******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ********************
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*****************************************************************
NY Times, June 2 2015
New Battles Rage Near Aleppo Between Syrian Insurgents and ISIS
By ANNE BARNARD
ISTANBUL, Turkey — Syrian insurgents rushed reinforcements into combat
on Tuesday against rival Islamic State militants who have seized crucial
territory near the northern city of Aleppo in recent days, building on
the momentum the group has achieved in other battlefield successes in
Syria and Iraq.
Amid increased fears that Aleppo could be the next big prize to fall to
the Islamic State in the latest twist to the four-year-old Syrian civil
war, Syrian opposition leaders accused the government of essentially
collaborating with the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, by
bombing other rival insurgent groups, even though the government and
Islamic State say they are enemies.
Khaled Khoja, the president of the main Syrian exile opposition group,
accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of deploying his
warplanes “as an air force for ISIS.”
The new fighting, reported by non-Islamic State insurgents in Syria,
came amid mounting frustration that the American-led coalition formed to
fight the Islamic State last year had not come to their aid with airstrikes.
It also provided the backdrop for a strategy meeting of anti-Islamic
State countries in Paris that ended on an indecisive note. While saying
more needed to be done, the members could agree only to continue with
the current policy of training moderate rebel groups opposed to both the
Assad government and the Islamic State.
The Twitter account of the long-closed United States Embassy in Syria
made its strongest statement yet, supporting what President Assad’s
adversaries have long contended: that the government and ISIS were
collaborating against relatively moderate rebel groups.
“Reports indicate that the regime is making airstrikes in support of
#ISIL’s advance on #Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian
population,” the embassy said in a series of Twitter posts, adding in
another that government warplanes were “not only avoiding #ISIL lines,
but, actively seeking to bolster their position.”
American officials and Syrian insurgents have yet to prove such a direct
coordination.
But insurgents said the episode provided by far the strongest indication
of potential coordination.
“It was never this blatant,” said Abu Abdo Salabman, a spokesman for the
Sham Revolutionary Brigades, a rebel group that had sent reinforcements
to the battle. “The whole thing started with a combination of aerial and
then long-range artillery fire from the regime on the rebels, then ISIL
started their advancements. There is clear advanced coordination this
time and not just a side trying to take advantage of the other.”
He added that government airstrikes were continuing on the non-Islamic
State insurgents. “Until now they are being bombed by air and ISIS
isn’t,” he said. He also said that his faction had provided coordinates
of Islamic State positions to the United States, but that there was no
sign the Americans would take action.
What is clear is that Mr. Assad and the Islamic State both reap benefits
by eliminating or weakening other insurgent groups. Mr. Assad can claim
he is the only alternative to the Islamic State, and the group can claim
it carries the banner of Syrians and Iraqis oppressed by their governments.
The latest battles, in northern Aleppo Province, were part of a pattern
in which Islamic State fighters have taken advantage of opportunities to
attack rival insurgents when they were weak and under government
bombardment.
While an Islamic State invasion of Aleppo would face formidable
obstacles, it would be a huge advance for the group, building on the
momentum it has enjoyed in the takeovers last month of the Syrian city
of Palmyra and the Iraqi city of Ramadi.
Government airstrikes are said to have killed scores of people in recent
days in towns east of Aleppo, where the Islamic State escalated a
longstanding attempt to seize the area and sever the main supply route
between Turkey and rival insurgents.
Islamic State fighters have reached to within several miles of the main
highway from Aleppo to the Bab al-Salam border crossing into Turkey. If
it succeeds in cutting off supplies to the rebel-held section of Aleppo
city and the surrounding countryside, that could threaten the last major
concentration of insurgents not affiliated with either the Islamic State
or the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.
Rebels said they believed the United States was reluctant to help them
with airstrikes because they coordinate with Nusra fighters, who sent
some reinforcements to help them in the area. But compared with Idlib
Province, where Nusra plays a major role in an insurgent coalition that
has made major gains recently, Nusra is not a big player on the front
against the Islamic State near Aleppo.
Insurgents said they had been able to slow the Islamic State’s advance
on Aleppo on Tuesday by diverting fighters from other fronts where they
had been facing government troops.
Abu Yusuf, a spokesman for the Shamiyeh Front, one of the rebel groups
fighting the Islamic State, said government airstrikes had intensified
over the weekend on the villages of Marea and Tal Rifaat, which the
Islamic State has long been trying to seize.
“Regime fighter jets bomb these villages at night and fire heavy machine
guns on the rebel supplies routes at night, while ISIS shell the
villages with artillery,” he said in an interview via Skype from Aleppo
Province.
He said reports from the field suggested that the Islamic State had sent
the weapons it seized from government storehouses in Palmyra — the first
city it has taken from government troops.
_________________________________________________________
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at:
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com