DOD ANNOUNCES 'SIGNIFICANT' GAINS MADE BY ANTI-ISIL FORCES

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
General: ‘Significant’ Gains Made by Anti-ISIL Forces in Northern Syria
By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2015 – Anti-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant forces have made significant gains in northern Syria, which will have positive effects in Iraq as well, a senior U.S. Central Command official said today.

During a telephone conference from Southwest Asia with Pentagon reporters, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve Chief of Staff Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Thomas D. Weidley provided operational updates on coalition and anti-ISIL force efforts in Iraq and Syria.

Closing a Gap

Weidley said the latest operational developments in Syria are focused on the gains anti-ISIL forces have made in northern Syria.

“These anti-ISIL forces,” he said, “which [comprise] ethnic Syrian Kurds, Arabs, Turks and non-Kurdish Christians among others, have been making significant gains against [ISIL] for months, including expelling [ISIL] from Kobani and from the Tel Hamis pocket in northeast Syria.”

Weidley said anti-ISIL forces have been conducting operations since early May to close the gap between the two areas.

These efforts, the general said, culminated earlier in the week with ISIL retreating from the Tel Abyad border crossing and abandoning terrain equivalent to “82 times the size of Ramadi -- roughly 4,100 square kilometers.”

“These gains,” Weidley said, “have severed multiple primary and secondary lines of communication in the [ISIL]-dominated territory as well as east-west lines of communication across northern Syria towards Iraq.”

These developments will further constrict ISIL mobility, supply, sustainment and communications within Syria, he said, and will have positive effects for the Iraq portion of the campaign as well.

Iraq Operational Updates

Weidley also discussed the deployment of coalition forces to eastern Anbar Province, adding that the new advise-and-assist and tribal engagement platforms are an extension of existing platforms in Iraq.

“Like existing coalition forces in Iraq,” he said, “these elements partner with the [Iraqi security forces'] operational-level headquarters and tribal leaders to coordinate, integrate and synchronize the unique capabilities that the coalition brings with the operations being conducted by these Iraqi command and leadership nodes.

“We had a good tribal ceremony at this location on Wednesday, in which 500 Sunni tribal fighters attended and were inducted into the Popular Mobilization Forces, including pay and arms,” Weidley added.

Beiji Update

The general said Iraqi security forces and PMF are making steady progress as they increase their footholds in and around Beiji.

“PMF elements are conducting clearing operations within the urban areas,” he said, “and are making measured progress despite a large number of [improvised explosive devices].”

The general said ground forces continue to hold their positions despite small-scale ISIL attacks that include mobile suicide bombs aiming to disrupt security force and PMF efforts.

“The [Iraqi security forces] located at the Beiji Oil Refinery [are] benefitting from reinforcement and resupply capabilities through the line of communication from the south, which the Iraqis have been able to sustain since the last week of May,” Weidley said.

“The fighting continues in and around Beiji and many of the portions of the area remain contested," the general continued. "The [Iraqi security forces] and PMF both report solid progress toward their objectives, so efforts continue in the right direction.”

Weidley said the coalition has conducted numerous air strikes in ISIL support zones located in Huwayjah, Sharkat, and along the Tigris River to the north, including Mosul. “This interdiction has resulted in significant disruption to [ISIL] support to Beiji,” he said.

Ramadi Update

Weidley said he is encouraged by the activities of Iraq’s government, which are setting the stage for a future counterattack in Ramadi.

“Great efforts have been made in advancing organizational, and command and control changes that will facilitate success in future operations,” he said.

Weidley said the coalition views this as a positive step, as the situation in Ramadi is “probably best described as anticipatory,” from both an Iraqi security force and ISIL perspective.

Although ISIL forces continue to prepare their defenses within Ramadi, he said, Iraqi forces are conducting shaping operations and working towards the city’s liberation.

The general described numerous ongoing “shaping” activities, such as securing logistical lines of communications, securing t-road junctions, intersections, key terrain, establishing logistics areas, finalizing planning, rehearsals, preparing equipment and collecting intelligence.

These shaping operations will set the conditions for follow-on operations, Weidley said.

