Thursday, March 09, 2017

"Last week, the US-backed group struck a deal with Russia to turn over up to 20 villages west of Manbij to the Syrian army, creating a buffer zone between the Kurdish-dominated militia and the Turks. While implementation of the deal has been delayed, five villages were handed over on Monday, Darwish said. SDF forces liberated Manbij from IS in August 2016, just days before Ankara announced “Operation Euphrates Shield.” Turkish-backed Syrian rebels, along with Turkish armor and artillery, have since pushed IS back and captured the key stronghold of Al-Bab, only to see further advance checked by Syrian government troops that linked up with the SDF south of the city. US presence in the area was intended to keep all groups focused on fighting IS, the Pentagon said on Monday."

It seems with all the shenanigans and tweets, Syria gets too little U.S. press coverage. The above headline is from RT, here, at the end of the item.

So Turks and Kurds; Kurds and Turks. And when's the last U.S. press report you've seen mentioning either "Ergodan" or "Fettalah Gulen?"

Let's see, Aljazeera in depth, March, 2014.

More on Syria, per RT, here and here. "Russia practically mediating" headline language in the second item? More U.S. boots on the Syrian ground, per the first item. If the gist is cooperation between Russia and the U.S. in Syria these days, with the U.S. military escalating, why would that not be U.S. news of interest? Who might rather a differing narrative, and why? A websearch.

___________UPDATE____________
RT, March 10 new item, citing open U.S. sources, re force buildup "against IS."

Are we really for them or against them? And what were the folks at the Benghazi "CIA annex" up to within their alleged stockpiling of weaponry there, and/or later shipping weaponry to forces of some kind, in Syria? Those were press assertions, which were never fully fleshed out in Gowdy hearings. As if the topic was off limits in open hearings. Is IS a zealot force, a mercenary force, or a bit of both, and how are they getting money and weaponry? If a surrogate, whose? The entire range of uncertainty to the thing breeds skepticism over U.S. policy - if there is one.