Obama Approves ISIS Surveillance Flights Over Syria, Rejects Regime Cooperation
The New York Times reports that President Obama has approved surveillance flights over Syria, which could be a precursor to airstrikes there against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The administration’s chief concern remains how to target the militants without being viewed as helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“Defense officials said Monday evening that the Pentagon was sending in manned and unmanned reconnaissance flights over Syria, using a combination of aircraft, including drones and possibly U2 spy planes,” the paper reports. “The flights are a significant step towards direct American military action in Syria, an intervention that could alter the battlefield in the nation’s three-year civil war.
“Administration officials said the United States did not intend to notify the Assad government of the planned flights. Mr. Obama, who has repeatedly called for the ouster of Mr. Assad, is loath to be seen as aiding the Syrian government, even inadvertently. As a result the Pentagon is drafting military options that would strike the militant ISIS, near the largely erased border between those two nations, as opposed to more deeply inside Syria.”
Meanwhile, the Daily Beast reports that the Free Syrian Army – what remains of the military arm of the Syrian National Coalition, the opposition in exile – says the U.S. is not doing enough against ISIS.
“Airstrikes against ISIS inside Syria will not be helpful. Airstrikes will not get rid of ISIS. Airstrikes are like just tickling ISIS,” Hussam Al Marie, the FSA’s spokesman in northern Syria, told the website. “ISIS is not a real state that you can attack and destroy; they are thugs who are spread all over the east of Syria in the desert. And when they are in the cities, they are using civilian buildings. So airstrikes will not be enough to get rid of these terrorists and at the same time, they might hit civilians. That’s the problem.”
And elsewhere in the New York Times, Ben Hubbard reports that Syria’s foreign minister, Walid Moallem, said Monday that the Assad government was ready to cooperate with international efforts to fight ISIS.
“Syria is prepared to cooperate and coordinate regionally and internationally to fight terrorism,” he said, but said that all efforts had to go through his government.
ISIS Loots Advanced Weaponry From a Crucial Assad Regime Air Base in Syria
Business Insider reports on the spoils reaped by ISIS after its takeover of Taqba Air Base, the Syrian regime’s last military point in Raqqa province.
“ISIS fighters managed to loot SA-16 man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), Sidewinder missiles, and even MiG-21B fighter jets,” the site writes. “It is extremely unlikely that the militants have the manpower or the expertise to make use of the jets or the Sidewinder missiles. But the MANPADS pose dangers of their own.
“SA-16 MANPADS are shoulder-mounted homing missiles that are relatively simple to use. A missile fired from an SA-16 can reach an aircraft flying as high as 16,000 feet. This would put low-flying aircraft and helicopters at risk of being targeted by the jihadists, raising additional challenges for carrying out airstrikes against ISIS.”
U.N. Says Aid Access Has Improved, But Outlook Remains Bleak
The U.N. says humanitarian access in Syria has improved since its Security Council last month authorized the delivery of emergency aid across Syria’s borders with Jordan, Turkey and Iraq without Assad’s approval.
But, Reuters reports, Secretary general Ban Ki-moon “warned that designated terrorist groups continue to prevent aid workers from accessing some of the estimated 10.8 million people in Syria in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.”
“All parties to the conflict continue to deny access to humanitarian assistance in an unjustifiable manner,” Ban said. “Hundreds of thousands of people live under siege.”
It was the first time he was able to report improvements since he began submitting monthly updates on aid access earlier in 2014. “Access across borders following the adoption of resolution 2165 has resulted in broader reach to areas in Aleppo, Deraa, Rural Damascus, Idlib and Latakia,” he said in a report obtained by the wire on Monday.
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