ISIS fighters who withdrew from Tabqa Dam after agreement with SDF bombed by U.S. Air Force


Fahwad Al-Khadoumi (nsnbc) : A group of ISIS troops who withdrew from the Tabqa Dam under an agreement with the Syrian Democratic Forces there were attacked by the U.S. Air Force. It has taken months of preparations to make sure that the important dam could be captured without ISIS creating a catastrophic deluge by blasting the dam.

Tabqa Dam liberation_SDF_YPG press office_May 2017_1The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reported earlier this week that the Tabqa Dam had now been fully liberated from the Islamic State (a.k.a. ISIS, ISIL, Daesh). It now turned out that part of the liberation involved an agreement that allowed a group of about 70 ISIS fighters to withdraw from the city of Tabqa and most importantly, the Tabqa Dam.

The ISIS fighters who were granted free passage withdrew, only to be killed anyway, in a U.S. air strike. Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis commented on the incident on Friday and asserted that the Pentagon has no part in the “unusual deal”.

He added that this was an agreement for them to leave the Tabqa dam and to leave the remaining portions of the city that IS held. “It doesn’t change the fact that when we see IS fighters on the battlefield and have a clean shot at them, we will continue to take it,” he said.

Davis explained that the jihadists were not considered as troops who had surrendered. The SDF allowed the fighters to leave Tabqa in return for dismantling bombs surrounding the dam, surrendering their heavy weapons and quitting Tabqa city.

Tabqa Dam liberation_SDF_YPG press office_May 2017_2A sensitive deal that according to Kurdish sources was in the making for weeks. Blasting the Tabqa Dam could have unleashed a flood wave that could have devastated the region downstream, including the city of Raqqa, which is still considered as ISIS’ capital.

Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway commented on the deadly air strike against withdrawing ISIS troops saying that nothing about that agreement precluded the jihadists from being pursued. “This is combat. They didn’t make a deal with us,” he said.

The US official claimed that America always observes the laws of armed conflict and Geneva Conventions, meaning an unarmed IS fighter waving a white flag would not be targeted. One might question the veracity of that statement but if the ISIS troops hadn’t surrendered they were no prisoners of war, and who would want to discuss that the U.S. initially backed ISIS, right?

Photo courtesy Mohamed7799 CC 4.0

Photo courtesy Mohamed7799 CC 4.0

“It’s war, where overt, covert, legal and illegal actions are normal and normally used by all parties to conflicts – one doesn’t have to like it but it’s a fact that one should not omit while covering conflicts”, said nsnbc editor-in-chief Christof Lehmann over the phone Friday night. “The seizure of Tabqa in the north of Syria after weeks of fighting represents one of the most important victories for the SDF, so why would anyone be surprised that deception may have been involved here”, he added.

Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis added that a dam-assessment team was headed to the structure to make sure it had not been damaged by IS, although so far there had been no issues detected. Last week the Pentagon announced President Donald Trump had approved supplying arms to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units YPG in Syrian Kurdistan, a controversial decision that has angered Turkey, which views the fighters as terrorists.

U.S regards the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD and its powerful military wing YPG, which is part of SDF alliance, as key ally against Islamic State and the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and has provided them with arms, air support as well as the military advisers. The Kurdish militia has seized. “We are very mindful of the Turkish concerns on this,” Davis said. “We are going to assure that every step of the way that we are receiving assurances from the SDF that they are using (the weapons) only to fight IS. We will be monitoring it in real time.”

F/AK – nsnbc 13.05.2017



Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/05/13/isis-fighters-who-withdrew-from-tabqa-dam-after-agreement-with-sdf-bombed-by-u-s-air-force/

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes