On May 24, the director of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Media Center Mustefa Bali revealed that the SDF and the Iraqi Army had established a series of joint border posts along the Syrian-Iraqi border.
نقاط مراقبة مشتركة بين #قسد و الجيش العراقي لمنع تسلل #داعش عبر الحدود pic.twitter.com/8t3CyO0NBA
— Mustefa Bali (@mustefa2bali) May 24, 2018
Bali claimed that these joint border posts are aimed at preventing ISIS fighters from infiltrating the Syrian-Iraqi border. However, Syrian pro-government activists believe that the US is trying to give the SDF some legitimacy by pressuring the Iraqi government to cooperate with it.
These joint border posts will also allow the US-led coalition to directly control large parts of the Syrian-Iraqi border, thus forbidding Iranian forces from using these parts.
Over the last few months, the US has pushed for greater cooperation between the SDF and the Iraqi Army. Despite this Iraqi official didn’t openly talk about this matter, the Iraqi government indeed improved its cooperation with the US-backed force in Syria.
The Iraqi Air Force even carried out a series of airstrikes on ISIS positions in the town of Hajin, in the southeastern Deir Ezzor countryside, in support for the ongoing attack of the SDF on the town.
Local observers believe that the Iraqi government behavior may led to some tensions with the Damascus government, especially that the Iraqi side has not reopened the al-Bukamal border crossing that was secured by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in late 2017.
No good will come of this.
One gets the impression that the war in Syria is going south very fast and that deals have been made to divide Syria into separate states.
Many of the borders will freeze close to where they are now indefinitely. Even though everyone would prefer a united Syria the plethora of competing interests and interrelated feuds will mean that no one will be willing to give up any foothold they have.
The SAA and SDF currently share control of the main border crossings into Iraq. I presume these present crossings are the small roads in the middle of nowhere.
What a load of cr-p this story is. The Iraqi’s have been practically begging the US and the SDF to coordinate operations to secure the border for 6 months prior to them actually making a start 6 weeks ago. The SAA Russia and Iraq did this 6 months ago to secure their borders but the US refused to join the Iraqi proposed joint operation back then. The US has been dragged into this kicking and screaming, not the other way around. The SDF halted their snail paced assault against Isis in Al-Hasakah when the Turks invaded Afrin, and haven’t bothered about doing anything other than maintaining a stale mate ever since, which didn’t help the Iraqi’s secure their border, it made it harder. Then nearly 2 weeks before this Iraqi SDF joint operation is even announced, the Iraqi’s launch air strikes at Isis in Al-Hasakah, but strangely only announced they had sought Syrian government approval and got it, but didn’t even mention the US. I think they were frustrated with the US’s failure to help secure their mutual borders, and took matters into their own hands. Now the US has no choice but to assist and would look mischievous if it didn’t. I actually think the joint operations at Hajin and the joint border posts are the result of Iraqi’s initial airstrike, but don’t think the initial Iraqi airstrike was a part of any operation that involved the SDF or the US. Well done Iraq you’ve woke the sleeping giant, now all they have to do is point the US in the right direction and give them a big shove, or have they just done it. Even though the US will end up controlling all the northern side of the Euphrates if Isis is eliminated there, it’ll still be good news for both Iraq and Syria, the Iraqi Isis fighters and the Isis fighters in Dier ez-Zor [fighting the SAA] won’t have anywhere to get supplies or reinforcements from when it happens. This should mean the end of Isis in both Iraq and Syria when it does, but how long it takes may still prove to be a problem, that’s if the US keeps dragging it’s feet [high heel shoes] where Isis is concerned. Does anyone really believe the US wants to remove Isis from Syria?
I can say with certainty that the American people and government do not give a rip about Kurdish independence. The US is accustomed to cooperating with a number of allies and most people here wouldn’t understand why anyone would have a problem with a joint Kurd/Iraqi move against ISIS, although that is because we have no concept of internal war.