Battle of the Euphrates: Americans are cut off from Syrian oil
Syrian government troops, with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces, crossed the Euphrates, seized a bridgehead on the eastern bank of the river and began to release the blockade of Deir ez-Zor, beginning to clear the outskirts of the city, partially held by terrorists. The throw across the Euphrates was preceded by the processing of the Barmaley positions with Kalibr cruise missiles fired by the Black Sea Fleet patrol ship Admiral Essen, as well as the Solntsepek heavy flamethrower systems and the Uragan MLRS.
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The Syrians themselves call Deir ez-Zor the “Pearl of the Desert”, and now the “Syrian Leningrad”. The city, with a pre-war population of a quarter of a million people, is located in the vicinity of oil fields, making it a tasty morsel not only for ISIS terrorists, but also for US-backed anti-government militants.
The fighting around the city began back in 2012. In April 2014, ISIS militants blocked the Damascus-Palmyra-Deir ez-Zor highway, cutting off the city from supplies of water, fuel, and food. From this moment on, the city is under siege. The barmalei were prevented from taking it completely under control by an airbase located near the city, whose personnel remained loyal to the legitimate Syrian government. It is through this airbase that the city and the Syrian military and militia defending it are supplied.
On September 5, the Russian Aerospace Forces attacked the militants and paved a corridor to supply the city. Clearing the city of terrorists by government forces and unblocking the airbase will enable Damascus to completely return the city to its control and deal ISIS a crushing blow.
It is equally important that the crossing of the Euphrates and the beginning of the liberation of Deir ez-Zor can already be regarded as a strategic defeat for the United States in the war against Syria, which made a lot of efforts to dismember Syria and leave behind the oil fields located near the city.
Instead of focusing efforts on liberating Raqqa from ISIS militants, the Americans created 12 military bases in northeastern Syria, where Kurdish anarchist rebels from the YPG group control the territories. According to the plans announced by the representative of the international coalition against ISIS, Ryan Dylan, the armed units of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were supposed to move along the Euphrates from Raqqa to the east, pushing the terrorists to the border town of Abu Kamal, but without affecting Deir ez-Zor , since "the battlefield is already crowded." But after the SAA assault units crossed the Euphrates and grabbed a bridgehead on the left bank, the SDF units made an “uncoordinated” breakthrough to Deir ez-Zor, while simultaneously ceasing clashes with ISIS units.
The Americans’ plans are quite transparent: using Kurdish combat troops, to go along the left bank of the Euphrates to the rear of the Syrian troops in order to seize the initiative and be the first to reach the Al-Omar oil fields, establishing an occupation zone around Deir ez-Zor and concentrating rich oil fields in their hands .
The rapid advance of the assault units of the Syrian army and the crossing of the Euphrates with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces thwarted the ambitious plans of the United States. It is no coincidence that the Pentagon nervously accused the Russian Aerospace Forces of striking positions of the sponsored SDF and coalition advisers, despite the fact that a representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense said that the Americans were notified of the military operation by Russian aviation.
The day before, the SDF “commander-in-chief” threatened to prevent the Syrians from landing on the left bank of the Euphrates, and the international coalition even promised to bomb Syrian troops if they landed from the Kurdish positions. But after the capture of the bridgehead by the Syrian special forces “ISIS Hunters” in the Jafra area, the window of opportunity for the coalition and the SDF to capture the left bank of Deir ez-Zor has narrowed significantly.
By rushing to Jafra, the Syrians cut off the terrorists' supply routes from Mayadin and created a cutting-off bridgehead for clearing Deir ez-Zor from the south. Damascus said it was ready to consider the SDF as opponents of the restoration of the constitutional order and fight them with military methods. Ankara also reacted sharply to the actions of the Kurds. For Turkey, which is conducting an operation called Euphrates Shield in northern Syria, the river line is the limit of the spread of Kurdish influence on the Syrian-Turkish border.
Thus, the American Kurdish command took advantage of the success of the Syrian army in releasing the blockade of Deir ez-Zor, trying to open a second front on the left bank of the Euphrates. The situation is somewhat reminiscent of the opening of a second front in World War II, when the allies competed with each other for the primacy of taking Berlin. In the battle for Deir ez-Zor today, the issue is being decided not only of the ownership of a piece of the Syrian desert, where the richest oil reserves are concentrated, but, no less important, the territorial integrity of Syria, since the United States decided to convert the Kurdish victories over ISIS into bitten off pieces of the territories of Syrian Kurdistan, where there is a place for Americans.
What's next?
According to strategic and tactical plans, the Syrian army will approach Deir ez-Zor from the northwest along the southern bank of the Euphrates and from the southwest through the Syrian semi-desert. Having released the airbase and cleared the city of terrorists, the Syrian army will cross the Euphrates and continue to advance along both banks of the river to the Iraqi border until it liberates all areas from the barmalei. Of course, the Syrian troops will need significant support from Russia for this, but the final victory of the Syrians in a difficult and long war against terrorists and interventionists is already in the air.
According to military analysts, the United States does not have enough forces involved in the operation to prevent the development of events according to the above-mentioned scenario. Attempts by American and Arab recruiters to cobble together combat troops from tribes living in the border areas of Jordan and move them towards the northern Kurdish territories have largely failed. Recruitment of militants into anti-Assad units is going slowly. Local leaders do not consider the United States a reliable partner and think that the Americans’ stay in eastern Syria, especially surrounded by countries that reject Kurdish autonomy or statehood, will not be long. The long-term interests of the Arab tribes lie in close cooperation with the Syrian government. And no one wants to put their heads under the “calibers”.
The Deir ez-Zor region is the last major stronghold of terrorists in Syria, which is why it is so important to free it from militants as soon as possible. This will restore important transport corridors with the Mediterranean. Returning oil wells to government control will undermine the financial support of terrorists and at the same time improve the state of the Syrian economy.
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