BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's mostly Iran-backed Shiite paramilitary forces reached the border with Syria on Monday after securing a string of small villages west of Mosul, according to a spokesman for the group.

The move follows a push by the government-sanctioned forces to retake a number of small villages and key supply lines from the Islamic State group in the vast deserts west of Mosul.

Iraq's conventional military has focused on clearing the city itself, a slow, grinding process in dense urban terrain packed with tens of thousands of civilians.

The paramilitary forces — mostly Shiite fighters with close ties to Iran referred to as the Popular Mobilization Forces — began Monday's operation by pushing IS militants out of the center of the town of Baaj, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Syrian border, according to Shiite lawmaker Karim al-Nouri.

The fighters plan to "erect a dirt barricade and dig a trench" along the border, said Sheikh Sami al-Masoudi, a PMF leader, describing how the forces would secure the porous border area that has long been a haven for smugglers and insurgent activity.

Al-Masoudi described Baaj as the last IS supply line between Syria and Iraq in the area and said the paramilitary forces reached the border by retaking the village of Um Jrais.

Iraq's army, federal police and special forces launched the operation to retake Mosul last October with close backing from the U.S.-led international coalition. The city's eastern half was declared liberated in January, and the push for the city's western section, separated from the east by the Tigris River, began the following month.

Iraqi forces are closing in on the last pockets of IS control in Mosul's Old City, a slow, grueling fight that the United Nations warns could put the more than 100,000 civilians still trapped by IS at severe risk.

Meanwhile, the Iran-backed PMF — known as Hashed al-Shaabi in Arabic — has largely operated in the desert to the west of Mosul, retaking small villages and cutting IS supply lines since October.

After securing the border area, Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces are ready to move inside Syrian territories, according to Hashim al-Mousawi, a leader with the powerful al-Nujaba militia that falls under the PMF umbrella.

But, al-Mousawi added such a move would require the approval of the Iraqi government.

On the Syrian side of the border, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, IS militants and Syrian rebels are fighting for territory.

President Bashar Assad's forces and their allies have also been on the offensive, moving toward the Iraqi and Jordanian border but are still far from reaching it.

On May 18, a U.S. airstrike hit pro-Syrian government forces that the U.S.-led coalition said posed a threat to American troops and allied rebels operating near the border with Jordan.

The attack was the first such close confrontation between America troops and fighters backing Assad.

Syrian activists said leaflets were dropped Sunday on advancing Syrian soldiers and their allies, warning them to stay away from the border crossing of Tanf. "Any movements toward Tanf will be considered hostile and we will defend our forces," the coalition leaflet read.

Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul fell to IS in the summer of 2014 as the militants swept over much of the country's north and central areas. Weeks later the head of the Sunni extremist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the formation of a self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria from the pulpit of a Mosul mosque.

___

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO: Mattis: US-led coalition will encircle ISIS fighters as part of 'annihilation campaign' before military operations

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch the King of Jordan participate in a military exercise with his armed forces

Paris (AFP) - French customs officials said Tuesday that they had intercepted 135 kilogrammes (300 pounds) of Captagon, dubbed the "jihadists' drug," at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport this year, a first for France.

Captagon, a type of amphetamine, is one of the most commonly used drugs among fighters in the Syrian war.

"It is the first time that this drug has been seized in France," the customs agency said in a statement.

Customs officials at Charles de Gaulle discovered 350,000 Captagon pills weighing 70 kilogrammes on January 4 hidden among industrial moulds exported from Lebanon and apparently heading for the Czech Republic.

An investigation was launched by German and Czech authorities "and it revealed that the real intended destination was Saudi Arabia, by passing through Turkey," the agency said.

Another 67 kilogrammes of the drug were found at the airport in February, hidden in steel moulds.

Captagon is classified by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime as an "amphetamine-type stimulant" and usually blends amphetamines, caffeine and other substances.

It is believed to be heavily trafficked in the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon and Syria. In October 2015, 2 tons of it were seized in Beirut before being loaded on a Saudi prince's jet.

