[pjw] Who is fighting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq? (AFP 11/23)

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hi
While this handy guide was created by AFP 2 weeks ago, before Britain 
voted and then quickly jumped into bombing Syria, it is a good means to 
sort out the giant mess that the US has provoked in the region.

It also very quickly skims over Turkey's role, which includes targeting 
Kurdish independence fighters in Iraq and Syria.


More evidence of the futility of the whole situation came the next day as 
Turkey downed a Russian warplane it claimed was in its airspace, and
Syrian rebels used an American made missile to destroy a Russian 
helicopter.
  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/world/europe/turkey-syria-russia-military-plane.html
  http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-syria-crisis-helicopter-idUSKBN0TD1KQ20151124

More for us to talk about on Wednesday at the IAG meeting...
dan h
peace and justice works iraq affinity group


  http://news.yahoo.com/fighting-islamic-state-syria-iraq-210714679.html
    Who is fighting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq?
AFP Monday,   November 23, 2015

    Beirut (AFP) - A breakdown of the main forces fighting Islamic State
    jihadists in Iraq and Syria, after operations by warplanes from
    France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier were launched on Monday:

    - Syrian and Iraqi armies -

    - SYRIA: The Syrian army numbered 178,000 troops in 2015, according to
    the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Syria's army
    has been roughly halved from its pre-war strength by deaths, defections
    and increased draft dodging. In its fight against rebels and jihadists,
    it relies on militias, which boast 150,000 to 200,000 members.

    - IRAQ: The army counts 177,600 men, according to the IISS. After the
    US invasion in 2003, the Americans dissolved the army, which was then
    450,000 strong, and rebuilt a new force, which collapsed in June 2014
    when faced with the IS.

    Washington and its allies then sought to train the Iraqi army and the
    government to restructure it. Since September, it has had at its
    disposal American F-16 fighter jets. It depends on Shiite militias,
    notably the Popular Mobilisation units (Hashed al-Shaabi) and Sunni
    tribes.

    - Kurdish forces and rebel militias -

    - Kurds have defended their own territory from the IS, backed by raids
    by the US-led coalition with Syria's Kurdish People's Protection Units
    (YPG) in the north and northeastern Syria, and peshmerga in northern
    Iraq.

    - In Syria, after the failure of a plan to train rebels, Washington has
    offered support since October 12 to a coalition of Kurdish militia and
    rebel groups: the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance between
    the powerful YPG and other Syrian rebel groups.

    - Elsewhere in Syria, the armed opposition is fractured between a
    variety of moderate and Islamist rebel groups, including the powerful
    Ahrar al-Sham faction in north and northwestern Syria, the Army of
    Islam near Damascus, and the Southern Front in Daraa province.
    Some of those forces have at times allied with Al-Qaeda affiliate
    Al-Nusra Front, which is in turn a rival of IS.

    - Foreign forces -

    - A US-led international coalition has been conducting air strikes in
    Iraq since September 2014 at Baghdad's request, and in Syria, where it
    has so far refused to collaborate with the Damascus authorities.
    The coalition comprises around 60 countries, including Britain, France,
    Syria's Arab neighbours and Turkey, as well as since late September
    Tunisia, Malaysia and Nigeria.

    It has ruled out any boots on the ground but has sent in soldiers to
    train Iraqi troops.

    Less than a dozen of the countries actually carry out air strikes,
    which have totalled 8,200 over the past year, and of which the US has
    carried out four-fifths.

    Five countries -- the US, France, Canada, Australia and Jordan -- are
    taking part in air strikes in both Syria and Iraq.

    Others are taking part in strikes in Syria but not Iraq: Saudi Arabia,
    Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Turkey, or in Iraq but not Syria:
    Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain.

    Washington, whose aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is expected in
    the Mediterranean, has sent 3,500 soldiers to Iraq and will deploy in
    Syria some 50 soldiers from its special forces.

    They do not take part in ground combat, except for one-off operations.

    FRANCE: is stepping up its air strikes in Syria after the November 13
    terrorist attacks in Paris claimed by the IS. It has mobilised 3,500
    soldiers, and deployed in the eastern Mediterranean its aircraft
    carrier Charles de Gaulle, more than doubling its strike capacity.

    TURKEY: launched its first air strikes with the coalition on August 28,
    and authorised the US to use its strategic base at Incirlik.

    RUSSIA: An ally of the Damascus regime, Moscow launched air strikes on
    September 30 in Syria, after boosting its military presence over the
    summer and is building an air base near the northwestern coastal town
    of Latakia.

    Its fleet in the Caspian Sea is also firing cruise missiles. Moscow,
    which is calling for a "large anti-terrorist coalition" has according
    to the Russian press sent up to 2,000 soldiers.

    Accused by the Americans and their allies of targeting the opposition
    to Damascus rather than the IS, Moscow has stepped up attacks on the
    jihadists since the Paris attacks and the downing of a Russian plane
    over Egypt's Sinai, though it continues to strike other groups too.
    Russia, Iran, Syria and Iraq have been coordinating intelligence since
    September.

    IRAN: The Shiite power backs the regimes of Damascus and Baghdad and
    has committed its elite troops, the Revolutionary Guards, in Syria with
    some 7,000 soldiers, and also in Iraq.

    LEBANON: The powerful Shiite militia Hezbollah has committed between
    5,000 and 8,000 fighters to Syria, where it is fighting alongside the
    Damascus regime's army.