U.S. Army officer dies in ambush in Syria

A United States Armed Forces command and two Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militiamen were trapped by unidentified armed troops in the town of Al-Sour, in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, and all of them were killed. The body of the American victim was taken to a base controlled by the United States in the town of Shadadi, in the south of Al-Hasaka province, in the north-east of the territory of the Arab country. 

The official Syrian news agency SANA pointed out that the identity of the attackers wasn't known, and that they killed these three people who are members of the alliance between the American detachment and the FDS in Syrian territory. 

In the Syrian conflict, which has been ongoing since 2011, the US maintains control of several bases in oil and gas fields in Syria and supports the SDF, armed groups that dominate areas of the Al-Jazeera region east of the Euphrates River. 
 

Both allies were protagonists in the fight that ended with the activity of the jihadist terrorist group Daesh in Syria last March thanks to the operation completed in Al-Baghouz, in Deir Ezzor's own location. 

The objective of Bashar al-Asad's army in this war, in which it has the iron support of Vladimir Putin's Russia, is officially to wipe out terrorist insurgents, who are entrenched in their last bastion in the province of Idlib, located in north-west Syria. 

Turkey took a stand against the Syrian-Russian side months ago, which entered the territory of the Arab nation to persecute the Kurdish-Syrian forces of the People's Protection Units (YPG), which in turn are part of the SDF, within the framework of the harassment campaign that the country presided over by Recep Tayyip Erdogan is carrying out against the Kurdish ethnic group, which he accuses of terrorist activity in the south of the Ottoman nation. 

The SDF helped to eradicate jihadism in Syria a year ago, but despite this, it wasn't considered by Donald Trump's Executive when he decided to withdraw soldiers from the Arab nation, leaving the way open for the establishment of Turkish and Russian posts.
 

Russia and Turkey have been having very good relations in recent times, with diplomatic collaboration and arms purchases included (as in the case of the acquisition of the Russian S-400 air defence system by the Turkish Armed Forces in spite of being framed in NATO), but in the Syrian game board they defend opposing interests now. 

The SDF ended up associating itself with the regime of Al-Asad to confront the recent common enemy that Turkey has meant; on the one hand, because the Kurdish-Syrians of the SDF are persecuted by the Turkish forces and, on the other hand, because the official government wants to put an end to any kind of interference like the Turkish one; above all, taking into account that President Erdogan demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops (allies of Al-Asad) from Idlib, to which the Russian leader Putin disagreed.
 

Within the Syrian war, the terrorist group Daesh materialized another attack against positions of the Armed Forces of the Bachar al-Asad regime in Deir Ezzor, causing several victims, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH), an organization based in the United Kingdom that has an extensive network of informants in this Middle Eastern nation.

Al-Asad government troops and allied militia suffered this offensive in the enclaves of Al-Abbas, Al-Jalaa and Al-Sayal, in the desert of Al-Bukamal, on the border near Iraq. 
The jihadists attacked with mortar fire starting a series of fights that lasted for hours, causing casualties on both sides. 

It was precisely Daesh who was defeated in Syria a year ago thanks to the operation led by the United States in which the help of the Democratic Forces of Syria was decisive in the last remaining jihadist stronghold in Al-Baghouz, in Deir Ezzor, in the east of Syria. The SDF was subsequently abandoned to its fate despite this support after the Donald Trump government ordered the withdrawal of troops from Syrian locations, leaving the way open for the positioning of Turkey and Russia. 

A Turkish nation that justified its incursion into Syria by the persecution of the Kurds, whom it accuses of subversive actions in the south of Ottoman territory. Precisely, Kurdish factions are the ones who lead the SDS, as is the case of the People's Protection Units (YPG), which had to leave the security zone agreed upon by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the U.S. Departments of State and Defense on the Turkish-Syrian border due to the Turkish diplomatic pressure that established this term as an indispensable condition to end the escalation of tension. 
 

A month ago, there were contacts between Ankara and Moscow to reach an understanding on the Syrian issue, but Vladimir Putin didn't agree to Recep Tayyip Erdogan's demand on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Idlib, a stronghold of the opposition insurgency. 

All of this comes at a time when various reports point to some major resurgence of Daesh's jihadists in Syria and Iraq.