Fighters who have taken the drug say it helps them to stay up for days and numbs the senses, allowing them to kill with abandon.

SEE ALSO: These maps show how dangerous illegal drugs flow around the globe

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: ISIS militants are using an incredibly addictive drug to feel invincible on the battlefield

BAB AL-HAWA, Turkey-Syria Border (AP) — Nikki Haley crouched low in the trailer of an 18-wheeler taping up a box of lentils and wheat for besieged Syrians, her hands-on diplomacy a world apart from the gleaming new NATO headquarters where President Donald Trump was debuting his "America First" doctrine overseas.

Haley, Trump's U.N. ambassador, had started the day in Turkey's capital, opened a refugee school in the south of the country, then traveled hours in an armored vehicle to the Syrian border. Her afternoon stop had to be short. She had a packed schedule, and at a nearby refugee camp she was soon kicking soccer balls with stranded Syrians and noshing on shawarma.

As she hopped a flight to Istanbul, Trump was arriving in Brussels to scold European allies for relying too much on U.S. defense spending. Haley's mission represented another side of Trump's "America First," assuring nations on the border of the world's worst crisis that the U.S. wasn't forgetting them.

"I think 'America First' is human rights and 'America First' is humanitarian issues," Haley said. "It's what we've always been known for."

Haley's trip last week to Jordan and Turkey showcased the outspoken former South Carolina governor-turned-Trump diplomat's emergence as Trump's foreign policy alter ego: still bold, still brash-talking, but with greater attention to America's traditional global roles and the personable side of diplomacy.

Whereas Trump has emphasized U.S. security and prosperity and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has distinguished between America's interests and its values, Haley is the national security voice insisting the U.S. still seeks to promote human rights, democracy and the well-being of others. Yet Haley brushes off any suggestion of divergent interests, arguing instead that the members of Trump's Cabinet simply "see the world through a different scope."

"We take basically what we work with every day and try to make America first through that lens," she said at Altinozu Refugee Camp in southern Turkey, in explaining her sharply contrasting style. "For me to make America first, I have to fight for the political solution, have to fight for human rights and I have to fight for humanitarian issues, because I'm surrounded by it every day."

So far, the White House has cautiously embraced Haley's higher profile, perhaps as an antidote to Democratic and Republican critiques that Trump doesn't care about human rights. Her prominent role as a face of Trump's foreign policy has fueled talk in Washington about her political future, including potentially as a future secretary of state.

And while Haley has sometimes contributed to mixed messages, on everything from Syria to the delicate issue of Jerusalem's status, the White House has continued sending her out frequently to represent the administration in public and on television.

Haley's role as boundary-pusher may have roots in her political upbringing in South Carolina, where the daughter of Indian immigrants became the first female governor in a state notorious for its "good-old-boy" Republican network.

When a self-avowed white supremacist gunned down nine black worshippers in a Charleston church, Haley sat front-and-center for weeks at every one of the funerals. She grieved publicly throughout her second term after the "1,000-year flood," Hurricane Matthew, and other tragedies in the state.

Yet it was her role in the roiling controversy over removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds that largely defined her ascent as a national political figure. For many in the state, it was a cherished symbol of Civil War sacrifices. But the rebel flag had been brandished by the Charleston church gunman in a display of hate, and Haley said South Carolinians needed to move forward and "put themselves in other people's shoes."

"She's definitely someone who seemed to rise to the occasion when faced with these controversies," said Gibbs Knotts, who teaches political science at the College of Charleston. "She hadn't necessarily had a legislative success, but her ability to handle crises and connect with people and represent the state was when she was at her strongest as governor."

After being picked by Trump in January for the U.N. ambassadorship, Haley said that "everything I've done leading up to this point has always been about diplomacy."

"It's been about trying to lift up everyone, getting them to work together for the greater good, and that's what I'm going to attempt to do going forward," she said.

As a member of Trump's administration, though, it's been more complicated.

