Analysis: Us troop increase risks tangling in syria's war

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ANALYSIS: US TROOP INCREASE RISKS TANGLING IN SYRIA'S WAR
BY ZEINA KARAM - ASSOCIATED PRESS - Mar 9, 3:14 PM EST
RE: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...03-09-15-14-27

BEIRUT (AP) -- Rolling around 200 Marines backed with howitzers into northern Syria, the United States is shifting from working quietly behind the scenes in Syria's conflict, turning instead toward overt displays of U.S. force in an attempt to shape the fight.

The latest deployment widens America's footprint in a highly toxic battlefield, with U.S. credibility and prestige on the line. It also risks drawing troops into a long and costly war with unpredictable outcomes.

The Marines' deployment, intended to back local forces in the campaign against the Islamic State group, came just days after another intervention. Dozens of Army troops, riding Stryker armored vehicles waving American flags, drove outside the Syrian town of Manbij in a mission aimed at keeping U.S. allies Turkey and Syrian Kurds from fighting each other and focused instead on the fight against IS.

The latest dispatch brings the number of U.S. boots on the ground in Syria close to more than 700.

The previous troops were quietly sent by the Obama administration to work with local allies against IS; most of them were special forces and advisers, and none brought heavy weapons like artillery with them.

But as the fight against IS gears up, so is the U.S. profile. After months of preparations, U.S.-backed Syrian forces are getting closer to launching an all-out assault on the Islamic State group's de facto capital, Raqqa, in northern Syria. The more robust presence could also reflect a freer hand given to the military by President Donald Trump, whose administration is drawing up plans for a Syria policy he has vowed will "obliterate" IS.

But the Americans are stepping into a crowded space in northern Syria, where U.S.-backed Kurdish groups, Turkish and Russian troops, Syrian government forces and Islamic State militants are all within firing range of one another.

That raises a number of concerns:

MISSION CREEP

U.S. officials say the battle for Raqqa will look much like the fight in neighboring Iraq, where the United States has waged a heavy air campaign and deployed special forces at the front lines to back the Iraqi military, now in a fierce battle to retake the northern city of Mosul from IS. Over the past two years, the U.S.-backed international coalition has spent billions trading and arming the Iraqi military

But Syria is not Iraq.

In Syria, U.S. forces do not have a national military to partner with - unless Washington made a dramatic reversal and overtly partnered with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Though no decision has been formally announced, the U.S. is likely to partner with the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is dominated by Kurds, though it includes some Arab fighters and other ethnicities. The U.S.-backed group has proved to be the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria, moving in past months to isolate Raqqa and cut off supply lines.

But it is still seen as ill-equipped for the difficult assault on militants entrenched in the city. That could bring pressure for a greater U.S. role - and a greater risk of confrontations with other players on the ground.

ANTAGONIZING TURKEY

Partnering with the Kurds to take Raqqa could also cause major damage to the U.S. relationship with NATO ally Turkey. Turkey has suggested its own military and its allied Syria forces should mount the fight, and that U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds should be excluded.

"If the U.S. were to prefer terrorist organizations over Turkey in the fight against IS, that would be their own decision, but that wouldn't be something we would consent" to, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told The Associated Press Thursday.

Yildirim said in an earlier exchange with visiting foreign journalists that ties between the two countries would be significantly undermined, though he wouldn't specify any steps Turkey - a member of the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS - might take. In the past, Turkey has hinted it could cut off access to Incirlik air base, home to coalition warplanes.

Ankara sees the Syrian Kurds as an extension of its own Kurdish insurgents. Turkish forces and Kurdish fighters have outright battled in northern Syria, where Turkish-backed Syrian forces pushed IS out of a pocket of territory near the border.

The U.S. deployment in Manbij intentionally puts Americans in the middle of that rivalry, hoping to cool it down. The Syrian Democratic Forces retook Manbij from IS control, and Turkey - with its troops nearby - says it won't allow the town to be under Kurdish control, threatening to move on it. The American presence appears intended to reassure Ankara the Kurds don't hold the town.

INDIRECT ALLIANCE

By partnering with the Kurds in the Raqqa assault, the U.S. also risks being seen as entering into an indirect alliance with Russia and Assad's government, which it backs.

With Russian air support, Assad's troops and allied forces like Lebanon's Hezbollah have advanced against IS in northern and central Syria. In the Syrian army's advance against IS troops in Palmyra, the troops were indirectly aided by U.S. airstrikes against the group.

