Amid a now six-day-old rebel offensive in northwestern Syria against the Assad regime, the U.S. military has backed a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) offensive operation in the eastern part of that war-torn country, a U.S. official told The War Zone Tuesday morning. That operation took place around Deir Ezzor, a town on the Euphrates River that has been a center of fighting between the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led SDF and various jihadi groups and militias. While the U.S. official told us that the operation was against ISIS, there are reports that it was against Assad’s forces.
“An SDF operation occurred, they requested support and we supported them,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details.
The official declined to say how the U.S. assisted but emphasized that it had “nothing to do with events in the northwestern part of Syria,” which is taking place about 150 miles west of Deir Ezzor.
“This is not outside our normal capacity,” the official added. “The mission remains unchanged. We are still there to defeat ISIS and that mission remains unchanged.”
The U.S. has about 900 troops operating in Syria.
Videos emerged online showing U.S. strikes in the Deir Ezzor region and SDF ground forces on the move.
A day after a U.S. official denied that A-10 Warthogs were operating in the area, a video emerged online purporting to show one supporting the SDF effort. The U.S. official we spoke with today could not immediately confirm that the Warthogs were involved in this operation.
A-10 strikes also reportedly took place on Dec. 1 against Iranian proxy militia groups.
In a statement posted on its website, SDF said that it is defending an area known as the “Seven Villages” near Deir Ezzor from remnants of ISIS still active in the region. The concern, according to SDF, is that ISIS is trying to exploit the turmoil taking place about 150 miles west as the anti-Assad fighters continue their push south toward Hama.
“In light of the serious security situation arising from recent developments in western Syria, particularly in the Badia region, and the existence of a serious threat related to the imminent movement of large ISIS terrorist cells to control geographical areas unprotected, especially in the north and east of Deir Ezzo, we confirm that our forces have become responsible for safeguarding the populations of the villages of Salhiya, Tabia, Hatla, Khesham, Marrat, Mazloum, and Husseiniya in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor,” SDF explained. “The deployment of our forces to these villages is in response to the urgent pleas and appeals of the local populace, following the increasing potential risks that ISIS will exploit the events in the west of the country.
While the U.S. official insisted that the operation it backed is not connected to the uprising against Assad, there are claims that the attacks were either against Iranian-backed militias or Assad’s forces.
Troops from “a U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led coalition battled” Syrian “government forces in northeastern Syria early on Tuesday, both sides said,” Reuters reported on Tuesday, adding that it is “opening a new front for President Bashar al-Assad who lost Aleppo in a sudden rebel advance last week. Airstrikes also targeted Iran-backed militia groups supporting Syrian government forces in the strategically vital region, a security source in eastern Syria.”
The Hezbollah-linked Al Mayadeen media outlet on Tuesday reported that the attacks are related to the rebel offensive and carried out on behalf of the SDF-affiliated Deir Ezzor Military Council “which stands for armed groups supported by U.S. occupation forces, operating under the SDF and controlling areas north of the Euphrates River, where several US military bases are located.”
Al Mayadeen‘s “correspondent confirmed that U.S. occupation forces had instructed Deir Ezzor Military Council militants to launch an attack on Syrian Army positions in the seven villages in the Deir Ezzor countryside, coinciding with an offensive by the terrorist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and other opposition factions on Aleppo, Idlib, and Hama countrysides,” the publication stated. “Intense clashes were reported between Deir Ezzor Military Council militants and the Syrian Army on the outskirts of the towns of al-Salihiya, Marrat, and al-Tabiya in northern Deir Ezzor, where the US-backed militants shelled Khasham village in Deir Ezzor countryside with 12 mortar rounds. Violent clashes were also reported between the militants and the Syrian Army on the al-Salihiya front in northern Deir Ezzor.”
The SDF gained no ground in the operation, Al Mayadeen wrote.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a London-based watchdog group monitoring said aircraft from the U.S.-led anti-ISIS international coalition “executed intensive airstrikes on positions of Iranian-backed militias in the region, amid frequent flights by Coalition aircraft over the ‘seven villages’ area.”