While Haley conducted her reassurance tour for Syria's neighbors last week, Trump unveiled a budget proposing sweeping cuts to U.S. foreign aid. Many of the same U.N. agencies whose programs Haley visited faced sharply reduced U.S. contributions, creating uncertainty about whether she could deliver on her declarations of support.

It's contradictions like that, plus her extemporaneous style, that have led to speculation she sometimes deviates from the approved message in an administration in which Trump seeks to be the brightest star, demands loyalty and doesn't tolerate public dissent. After the U.S. blamed a chemical attack on Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces, Haley was outspoken in questioning Assad's future while Tillerson and Trump were more circumspect. It took about a week for trio to get on the same page.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Former Navy SEAL commanders explain why they still wake up at 4:30 a.m. — and why you should, too

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed on Tuesday any suggestion that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces were behind a chemical attack that killed scores of people in Idlib province in April.

"According to our information, there is no proof that chemical weapons were used by Assad. We are convinced that he didn't do it," Putin told daily newspaper Le Figaro in an interview.

The remarks came a day after new French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country's intelligence services in April blamed Assad for the Idlib attack, said the use of chemical weapons in Syria was a red line for Paris and would result in reprisals.

Putin said he had offered to arrange inspections of the site in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, but that all the major powers had refused. He said the objective of the allegations had been to discredit Assad and put pressure on him.

It was a way of "explaining to the international community why it was necessary to continue to impose measures to pressure Assad, including militarily," Putin said.

SEE ALSO: New video shows how Syria and Russia spun the chemical attack

Join the conversation about this story »

AMMAN (Reuters) - Western-backed Syrian rebels said on Wednesday that Russian jets attacked them as they tried to advance against Iran-backed militias in a region of Syria's southeastern desert.

They said six jets bombed their positions as they moved towards Zaza checkpoint near Sabaa Biyar, a small town near the Damascus-Baghdad highway and the borders with Iraq and Jordan.

They identified them as Russian because they flew in formation and at higher altitude than Syrian jets.

"A sortie of Russian jets bombed us to repel our advance after we broke the first lines of defence of the Iranian militia and took over advanced positions near the Zaza checkpoint," Saad al Haj, a spokesman for Jaish Osoud al-Sharqiya, one of the main groups in the area told Reuters.

The southeast of the Syrian desert, known as the Badia, has become an important front in Syria's civil war between President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Iran and Shi'ite militias, and rebels seeking to oust him.

They are competing to capture land held by Islamic State, which is retreating as it comes under intense attack in Iraq and along Syria's Euphrates basin.

Haj said none of their fighters were killed. Another FSA official, Said Seif from the Ahmed Abdo Martyrs group, also said Russian planes hit the rebels when they began storming militia defences.

The army and allied militias captured Zaza checkpoint and Sabaa Biyar this month to stop Western backed Free Syria Army groups taking strategic ground vacated by Islamic State.

Jets from a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State hit pro-government Iran-backed militias on May 18 as they tried to advance south of Zaza towards Tanf, a base on the Syria-Jordan border where U.S. troops are training FSA rebels.

U.S. officials said the forces, which it described as being directed by Iran, posed a threat to U.S. troops and Syrian fighters it backs in the area.

The militias, believed to be Shi'ites from Iraq, retreated to the area around Zaza checkpoint and the coalition has since warned them to stay about 50 km from the base.

U.S.-backed rebels took Tanf from Islamic State last year and intelligence sources say they mean to use it as a launchpad to capture Bukamal, a town on Syria's border with Iraq and an important jihadist supply route.

The coalition's presence in Tanf, on the Damascus-Baghdad highway, was also meant to stop Iran-backed groups from opening an overland route between Iraq and Syria, intelligence sources say.

Damascus has declared the Badia and Deir al-Zor priorities in its campaign to re-establish control over Syria, which has been shattered by six years of war that have killed hundreds of thousands of people. 

