U.S. Widens Foothold in Southern Syria

U.S. forces in Syria have allegedly set up a new base in the country’s strategic southeastern desert, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing a Washington-backed Syrian rebel group.

Since last year, U.S. special forces have been operating around the town of Tanf, where they have set up a training base for Syrian rebel groups fighting the so-called Islamic State.

The area around the base, which has seen at least three coalition strikes against pro-government forces since May, has emerged as the latest battleground between U.S.-backed forces and Iranian-sponsored supporters of the Syrian government, who are now advancing along the Iraqi frontier.

U.S. forces have reportedly spread from their initial location at Tanf toward a second base at Zakf, around 40–50 miles (60–70km) to the northeast, said Abu al-Atheer, a military spokesman for the U.S.-backed Maghawir al-Thawra rebel group, to Reuters.

“The (new) base was being studied for months but now it’s an official base. It has been built and expanded and God willing will be in the next few days like the Tanf base,” al-Atheer said.

Muzahem Saloum, a rebel official close to Maghawir al-Thawra, told Reuters that the new base at Zakf was expected to be a “first line of defense” against any attack by Iranian-backed Syrian pro-government militias on the Tanf base.

Colonel Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, denied that troops had set up a new base. However, he said that coalition forces would sometimes carry out patrols and training with Syrian rebel groups outside of Tanf for days or weeks.

U.N. Warns of Staggering Civilian Casualties in Raqqa Offensive

U.N. war crime investigators noted Wednesday that intensified U.S.-coalition airstrikes near Raqqa city are causing high civilian casualty tolls and mass displacement, Reuters reported.

U.S. coalition warplanes have been supporting a ground offensive led by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, on the northern stronghold of ISIS since November.

Karen Abuzayd, an American commissioner on the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, said that intensified coalition airstrikes have killed at least 300 civilians in Raqqa since March. “We have documented the deaths caused by the coalition airstrikes only and we have about 300 deaths, 200 in one place, in al-Mansoura, one village,” she said.

Speaking earlier to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the Commission of Inquiry, said that there had been a “staggering loss of civilian life” due to coalition airstrikes, which have also forced 160,000 civilians to flee their homes.

At Least Eight Dead in Attack on Shelter in Daraa

At least eight civilians were killed in an airstrike on a school that served as a shelter for displaced people in western Daraa province Wednesday, the Associated Press reported, citing rescue workers.

According to the Syrian Civil Defense, airstrikes on a school in the Tafs area, in western Daraa, killed at least eight people from the same family.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least nine people, including at least three children, were killed in the attack.

Pro-government forces have intensified their airstrikes and artillery attacks on Daraa over the past few months.

Recommended Reads:

• Reuters: Gulf Crisis Seen Widening Split in Syria Rebellion
• Agence France-Presse: Girl Chronicles Aleppo Terror in ‘Myriam’s Diary’
• Reuters: Revenge for Sinjar: Syrian Kurds Free Islamic State Slaves
• Agence France-Presse: Daunting Aid Challenges as Civilians Flee Syria’s Raqqa
• The Associated Press: Russian Event Urges New Look at Syria’s ‘Liberated’ Aleppo