Promising to scale up the war on the Islamic State group, Trump has hinted he would be less averse to an implied alliance with the Russians and perhaps even Assad, which he has described as a better option than the rebels.

But even a perceived lean toward Moscow and Damascus could bring a backlash from fiercely anti-Assad factions on the ground, threatening to draw American troops into the wider civil war in Syria.

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Karam is the AP's news director for Lebanon and Syria and has covered Syria since 1996.

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U.S. Is Sending About 400 Marines To Syria
By Merrit Kennedy - 3-9-17
RE: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...rines-to-syria

The Marines will join the approximately 500 U.S. troops already in Syria, such as these U.S. forces on the western outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Manbij on Sunday.

The Pentagon is sending about 400 Marines to Syria to help local fighters wrest control of Raqqa, which ISIS considers its capital.

The Pentagon says the new troops will fire artillery rounds at ISIS fighters in support of the local forces, as well as provide security for the Marine artillerymen, as NPR's Phil Ewing reports.

These 400 troops will bring the number of U.S. forces on the ground in Syria to about 900, Phil says.

"The military is trying to copy as much as it can from the playbook it's using in Iraq, where American troops aren't supposed to be in direct combat, but instead help local forces with indirect fire, airstrikes, training and weapons," he adds.

The aggressive new strategy marks a shift for the Pentagon, which has "mostly shied away from using conventional forces in Syria," as The Washington Post reports.

The Syrian Defense Forces — the U.S.-supported coalition led by Kurds that also includes Arab and Turkmen fighters — have been working to isolate Raqqa since November, as we reported. The northern Syrian city, which fell under ISIS control in 2014, is the militant group's most important stronghold in the country.

The U.S.-led coalition said Wednesday that it was winning the broader war against ISIS. "The enemy is being degraded by every measure and is on a trajectory to lasting defeat," the Pentagon said in a statement.

Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, said at a Senate hearing Thursday that the purpose of the new deployment was to "to ensure that we had redundant, capable fire support on the ground to support our partners and to ensure ... that we could take advantage of opportunities and ensure continued progress that we've been seeing."

The Pentagon tells NPR that the Marine battalion will be equipped with howitzers. The weapon provides some hints as to how close to the fighting the artillerymen will stand, according to The Washington Post:

"For the base in Syria to be useful, it must be within about 20 miles of the operations that U.S.-backed forces are carrying out. That is the estimated maximum range on many rounds fired from the M-777 howitzer. GPS-guided Excalibur rounds, which the Marines also used after establishing Fire Base Bell [outside Mosul, Iraq], can travel closer to 30 miles."
Coalition spokesman U.S. Air Force Col. John Dorrian has told Reuters that the operation to isolate Raqqa "could be completed in a few weeks." Then, he told the wire service, "the decision to move in can be made."

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More troops in Syria: Trump orders boots on the ground to battle ISIS
BY: MATTHEW ROZSA
RE: http://www.salon.com/2017/03/09/more...-trump-orders/

President Donald Trump has long expressed a desire to escalate the military’s fight against ISIS. Now, Trump is rolling out a plan that had been “in the works,” one which would put troops on the ground in Syria.

In the midst of American-backed troops’ continuing assault against the ISIS capital of Raqqa, an artillery base was established in Syria weeks ago by Marines attached to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, according to Military.com. Although the defense official who spoke to the site would not discuss the number of the Marines who had been deployed, it reportedly “included elements of multiple artillery batteries, as well as support personnel, including infantry Marines.” This deployment occurred after Army Stryker combat vehicles were seen in northeastern Syria, which was followed on Monday by news that American-backed troops had seized an important route out of Raqqa.

The last time that a Marine artillery detachment was sent out from MEU for a ground fight against ISIS occurred roughly one year ago. It resulted in the establishment of Fire Base Bell in northern Iraq, which provided support for ground troops fighting against ISIS in the Iraqi city of Mosul. A rocket attack on Fire Base Bell on March 19 resulted in the death of Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin and the wounding of four other Marines.

The Marines on the ground will be armed with 155-millimeter shells from M-777 Howitzers, according to two officials who spoke to The Washington Post. The Marines for this deployment were sent from Djibouti to Kuwait before going into Syria, according to another defense official who spoke to The Post. The same official told The Post that the new maneuver had “been in the works for some time” before Trump took office.

Matthew Rozsa is a breaking news writer for Salon. He holds an MA in History from Rutgers University-Newark and his work has appeared in Mic, Quartz and MSNBC.