|
|
The United States launched a successful drone strike in Syria against an individual Washington has identified as one of ISIS’s top leaders.
President Joe Biden praised the killing and said it was “a powerful message to all terrorists who threaten our homeland and our interests around the world.”
TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal is completely opposed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it is remarkable how the U.S. can conduct drone strikes in sovereign countries based on allegations someone is a terror leader. What if Syria wanted to kill someone in the U.S. and did so with a drone strike… while occupying parts of the nation?
No court, no jury, no explanation to the public…just an armed MQ-9 Reaper buzzing over Syria, likely being controlled from a stateside U.S. base.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin claims that he is looking to “denazify” Ukraine, the media calls the comment blatant Russian propaganda. But when the U.S. labels someone a terrorist, there are never questions, and the killings are often celebrated as though the raids are sporting events.
Who Blew Up?
Maher al-Agal, who was located in the Syrian town of Jindayris at the time of the strike, was considered to be the top leader of ISIS in the country, The Wall Street Journal reported. The senior official in a terror group, the U.S. said.
“[Al-Agal’s] death in Syria takes a key terrorist off the field and significantly degrades the ability of ISIS to plan, resource, and conduct their operations in the region,” Biden told reporters. The U.S. military said there were no civilian casualties.
The Associated Press noted in its story that the U.S.’s claim was not possible to immediately confirm.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement that al-Agal was responsible for developing ISIS networks outside of Iraq and Syria.
U.S. troops have been in Syria since 2015 with the mandate to assist local forces in the fight against ISIS. The report said there are about 900 troops still in the country. There have been instances that the Pentagon has been in communication with Israel before strikes so there is no confusion in the campaign against ISIS fighters in the country.
Israel has been carrying out a clandestine war with Iran in the region and Tel Aviv has conducted hundreds of bombings over the past few years to kill Iranian-backed fighters.
We reported in February about another U.S. night operation in the country targeting a suspected terrorist in Syria’s Idlib province that resulted in the death of a U.S. terror target and 12 others, including six children. (See “PRESIDENT BIDEN ON WAR PATH: WOMEN CHILDREN KILLED IN SYRIA.”)
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the target of that raid, took over ISIS after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed by U.S. forces. He had been tasked with leading the group’s “remnants as they regrouped following the downfall of their caliphate and shifted underground to wage an insurgency in Iraq and Syria,” according to NPR at the time.
Biden said al-Qurayshi, who was killed about nine miles from al-Baghdadi, blew himself up on the third floor of the home and killed his own family members. The raid lasted for two hours and had been in the works for months.
Syria on the Brink?
The situation in Syria is tenuous with several countries committed militarily there, including Iran, Russia, the U.S., and Israel. The U.S. has been trying to dissuade Turkey from launching new attacks against the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which has support from the U.S.
Dana Stroul, the Pentagon’s top Middle East policy official said Wednesday, that ISIS would stand to benefit from such a destabilizing campaign, Al-Monitor reported.
“There are currently more than 10,000 ISIS fighters currently held in makeshift detention facilities across northeast Syria,” Stroul said in Washington, at an event hosted by the Middle East Institute. “These facilities are overpopulated, insecure and guarded by our partner force, the SDF, [which is] under significant pressure from multiple armed adversaries, a deteriorating economy inflamed by historic drought and a potential Turkish operation in northern Syria,” Stroul explained.
TREND FORECAST: The Trends Journal has reported on the U.S.’s continued military engagements in Syria. (See “U.S. IN CLOSE CONTACT WITH ISRAEL BEFORE ATTACKS ON SYRIA,” “U.S. SOLDIERS INJURED AFTER BASE SHELLED IN SYRIA, WHY ARE THESE TROOPS STILL THERE?” and “IS RUSSIA FIGHTING THE U.S. IN SYRIA?”).
And, as we continue to note, there is no media reporting on the hypocrisy of it being OK for the U.S. to occupy any land in any nation they desire and kill whoever they want anywhere in the world… but it’s a “war crime” when other nations go the American Way.
Also, there is no condemnation of Israel’s continuing bombing of Syria. However, if Syria had the military might to attack as does Israel and killed as many Israeli’s as Israel killed Syrians, it would be denounced by the West and its mainstream media as acts of Holocaust proportions.