{"id":185117,"date":"2019-03-13T06:48:03","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T06:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=185117"},"modified":"2019-03-16T06:34:39","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T06:34:39","slug":"chief-french-artillery-colonel-in-syria-slams-us-for-cowardly-civilian-killing-tactics-prolonging-the-war-vs-isis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=185117","title":{"rendered":"Chief French Artillery Colonel in Syria Slams US for Cowardly Civilian-Killing Tactics, Prolonging the War vs ISIS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Middle East Monitor \u2013 via Russia Insider March 13, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n

A senior French officer faces punishment after publicly condemning the US-led coalition\u2019s military tactics against Daesh in the east of Syria,\u00a0accusing Washington of prolonging the conflict and disregarding a growing civilian death toll<\/strong>, the army said on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Colonel Francois-Regis Legrier \u2013 who has been in charge of directing French artillery supporting Kurdish-led groups in Syria since October \u2013\u00a0said the coalition\u2019s focus had been on limiting its own risks and this had greatly increased the death toll among civilians, as well as raised the level of destruction.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, the Battle of Hajin [near Syria\u2019s eastern border with Iraq] was won, at least on the ground but\u00a0by refusing ground engagement, we unnecessarily prolonged the conflict and thus contributed to increasing the number of casualties in the population,<\/strong>\u201d Legrier wrote in an article in the\u00a0National Defence Review<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

France is one of the main allies in the US-led coalition fighting Daesh in Syria and Iraq, with its warplanes used to strike militant targets, its heavy-artillery backing Kurdish-led fighters and its special forces leading the ground assault.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have massively destroyed the infrastructure and given the population a disgusting image of what may be a Western-style liberation<\/strong>\u00a0leaving behind the seeds of an imminent resurgence of a new adversary,\u201d he said, in rare public criticism by a serving officer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have in no way won the war because we lack a realistic and lasting policy and an adequate strategy,\u201d Legrier said. \u201cHow many Hajins will it take to understand that we are on the wrong track?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Legrier\u2019s article has embarrassed French authorities just days before the coalition is expected to\u00a0announce the defeat<\/a>\u00a0of the terror group;\u00a0the article was removed from the review\u2019s website on Saturday.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA punishment is being considered,\u201d French army spokesman Patrick Steiger confirmed to reporters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hajin was the last major towns held by Daesh militants and was the target of the final phase of \u201cOperation Roundup\u201d that started September, with\u00a0heavy battles<\/strong><\/span> <\/a>also centring on the Al-Shafah area near the Iraqi border. Six months on, a rapidly-diminishing few hundred militants have been battling on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River, hemmed in by US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border and by Iranian-backed Shia militias on the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet the battle has proved difficult with Daesh militants fiercely resisting SDF attempts to capture their final stronghold, despite hundreds of Kurdish fighters \u2013 including heavy military equipment \u2013 sent\u00a0as reinforcements<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>over the course of the fighting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the SDF were also supported by fighter jets from the international coalition, strategically positioned minefields placed by Daesh reportedly significantly slowed the ground assault, causing the operation to be\u00a0temporarily halted<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0in November.<\/span><\/p>\n

The coalition could have got rid of just 2,000 militant fighters<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 who lacked air support or modern technological equipment \u2013\u00a0much more quickly and effectively by sending in just 1,000 troops,<\/strong>\u00a0Legrier argued. \u201cThis refusal raises a question: why have an army that we don\u2019t dare use?\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised the US-led bombing campaign, which has resulted in the deaths of scores of civilians over the past six months; to date, some 700 civilians \u2013 over 250 of whom were children \u2013 have been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Thousands of civilians have fled the area, with the Al-Houl refugee camp in north-eastern Syria currently hosting over 39,000 people, mainly women and children.<\/span><\/p>\n

In October, some 54 people \u2013 including 12 children \u2013 were killed in\u00a0a single strike on a mosque<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the town of Al-Susah, near the Iraqi border. The US alleged that the mosque was being used as a base by Daesh operatives; some 22 militants were also killed in the blast. Despite being hit during the weekly Friday congregational prayer, a popular time for civilians, the military claimed it targeted the mosque when only fighters were present.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

French officer who directed fire support of Kurdish groups, accuses the U.S. of prolonging the conflict in Syria and contributing to mounting civilian casualties <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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-185117","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\/185117","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=185117"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185119,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185117\/revisions\/185119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=185117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=185117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=185117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}