace that the human race and human beings really are.
Where are all those evangelical fuck faces picketting the US congress to get them to stop this shit. Or was jesus into blowing stuff up.
The Book youre thinking of is "Childhoods End". Pretty sure. Otherwise, carry on.
Ah, you're right. Thanks for the correction.
Great writing. And so true.
It will be an interesting fight. The Sukoi 27's and 30's have greatly superior air frames, engines, manueverability, ceiling, and combat are loiter capabilities. Plus their long range L-Band AESA radars can detect the F-22 and F-35 making them worthless. I guess that is why the US dares not expose those units to the fight even though they were supposed to be 'the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world'. Here is what an Australian analyst has to say about L-band AESA:
The Tikhomirov NIIP L-band AESA is an important strategic development, and a technology which, once fully matured and deployed in useful numbers, will render narrowband stealth designs like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and some UAVs, highly vulnerable to Flanker variants equipped with such radars.
On the other hand the British Meteor has been fitted to the F-15's now and it is a Mach 4 infrared missile with a 120KM+ range so the Sukois can't out run it and possibly can't even shoot it down. I suspect that if it comes to a shooting war you will see the SU-30's engage while Russian ground attack aircraft go for the airstrips (even if they are in Turkey) to deny the American's a home capability. You can't land an F-15 on an aircraft carrier, and fully loaded the combat radius and loiter capability of the F-15 is very poor.
Israeli soldier exposes genocide in Palestine and collusion of local US police departments with IDF...
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/eranefratiarrested03aug14.shtml
dupe
I would call this "Passive Aggressive" Foreign Policy. If Obama thinks he can put Special Forces Americans salted in with Al Nusra or the Syrian Unicorns (FSA) and Putin won't dare bomb them.
Ergo, Obama is using American Troops as "human shields"
Guess again Peace Prize.
Putin might have stood by while your proxies killed 10,000 Russians in Donetzsk. But your proxies just killed 224 Russian citizens. My guess is Putin will not distinguish between targets.
Anytning not SAA will be eviscerated. Special Ops collateral damage. Obama's about to get his bluff called
well what I would do is find where the yankees are... dress Hezbollah as ISIS... and roast them...preferrably with US made weapons...mortar the shit out of them
ISIS have any good AA to take down the F 15's? Perhaps this new double fake ISIS can 'capture' some from Syrian forces, or better US made weapons.
maybe US sent the F 15's as they are old and if they get blown up, it won't matter, they are already worthless by depreciation by GAAP or non GAAP.
Looking forward to seeing some new Russian technology...
Will an F15 pilot be able to tell if it is a manpad or stinger coming at him?
1983 marine corps barracks
But where are the money blowing def. contractors?