Excel's Coffee Shop

[basserdan]

Jihadists give up Syrian dam in deal to spare their lives

By Anthony Loyd
May 12 2017, 12:01am, The Times


Rojda Felat, a senior field commander with the Syrian Democratic Forces, said British troops had played a key role in the plan to drive Isis from the Tabqa dam on the Euphrates anthony loyd

Western-backed forces have captured Syria’s largest dam from Islamic State after striking a deal that allowed the remaining fighters to withdraw, leaving the installation’s vital infrastructure intact.

The capture of the Tabqa dam by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are being assisted by British special forces, is of crucial importance for the approaching battle for Raqqa, Islamic State’s de facto capital in the country, allowing coalition-backed troops road access to cut off the city from the south.



The Tabqa dam, on the Euphrates River about 25 miles upstream from Raqqa, has been the scene of fierce fighting since an operation to seize it was begun by the SDF and western special forces in March.

Fighting had become bogged down in recent days after SDF reached two Isis strongpoints at the southern end of the dam and the northern side of Tabqa town.

In the dam, just 14 fanatical ingimasayeen shock troops held out in the control room and a tunnel complex beneath the waterline, while less than a mile away in Tabqa between 50 and 60 other fighters with human shields held a high-rise apartment block complex.

Unwilling to cause needless civilian casualties through intensified airstrikes and wary of weakening the structure of a dam holding back 9.6 cubic kilometres of water in Lake Assad, Syria’s largest reservoir, SDF commanders embarked instead on a series of negotiations with Isis fighters between bouts of fighting.

The agreement allowed for the safe withdrawal of the Islamic State forces from the dam and the town, on the condition that they put down heavy weapons and disabled the booby-traps and improvised bombs that they had set to protect their positions.

“Approximately 70 Isis fighters conceded to the SDF’s terms, which included the dismantling of IEDs [homemade bombs] surrounding the dam, the surrender of all Isis heavy weapons, and the forced withdrawal of all remaining fighters from Tabqa city,” read a statement released yesterday by the coalition’s joint task force, confirming details of the deal.

“The multi-ethnic SDF forced the surrender of Tabqa dam and the remainder of Tabqa city, continuing the trend of Isis’s diminished control of territory and people,” it added.

One of the most senior SDF field commanders in the Tabqa operation, Rojda Felat, whose forward headquarters is located with British and US special forces, said that British troops had played a key role in the plan to eject Isis from the dam.

“Though the Americans are in charge, the British have taken a lead role in the coalition support for the dam operation,” she told The Times. “The British are patient in these matters, and have urged patience over the matter of the dam.”

The Tabqa operation was the most complex to have been undertaken by the SDF and their coalition allies.

It began on March 22 when western special forces and Kurdish fighters, backed by Apache helicopters and Marine corps heavy guns struck Islamic State positions at either end of the dam and succeeded in capturing most, but not all, of it.

An airlift of SDF forces using US helicopters established its forces on the southern bank of Lake Assad, where their subsequent advance into Tabqa was supported by using boats to cross the reservoir.

The newly captured dam carries a road that the SDF can now use to cross the river. The force is already closing in on Raqqa from the northern side of the city. SDF commanders said that British mortar teams had played a significant role in the overall operation. “Each coalition unit has their own strength,” Commander Felat said. “The British mortars were especially useful.”

The victory at Tabqa has important political resonance for the coalition’s alliance with the SDF, coming 24 hours after US officials announced that President Trump had approved supplying arms to the group, which it regards as its most loyal and capable local ally, to support the operation to retake Raqqa from Islamic State.

That decision has provoked a row with Turkey because the majority of fighters and commanders in the SDF, an alliance of Arab and Kurdish units, are from the Kurdish YPG.

Turkey accuses the YPG of being an extension of the Kurdish separatist group the PKK, which it is fighting domestically and considers a terrorist organisation.

The dispute between the two Nato allies over the issue will be revisited later this month when President Erdogan meets President Trump in Washington.

James Mattis, the United States defence secretary, and Binali Yildirim, the Turkish prime minister, met in London yesterday.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/jihadists-give-up-syrian-dam-in-deal-to-spare-their-lives-cnd3zrgkg