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Executive Summary for February 22nd

We review the key developments in Syria including 11 people killed in unidentified airstrikes in Deir Ezzor province, Hezbollah’s leader saying regime forces are overcoming the Saudi and U.S. presence, and the latter countries saying they may send more troops to Syria.

Published on Feb. 22, 2017 Read time Approx. 2 minutes

Unidentified Airstrikes on Deir Ezzor Kill 11

At least 11 people and 35 more were injured in unattributed airstrikes on Deir Ezzor province on Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported.

The attacks hit a town in the northern countryside of the province late Tuesday night, in a district in which U.S.-led coalition planes have previously been active, according to the monitoring organization the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The so-called Islamic State (ISIS) is currently in control of the Deir Ezzor suburbs, besieging the government-held provincial capital.

A U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reportedly crossed into Deir Ezzor province for the first time on Tuesday.

The advance is part of a planned offensive to isolate and seize ISIS’s de facto capital in neighboring Raqqa province. The SOHR could not confirm if the ground movements and the airstrikes were connected.

Hezbollah Leader Says Syria Overcoming Saudi Arabian and U.S.-Backed Forces

The leader of the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has claimed Syria has overcome the threat of a Saudi Arabian and U.S-planned war.

In an interview with First Iranian Channel, Nasrallah pointed toward the improved field situation for the government and its allied forces, the Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported.

U.S.- and Saudi-backed opposition forces have suffered defeats to Bashar al-Assad’s forces in recent weeks at Aleppo and Wari Barada. Hezbollah, a key ally of the Syrian government, provided ground support to the regime at both.

Nasrallah has previously claimed the U.S. is seeking to partition Syria as part of wider plans for the Middle Eastern region.

Saudi Arabia and U.S. May Send Ground Troops to Syria

Saudi Arabia is ready to send ground troops to Syria to battle ISIS alongside the U.S.-led coalition, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Tuesday, according to the New Arab.

The country has already provided military and financial backing to rebels fighting the Assad government. The deployment of troops would also ensure that “liberated areas did not fall under the control of Hezbollah, Iran or the regime,” al-Jubeir said, adding that the areas taken from ISIS could be given to rebels.

Meanwhile, General Joseph Votel, commander of American forces in the Middle East, said on Wednesday that more U.S. troops may be sent to fight ISIS.

U.S.-backed local forces “don’t have as good mobility, they don’t have as much firepower, so we have to be prepared to fill in some of those gaps for them and that may involve additional fire support capability, a variety of other things that we bring in to help offset some of the gaps that they have and we take the burden on ourselves for that aspect of the fight,” Votel said, according to CBS News.

Local forces would remain in the lead, Votel added, but he is “very concerned about maintaining momentum,” in the offensive on Raqqa.

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