{"id":71037,"date":"2017-03-23T14:35:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T18:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=71037"},"modified":"2017-03-23T14:35:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T18:35:00","slug":"us-and-air-assault-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=71037","title":{"rendered":"US and Air Assault in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times<\/a> reports that the US airlifted at least 500 Syrians and Kurds into the fight at Raqqa, Syria under the cover of US artillery and US airpower; <\/p>\n

It was the first time that the United States had carried out an air assault with Syrian fighters in its campaign against the Islamic State, and the mission, which began Tuesday, reflected the leeway the Trump administration has given its commanders to carry out operations without prolonged review in Washington.<\/p>\n

In a significant commitment of American forces, American helicopters ferried fighters across enemy lines while Marine Corps howitzers, Army Apache attack helicopters and American warplanes provided firepower for the operation. Army surface-to-surface Himars rockets, which are based in northern Syria, are also part of the mission. American Special Operations forces were advising the Syrian fighters on the ground, although a military spokesman said they were not involved in direct, front-line combat.<\/p>\n

The mission represented a new stage in the broader offensive to cut off and seize Raqqa. Its objective was to take control of the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates River near Lake Assad, the nearby town of Tabqa and a local airfield.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Trump Administration has taken a hands-off approach to the war against ISIS, allowing the commanders on the ground to make decisions;<\/p>\n

But the Trump White House has dispensed with the detailed and often prolonged review of operations and tactics that were conducted under the Obama administration. The change has allowed American commanders to step up the pace of their operations.<\/p>\n

Pentagon officials said that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was informed of the Tabqa operation, as was the White House, but the assault was being carried out within the authority that has been delegated to American military commanders.<\/p>\n

More flexibility for American commanders appears to be coming.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You know, the way wars are supposed to be fought, if you are to believe Sun Tzu or Clausewitz. But, what do those guys know?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times reports that the US airlifted at least 500 Syrians and Kurds into … US and Air Assault in Syria<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terror-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}