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; editing by Alison Williams)

SEE ALSO: ISIS fighters got inside the wire during a hellish firefight with US Special Ops in Syria

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch the King of Jordan participate in a military exercise with his armed forces

A Royal Air Force Reaper MQ9A remote piloted aircraft interrupted a planned public execution that Islamic State of Iraq and Syria attempted to carry out earlier this month, giving the would-be victims of the terrorist group a chance to escape.

According to a May 19, 2017 British Ministry of Defence release, the Reaper was over the Syrian village of Abu Kamal on May 9 when it noticed ISIS fighters gathering civilians in the village. When the crew saw that the ISIS fighters were removing two prisoners from a van, they chose to act.

Unable to directly target the would-be executioners due to the British rules of engagement that require the minimization of civilian casualties, the Reaper crew instead fired a single AGM-114 Hellfire missile at the roof of a building where two other ISIS terrorists were acting as sentries. The missile killed one of the tangos outright, and sent both the crowd of civilians and ISIS scrambling for cover.

The ultimate fate of the would-be victims is not known.

AmericanMilitaryNews.com reports that such executions are becoming more common as ISIS loses ground to Iraqi and Kurdish forces. ISIS was known for a series of beheading videos released since 2014, including one earlier this month of an alleged spy for Russia. A British subject, Mohammed Emwazi, also known as “Jihadi John” was one of the more notorious executioners until he was killed by a strike carried out by American and British UAVs.

SEE ALSO: Watch the Navy's LOCUST launcher fire a swarm of drones

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'Really?': A reporter calls out Huckabee's claim that 'countless' FBI employees were happy with Comey's firing

In April, Syrian rebel fighters and their US special-forces trainers repulsed an ISIS attack in an hours-long battle marked by suicide bombers and coalition airstrikes.

The battle took place at al Tanf near the Syria-Iraq border, and the camp there is still used by US and UK personnel to train Western-backed fighters.

But with ISIS' territorial presence in Syria continuing to erode, al Tanf and the area around it — near the intersection of the Syrian, Iraqi, and Jordanian borders — looks to be the site of a potential clash between the US-led coalition, its local partners, and the Assad regime and its partners, backed by Iran.

With US-backed forces gearing up to liberate ISIS' self-proclaimed capital in Raqqa and ISIS losing ground elsewhere in the Syria, combatants in the country are reportedly trying to position themselves to assume control of territory vacated by terrorist group.

Recent events in Syria indicate that the Assad "regime and its allies [are] racing to establish an east-west 'Shiite axis' from Iran to Lebanon and the United States [is] seemingly looking to cement a north-south 'Sunni axis' from the Gulf states and Jordan to Turkey," Fabrice Balanche, a French expert on Syria and a visiting fellow at The Washington institute for Near East Policy, wrote recently.

"What's left of Islamic State territory is the key part of Iran's plan to connect Iran to Lebanon," Firas Abi-Ali, senior Middle East analyst at IHS Country Risk in London, told Bloomberg.

Though the battle for Raqqa in northeast Syria, and the balance of power it will create, is far from settled, control there looks set to devolve to Kurdish forces — who are allied with the US and have said they're willing to negotiate with Assad, and by extension Iran, for autonomy.

That could make it more possible for the al Tanf area in southeastern Syria to become a flashpoint in the geopolitical struggle between Iran and its partners, largely Shiite but also including Russia, and the US and its partners in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab states, largely Sunni.

According to Balanche, from al Tanf in southern Syria to Sinjar in Iraq — where Iraqi Shiite paramilitaries recently recaptured ISIS-held territory — "the area is now being contested by various belligerents on behalf of their regional sponsors."

Clashes between the US-led coalition and Syrian forces have already occurred in southeast Syria.

On May 18, coalition airstrikes hit pro-regime forces "that were advancing well inside an established de-confliction zone" northeast of al Tanf, US Central Command said in a release.

"This action was taken after apparent Russian attempts to dissuade Syrian pro-regime movement south towards At Tanf were unsuccessful," the release said. The strike was a limited engagement and not part of a new strategy, US Defense Department spokesman Eric Pahon told Bloomberg.

