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US bombs Islamic state in Syria
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THE United States and its Arab allies bombed Syria for the first time yesterday, killing scores of Islamic State fighters and members of a separate al-Qaida-linked group, opening a new front against militants by joining a three-year-old civil war.
US Central Command said Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates participated in or supported the strikes against Islamic State targets around the eastern cities of Raqqa, Deir al-Zor, Hasakah and Albu Kamal.
Warplanes and ship-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles struck “fighters, training compounds, headquarters and command and control facilities, storage facilities, a finance center, supply trucks and armed vehicles,” it said.
Washington also said US forces had acted alone to launch eight strikes in another area of Syria against the “Khorasan Group,” an al-Qaida unit US officials have described in recent days as posing a threat similar to that from Islamic State.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 70 Islamic State fighters were killed in strikes that hit at least 50 targets in Raqqa and Deir al-Zor and Hasakah provinces in Syria’s east.
It said at least 50 fighters and eight civilians were killed in strikes targeting al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, in northern Aleppo and Idlib provinces, apparently referring to the strikes the Americans said targeted Khorasan.
The Observatory said most of the Nusra Front fighters killed were not Syrians.
The air attacks fulfil US President Barack Obama’s pledge to strike in Syria against Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim group that has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq, imposing a mediaeval interpretation of Islam, slaughtering prisoners and ordering Shiites and non-Muslims to convert or die.
The Syrian government said Washington had informed it hours before the strikes in a letter from US Secretary of State John Kerry sent through his Iraqi counterpart.
A statement of the Syrian foreign ministry refrained from criticizing the US-led action and said Damascus would continue to attack Islamic State and was ready to cooperate with any international effort to fight terrorism.
Only a year ago Washington was on the verge of bombing the Syrian government to punish it for using chemical weapons, before Obama canceled those strikes at the last minute.
A Syrian analyst interviewed on state TV said the airstrikes did not amount to an act of aggression because the government had been notified in advance.
“This does not mean we are part of the joint operations room, and we are not part of the alliance. But there is a common enemy,” said the analyst, Ali al-Ahmad.
Residents reached by telephone in Raqqa, Islamic State’s de facto capital in eastern Syria, said people were fleeing for the countryside after the bombs started falling overnight.
Islamic State vowed revenge against the United States.
“These attacks will be answered,” an Islamic State fighter said by Skype from Syria, blaming Saudi Arabia’s ruling family for allowing the strikes to take place.
The strikes took place hours before Obama was due to go to the UN General Assembly in New York where he tried to rally more nations behind his drive to destroy Islamic State.
The action pitches Washington for the first time into a Syrian civil war, which began with “Arab Spring” protests but descended into a sectarian conflict that has killed 200,000 people, displaced millions and drawn in proxy forces backed by countries across the region.
US forces have previously hit IS targets in Iraq, where Washington supports the government, but had held back from a military engagement in Syria, where Obama still calls for the downfall of President Bashar al-Assad. Washington has said it will not coordinate operations against Islamic State with Assad’s government.
Islamic State’s Sunni fighters, now equipped with US weapons seized during their advance in Iraq, are among the most powerful opponents of Assad, a member of a Shiite-derived sect.
They are also battling against rival Sunni groups in Syria, against the Shiite-led government of Iraq and against Kurdish forces on both sides of the border.
In recent days they have captured villages from Kurds near Syria’s Turkish border, sending nearly 140,000 refugees across the frontier since last week. The UN said it was bracing for up to 400,000 people to flee.
The Western-backed Syrian opposition, which is fighting against both Assad and IS, welcomed the airstrikes.
Jordan, confirming its participation, said its air force had bombed “targets that belong to some terrorist groups that sought to commit terrorist acts inside Jordan.” It did not say where.
Israel shot down a Syrian jet in air space it controls, but there was no sign the incident was linked to the US action.
US officials and the Syrian Observatory said buildings used by the militants, their weapons supplies and checkpoints were targeted in the attacks on Raqqa. Areas along the Iraq-Syria border were also hit.
None of Washington’s traditional Western allies has joined the campaign in Syria. Britain said it was still considering its options.
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