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS AT FRIENDS OF SYRIAN PEOPLE MINISTERIAL

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Remarks at the Friends of the Syrian People Ministerial
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
New York City
September 26, 2013

SECRETARY KERRY: (In progress) We’re deeply grateful, all of us, for your having played a critical role – the critical role in inviting us here, in bringing us here. And I’m very pleased that President Jarba of the Syrian Opposition Council is here with us in New York. I think it’s very fitting that President Jarba was raised in Al-Hasakah, because that’s a part of Syria where Arabs, Kurds, the Syrians, and Armenians learned from one another for centuries. That foundation for pluralism and partnership has tragically been torn apart by the conflict that is now ravaging the country, a conflict which even as we have moved to try to separate the chemical weapons, must imperatively demand all of our attention.

We have, all of us, come to know too well an Assad who kills indiscriminately, who bombs women and children, Scud missiles on hospitals, artillery destroying students in a university. Millions of people displaced, millions of people refugeed, huge tensions on the surrounding countries, all of it for Assad to stay in power – a man who has lost any legitimacy to govern.

President Jarba understands that Syria can have a different future. And he understands that Syria can be a nation defined not by this kind of chaos and personal ambition and recklessness, but defined by its rich history of diversity – not by the forces that are content to destroy them. And through our close partnership with the Syrian Opposition Coalition, the legitimate representative, we believe, of the Syrian people, we can lay the foundation for a peaceful Syria where all Syrians have a say and a shape in a shared future.

The Syrian Opposition Coalition’s recent endorsement of Geneva 2 is a critical part of that effort, and I want to commend them for their support. I think almost everybody here has decided there is no military victory. Syria will implode long before any side could claim a military victory. And the fact is there is a process already in place, called Geneva 1, which our friends the Russians have signed on to, which calls for a transition government with quite detailed procedures about how you would have a constitutional process and election, and how Syrians would be able then to choose for the future of Syria. This is a transitional government that must be chosen by mutual consent. And there isn’t anybody in the world who believes that Assad would ever get the consent to be part of such a government.

So we need to move rapidly to put this process in place – a process which already calls for credible elections through that Geneva communique. So we intend to push very hard. We will have a meeting with Lakhdar Brahimi this Friday. I hope we will get this Geneva conference moving. Not that we have an illusion that it may resolve itself in days or even weeks, or perhaps months, but that process must begin so that the world knows we’re paying attention to the crisis of Syria, that it’s unacceptable that it continue in its current status, and that there is a road forward providing that Assad and the people who support him are willing to embrace what the international community has already adopted.

As we invest in the political track, the United States of America will remain steadfast in our efforts to have an impact on the balance on the ground. And we will continue to support the opposition, hopefully thereby moving us closer to a negotiated settlement.

We’ve seen what we’re up against, and we understand the urgency of our working together. There is no way to turn our backs on the nature of the attack that took place on August 21st, an attack that took so many lives in the dead of night because Assad was prepared to use a weapon that has been outlawed and not used in time of war since 1925. That death toll is added to the death toll of already 100,000, and unless all of us make clear our determination to assist the Syrian Opposition Coalition and to help move towards Geneva, that death toll will be added to, with grim figures that could even reach to 200,000, before the international community has applied the lessons that we’ve learned.

After Rwanda, we said never again. After World War II, we said never again. I think the words “never again” need to have meaning. So as we go forward, I’m glad to say to you that this afternoon, Foreign Minister Lavrov and I reached an agreement, which we need to run by our colleagues, with respect to the potential of a resolution. And our hope is that the Security Council will pass a resolution that will make binding and enforceable the removal of the chemical weapons.

But none of us can approach this with an understanding or a belief that just removing the chemical weapons absolves us of our responsibility to deal with the humanitarian crisis, and frankly, a crisis of multilateralism, a crisis of international institutions. We must help bring about a negotiated solution.

We believe we have a strong partner in President Jarba as we pursue these efforts, and it’s our great hope that the pluralism and the partnership that once defined his homeland, the secularity that defines his homeland, will define Syria for all of its citizens in the years to come. And we will do everything in our power to help provide that foundation.

Thank you, Mr. Foreign Minister.