SDF forces gained no ground in the operation, according to SOHR.
On Monday, the Pentagon’s top spokesman was asked if the SDF was preparing “to launch an operation in seven villages controlled by al-Assad regime near Conoco oil field.”
“So as I’m sure you can appreciate, we are in contact with the SDF as they are one of our key partners on the enduring defeat of ISIS mission,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters. “I won’t speak for the SDF or talk about their potential future operations other than to say that again, we will continue to coordinate closely when it comes to the threat of ISIS and ensuring that they’re not able to resurge throughout Syria or into Iraq. I’ll just leave it there.”
Ryder, emphasizing that the U.S. has no involvement in the rebel offensive, added that American forces have recently come under fire in the Deir Ezzor area and responded with defensive actions.
“There was a rocket attack against one of our facilities in Syria,” he said. “No U.S. personnel were injured; no infrastructure damaged. Separately, on the 29th, there was a self-defense strike near [Mission Support Site] MSS Euphrates. U.S. forces essentially [took] out a potential threat to that facility. It is completely unrelated to the ongoing situation in northwestern Syria.”
All this is taking place as the coalition led by HTS – formally an al-Qaida-linked group known as Al Nusra Front that has since cut off ties to the Sunni Jihadi organization – continues pressing southward from Aleppo to Hama.
The Syrian insurgents “have launched attacks in the central province of Hama, threatening to cut off government troops from a key route linking the capital, Damascus, with rebel-held Aleppo,” the Guardian reported on Tuesday. “The army was engaging in ‘violent confrontations’ with armed groups in Hama, the Syrian state news agency Sana reported.”
Insurgents said they were “positioned about six miles from Hama city, the country’s fourth largest city, and that their forces had captured the towns of Maardis and Soran just north of the city,” the publication stated.
While the U.S. insists its actions have nothing to do with the rebel offensive, they are taking place on the outer cusp of Assad-controlled territory where numerous groups, including regime forces, Iranian-backed militias, ISIS and U.S.-backed troops are fighting a complex web of intertwined battles.
Clearly, this is a fluid situation and we will update this story with more details about the U.S. involvement as they emerge.
Update: 3:02 PM Eastern –
The U.S. carried out defensive strikes in eastern Syria after MSS Euphrates was attacked, Ryder told reporters, including from The War Zone, Tuesday afternoon. He was quick to point out that they had nothing to do with the rebel offensive or against regime forces.
“This morning, U.S. Central Command forces successfully destroyed several weapons systems in the vicinity of Military Support Site Euphrates in Syria, that included three truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers, a T-64 tank and mortars that presented a clear and imminent threat to U.S. and coalition forces,” Ryder explained. “The self-defense strike occurred after the mobile multiple rocket launchers fired rockets that landed in the vicinity of MSS Euphrates and mortars were fired towards U.S. forces.”
The U.S. is “still assessing who is operating these weapons,” Ryder continued. “But you do know that there are Iranian-backed militia groups in the area that have conducted attacks on MSS Euphrates in the past. There are also Syrian military forces that operate in the area. To be clear, these self-defense actions successfully eliminated imminent threats to U.S. personnel and were not linked to any broader activities in northwest Syria by other groups.”
The War Zone asked Ryder specifically if the U.S. backed an SDF operation against ISIS in eastern Syria.
He referred to his previous comments and said: “U.S. forces were threatened, and so U.S. forces took action to eliminate that threat and safeguard our forces.”
Ryder also shed some additional light on a Nov. 29 defensive strike in that region, acknowledging that an A-10 was used against enemy targets.
“On November 29, US Central Command also successfully engaged the hostile target – employing an A-10 fighter aircraft – that imposed a threat to U.S. and coalition forces at MSS Euphrates, as individuals were observed preparing a rocket rail. The self-defense actions likewise eliminated threats to our personnel at MSS Euphrates, and again, were in no way related to ongoing operations in and around Aleppo or northwest Syria.”
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com.