{"id":179728,"date":"2018-11-29T05:59:02","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T05:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=179728"},"modified":"2018-12-02T07:11:23","modified_gmt":"2018-12-02T07:11:23","slug":"us-military-says-it-cant-take-out-remaining-isis-fighters-because-theyre-hiding-in-tunnels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=179728","title":{"rendered":"US Military Says It Can\u2019t Take Out Remaining ISIS Fighters Because They\u2019re Hiding In Tunnels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction \u2013 Nov 28, 2018<\/h1>\n

The U.S. and its proxies had nothing to do with beating back ISIS. That was Russia\u2019s doing, with the help of Hezbollah and Iran.<\/h5>\n
Until Russia\u2019s intervention in Syria in Sept 2015 ISIS had been steadily advancing across Syria and Iraq. Despite U.S. intervention in Iraq<\/a><\/span> and Syria<\/a><\/span> a year before ISIS had continued to gain ground<\/a><\/span>; even as some Syrians complained that the Americans were just \u201csitting on their hands\u201d while ISIS advanced.<\/h5>\n
That changed dramatically with Russia\u2019s intervention. Swiftly and decisively Russian forces took on ISIS, killing an estimated 86,000 in Syria alone<\/a><\/span>.<\/h5>\n
Compare that with the excuse the U.S. offers for not taking on the estimated 2,000 to 3,000 ISIS fighters remaining in Syria and Iraq. U.S. defence officials claim they can\u2019t deal with the remaining ISIS because \u201cthey\u2019re hiding in tunnels\u201d.<\/h5>\n
To be blunt that sounds like B.S. We would suggest that the U.S. won\u2019t attack them because it is using them to do its dirty work and plans to re-deploy them elsewhere, possibly against Iran or in Afghanistan. Ed.<\/h5>\n

US Military Says It Can\u2019t Take Out Remaining ISIS Fighters Because They\u2019re Hiding In Tunnels<\/h1>\n

Jeff Shogol \u2013 Task and Purpose Nov 27, 2018<\/h2>\n
\"A<\/a>

A US soldier during a patrol outside Manbij, northern Syria, in August 2018. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

As 2018 draws to a close, it is unclear if U.S. troops and their Arab-Kurdish allies have made a dent in ISIS\u2019 last stronghold in Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n

A spokesman for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Syria estimated in December 2017 that fewer than 3,000 ISIS fighters remained in both countries. Since then, defense officials have said consistently that roughly 2,000 ISIS fighters are trapped in Syria\u2019s Middle Euphrates River Valley.<\/span><\/p>\n

Army Col. Sean Ryan, a spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, repeated the 2,000 figure when briefing reporters on Tuesday. However, it is difficult to determine exactly how many ISIS fighters remain in their last enclave in Syria because they are dug in deeply and the terrain is difficult for combat operations, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers game is difficult to count because ISIS is underground \u2013 they\u2019re in tunnels; they\u2019re hiding,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cSo it\u2019s not like we watch them walk into to a building and we\u2019re counting as they go in. They\u2019re spread apart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked about why the numbers had not changed, Ryan told Task & Purpose in an email there could be a variety of factors: \u201cIn October, Gen. Dunford stated new followers were arriving, mostly over the Turkish border, at a rate of about 100 a month.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe early estimates from December probably did not take into account the elaborate industrial strength tunnels where many ISIS were hiding in the MERV and the size of the area. The 3,000 may have been conservative and currently, we believe it is around 1,500-2,000, and more difficult to reinforce now with stricter border security throughout the region.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ryan didn\u2019t mention that the Syrian Democratic Forces were on the verge of crushing ISIS in Syria when the Turks invaded and occupied the Syrian Kurdish town of Afrin in January, bringing the offensive to a halt. Although combat operations against ISIS were later renewed, the momentum had been lost.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, the U.S. military and SDF have made progress in cutting off ISIS\u2019 logistics and money flow and containing the remaining fighters to the Middle Euphrates River Valley, Ryan said at Tuesday\u2019s briefing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right now, ISIS now holds less than 1 percent of its original geographic caliphate, which once stretched across Syria and Iraq, Ryan said. By way of comparison, U.S. military officials estimated at the start of the year that ISIS still held about 2 percent if its former territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ryan acknowledged that ISIS had recently caught the Syrian Democratic Forces off-guard in a surprise attack, which reportedly began late last week. About 80 SDF fighters have been killed in the fighting, but the U.S. allies have managed to regain all the territory that was lost.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult fight,\u201d Ryan said at the briefing. \u201cThis is definitely not Mayberry. People are dying. For the ISIS side, it\u2019s fight to the end. Basically, they came up with a counter-attack in poor weather conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone can have a good day any given Sunday and they had theirs. Sometimes war is give and take. You\u2019re going to have good days and bad days. The enemy just happened to have one good day and then the SDF beat them right back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is obvious BS. The U.S. can\u2019t or more precisely won\u2019t take out the remaining ISIS fighters because it\u2019s planning to use them elsewhere, either Iran or Afghanistan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179728"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179767,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179728\/revisions\/179767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}