CENTCOM bushwacked an Iranian force near Dayr az-Zawr

Thanks to patient collection of related reporting in the social media by Milos, a member of the ACIG.info team, few highly interesting…

Thanks to patient collection of related reporting in the social media by Milos, a member of the ACIG.info team, few highly interesting ‘bits and pieces’ about the latest ‘Battle of Conoco Oilfield’ — fought between US and ‘pro-Syrian Regime forces’ east of Dayr az-Zawr, in Syria, in the early hours of 8 February 2018 — came to my attention.

Have no doubt: the following is ‘thin’, and to quite some degree based on ‘questionable’ reporting in the social media. But, some of sources are very good, and the things that came out are simply ‘making sense’: so much so, nothing else does.

To start with: the fact is that the Conoco- aka Tabiye oilfield is ‘disputed’, and related negotiations going on since months. Even such ridiculous sources like the ‘SouthFront.org’ (a platform publishing Russo-Assadist military propaganda) were reporting correspondingly — and that back in October 2017.

Then, only days before this clash, Milos found a link citing Liwa al-Baqr’s establishment of ‘three battalions of local/tribal combatants’ — in places adjacent to the Conoco/Tabiye oilfield, including such like the village of Marrat.

Now, Liwa al-Baqr is controlled by the IRGC-QF: although staffed by native Syrians, it is actually the centrepiece of what is Hezbollah/Syria. As reported several times already, the IRGC has meanwhile forced the Assad regime to officially recognize all the combatants under its control deployed in Syria as ‘members of the Syrian Armed Forces’.

Means: Liwa al-Baqr is a ‘quasi-loyalist’ force: one staffed by Syrian nationals, even recognized as the ‘SAA’, but completely controlled by the IRGC-QF — and commanded by Iranian officers.

The other force cited as involved in this clash was IRGC-QF’s Liwa Fatimiyoun. Do I need to explain that one (again)?

To make things even better: Milos then found another interesting Twitter report, along which the members of these ‘tribal battalions’ of the Liwa al-Baqr have been explained that they are going to attack a ‘Daesh sleeper-cell’ (note: ‘Daesh’ is local slang for the IS).

With other words: the Iranians lied to ‘their’ Syrian and Afghan Hazara troops before deploying these into attack on an area controlled by the US-supported PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF-conglomerate. And the CENTCOM hit back in full force.

Conclusion from all of this is on hand: the CENTCOM bushwacked an IRANIAN-controlled force staffed by proxies from Syria and Afghanistan east of Dayr az-Zawr

More about this all to follow, as usually, via WarIsBoring.com