A Syrian soldier fires artillery at ISIS positions during the battle for Palmrya. Yahoo/AFP.
ISIS is advancing on the Syrian provincial capital of Hasakeh, hot off of victories in both Syria and Iraq. Yahoo/AFP. ISIS troops are only 500 meters away from the gates of the city. ISIS has captured several surrounding buildings and are using the same devastating suicide bombing tactics that helped them capture Ramadi. The Syrian regime, along with Kurdish fighters, are trying to hold the city and have resorted to using barrel bombs dropped from helicopters against ISIS. ISIS captured its first provincial capital, Raqqa, months ago, and if Hasakeh falls it will be third capital to fall. Al-Nusra and their allies captured Idlib last March. In response to ISIS and rebel victories in Syria, the governments of Iraq and Iran have deployed 7000 troops to the country. Most of them are tasked with defending the Syrian capital of Damascus.
My Comment:
Things sure seem to be spilling out of control in Syria. Hasakeh is located in the Northeast of the country and the regime forces there are largely cut off from the rest of the country. They are getting help from the Kurds in the region, but they seem to be reliant on the rest of the country for supplies, along with anything that makes it over the Iraqi border.. Should the city fall, the entire northwest region would be threatened by ISIS, and there is a good chance that ISIS could cut off any supplies from Iraq. It would also further isolate the Syrian outpost at Deir Ez Zor and the Kurdish forces around Kobani.
Needless to say the Syrians want to keep hold of the city. The question is if they can. The Syrians seem to be under threat throughout the country and I don't know if Hasakeh is a priority for them. Losing the city would be a disaster, but with ISIS threatening Aleppo and Al-Nusra and their affiliates threatening the crucial coastal cities it might not be a priority. Losing either the coastal regions or Damascus would be the end of the war and losing Aleppo would be a larger loss then Hasakeh.
On the other hand, it's not just the Syrian regime fighting in Hasakeh. The Kurds are there too, and they have proven to be very good at defensive warfare. Against all odds, they held out against a huge assault against Kobani. In brutal house to house fighting, and with only a little help from United States airstrikes and Iraqi Kurdish reinforcements, they held on, giving ISIS one of its most bitter defeats. The Syrian Kurds, like their Iraqi brothers, know how to fight and will at least give ISIS a bloody nose.
The outcome of the battle may come down to air support. If the Syrian regime is able to keep air superiority, they will be able to resupply and re-arm the troops trapped in the region. They will also be able to send fighter jets and helicopters to strike ISIS fighters. On the other hand, if Turkey was sincere about their desire to implement a no-fly zone in Syria, then Hasakeh is doomed.
I'm kind of surprised that the major headline wasn't about the deployment of Iranian and Iraqi troops to defend Damascus. Other news agencies are reporting the story now, so the mention isn't out of thin air. So far the only reliable source is AFP so I'm not sure what is up. They are citing a Syrian regime source so it could be credible. Iran's General Soleimani promised a surprise, and maybe this is it...
So what does that mean for the United States? Well, it makes our relationship with Iraq a bit more complicated. Offically the United States wants to see Assad gone and wants the rebels to win. We are also allied to the very Iraqi troops that will be fighting with Assad. So our allies are fighting our enemies, who also happen to be fighting our other enemies.
Just when you thought the war in Syria couldn't get more complicated, they had to go and do this. I've said this before, but Syria is the war that everyone came to. There are so many factions and almost all of them are fighting each other. Just off the top of my head there is the Syrian regime, with Iraq, Iran, the Kurds and Hezbollah as allies vs ISIS vs al-Nusra and their other Jihadi allies vs whatever secular rebels are left in the country. And the United States and the various gulf states bombing ISIS and al-Nusra. And each faction has foreigners fighting for them. That's a four way battle to the death... with millions of people caught in the middle
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