Basenews English & Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com – 2017-07-17 18:47:35
http://www.basnews.com/index.php/en/news/middle-east/363791
US Building Third Airport in Rojava, Northern Syria
Basenews English
ERBIL (July 15, 2017) — An informed source from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a military alliance backed by the US-led Coalition against Islamic State (IS), revealed that the US has begun to establish a third airport in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava).
“American experts and technicians have begun work on the establishment of a new military airport between the towns of Tel Tamra and Tel Baidar (40 km west of Hasaka) to be the third airport after Kobani and Rumailan airports,” the source told BasNews on condition of anonymity.
The source added “the Tal Tamar military airport, which will be used for military and logistical purposes, will include a military base similar to the airports of Kobani and Rumailan.â€
The source also confirmed that the US-led coalition is intending, through construction of military bases, to create a unified territory in areas under its influence and run by the SDF, east of the Euphrates River.
The US has already two military bases in Kobani and Rumailan in Rojava (northern Syria), used for logistical purposes in support of the SDF against the IS organization.
SDF is an Arab-Kurdish military alliance, created and backed by the US-led coalition to retake Raqqa, the capital of the IS self-styled caliphate in Syria.
Trump Wants Authority to
Build New Bases in Iraq, Syria
White House Complains Legal Restrictions Are Hampering ‘Temporary’ Sites
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(July 14, 2017) — The White House has issued a statement this week calling on Congress to grant President Trump unilateral legal authority to open new military bases in both Iraq and Syria, as well as to renovate existing facilities. Officials say the bases would be purely temporary in nature.
What “temporary” actually means however is unclear, particularly in Iraq where the Pentagon has been very public about the idea that they intend to keep US ground troops in Iraq more or less forever. Those bases, then, are going to be open-ended facilities for an open-ended mission.
The White House says that the current lack of unilateral authority is limiting “maneuverability” as they continue their military buildup in the region, Though the statement was initially aimed at getting the authority included in the NDAA, it does not appear that the House version made any such revisions.
The establishment of bases, particularly in Syria, could be risky, since the US doesn’t have any permission from the Syrian government to be there in the first place, and the appearance of the Pentagon laying down roots, however temporary they claim them to do, could be very provocative to Syria, and its allies like Russia.
The limits were initially put in place in 2008’s NDAA, and Congress has reaffirmed those limits repeatedly since then, aiming to limit the amount the US was spending on nationbuilding in Iraq.
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