U.S.-backed coalition seizes major dam in Syria from IS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
This file image made from video posted on a militant website Saturday, July 5, 2014, purports to show the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon at a mosque in Iraq during his first public appearance. The Islamic State group has released a new message purportedly from its reclusive leader, claiming his self-styled caliphate is doing well despite an unprecedented alliance against it.
BEIRUT >> A U.S.-backed coalition of rebels in Syria — including Syrian Kurdish, Arab and Christian groups — has captured a major dam on the Euphrates River in the north from the Islamic State group.
The coalition, known as Syria Democratic Forces, seized the Tishrin Dam on Saturday as part of its offensive aimed at cutting supply lines between IS strongholds in northern Syria.
The Tishrin Dam supplies much off northern Syria with electricity.
An SDF spokesman told AP earlier this week that his forces are also trying to cut the supply lines between the Islamic State’s de-facto capital of Raqqa and the group’s stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria.
The SDF, dominated by the Kurdish militia in Syria known as YPG, or People’s Protection Units, has become a main force in fighting IS.
15 responses to “U.S.-backed coalition seizes major dam in Syria from IS”
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Coalition of Syrian Kurdish, Arab, and Christian groups for how long can maintain control of area dam without US air support? This group could not support or form a stable governing body so it is only temporary until a schism will break them apart. Then our efforts is again wasted.
Our partial involvement certainly will not add to the stability of this coalition. The Muslim nations must take an active part of the coalition. Groups are not the answer. We are wasting our efforts and moneys.
USA cannot fix this problem Let the Arabs fix their own problems. And pay for their own wars. Same goes for Israel that feeds at the uSA trough.
I agree completely Allie. Hope you had a Mele Kalikimaka:)
allie – You should now by now the Arabs are incapable of working together to eliminate Isis. Lacking a professional military, leadership, skills, the will power to do what needs to be done. All talk, no action.
Many of the Arab nations like Saudi Arabia,UAE,Kuwait,Bahrain,Pakistan,Yemen and even the Afghan Taliban really secretly support IS because they are Sunni Muslims fighting to overthrow Shiite Muslim governments in Iraq and Syria. We should worry about securing our own borders against extremism and leave the Muslims to fight among themselves. Historically, we have sold arms and allied with Sunni nations who really secretly hate America and all it stands for and the Russians have provided arms and now military support to the Shiite Nations. A proxy war of sorts.
allie will never join ISIS.
U.S. backed coalition? It should have been U.S. LED coalition.
Why? They should learn to fight their own battles.
Why? How uninformed can you be? The stated goal of ISIS and other Muslim terrorist organizations is to kill Americans. It is better that we kill them in the Middle-East and Africa before they send their “reugees” to the US to kill us at home.
Make that “refugees.”
Or we could pull our people and troops out of the region and secure our own borders. Half the reason the Muslims hate us is because we occupy their lands and seek to control the world and everything in it.
Then why is the Republican Congress afraid to authorize the use of force against ISIS?
Some people need to learn the hard way that America has the best military on the world.
What, 12 years of senseless war in the middle east is not enough for you? 4 trillion dollars and thousands of US lives later what have we accomplished? All we’ve done is destabilize the region and created conditions for Sunni Muslim extremism to rise up. Well, we got Bin Laden. That was about the only positive in all of it.
Having the “best military” is meaningless if it’s not used in the service of clear, reasonable and achievable foreign policy goals, which helps explain why the US hasn’t won a war since 1991. It’s like being the Chicago Cubs of wars.