Intelligence sources have told Reuters that the coalition's presence near al Tanf is meant to keep Iranian-backed forces from securing an overland route between Syria and Iraq.

More recently, Western-backed Syrian rebels said Russian jets had bombed them to stop their push to capture a checkpoint on the Damascus-Baghdad highway near the Syrian borders with Iraq and Jordan.

While the Syrian regime and its associates may not have the capabilities to take on US forces and partners at al Tanf, their goal may be to surround the position and render it useless, Balanche told Military Times.

Washington's long-term strategy for the region, and how it would deal with a potential conflict between its partners and Iranian-backed forces, remains unclear.

While US officials have said the US focus continues to be on defeating ISIS, airstrikes on Syrian forces launched earlier this year President Donald Trump were a more direct challenge to Assad than that taken by Obama.

Trump's recent exhortations to Gulf Arab states to "stand united" against Iran, as well as his past bellicosity toward Tehran, suggest that his administration could pursue a more aggressive Middle East policy going forward.

However, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, possibly emboldened by Trump's rhetoric, have released public broadsides against Gulf Cooperation Council partner Qatar, opening a rift that could shake up the anti-Iran front the GCC has thus far presented.

"The GCC could harm it own interests in this fight and is at risk of becoming more vulnerable to Iranian encroachment," a Western diplomat based in Doha told Reuters.

Turmoil in the Gulf notwithstanding, US willingness or ability to check Iranian regional ambitions is far from certain.

"There’s not much the US can do about Iran in Syria," Cliff Kupchan, chairman of New York-based risk-consultant Eurasia Group, told Bloomberg. "Iran is closer, and cares more."

SEE ALSO: ISIS fighters got inside the wire during a hellish firefight with US Special Ops in Syria

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch the King of Jordan participate in a military exercise with his armed forces

Ankara (AFP) - Turkey on Tuesday said the US arming of a Kurdish militia force deemed a terror group by Ankara was "extremely dangerous," and urged Washington to reverse its "mistake."

"Such steps are extremely dangerous for Syria's unity and territorial integrity," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, after the United States began providing small arms to the Kurdish fighters.

"If we are looking for stability in Syria, we should row back from those mistakes," he told a press conference with Slovenian counterpart Karl Erjavec.

The Pentagon on Tuesday said it had begun to transfer small arms and vehicles to the Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Syrian Arab alliance fighting the Islamic State group and containing Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) fighters.

The weapons include AK-47s and small-caliber machine guns, Pentagon spokesman Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway said.

Turkey views the YPG as a "terror group" linked to Kurdish separatists waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984 that has killed more than 40,000 people.

But Washington believes the YPG is the most effective fighting force against IS jihadists in Syria, thus causing tensions between the NATO allies.

The US' weapons transfers began ahead of an upcoming offensive to recapture Raqa, the last major bastion for IS in Syria.

The SDF have now advanced to within a few miles of Raqa on several fronts, and this month captured the strategic town of Tabqa and the adjacent dam from the jihadists.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with US counterpart Donald Trump in Washington for the first time where the issue of US support for the YPG was discussed on May 16, the Turkish foreign minister said.

Less than a week before Erdogan's visit, Trump approved arming fighters from the YPG.

"The president clearly expressed our position and concerns during his Washington visit. It was stressed how risky and dangerous the support given to the YPG was," Cavusoglu said.

"These weapons could be used against all humanity, not just Turkey."

SEE ALSO: A showdown could be looming between the US, Iran, and the Assad regime at the Syria-Iraq border

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch the King of Jordan participate in a military exercise with his armed forces

The long-awaited offensive by U.S.-backed Syrian forces to liberate the self-proclaimed Islamic State capital of Raqqa, Syria, will begin in days, Pentagon officials told the Washington Examiner Thursday.

SEE ALSO: ISIS militants are faking illnesses to get out of fighting

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what popular dog breeds looked like before and after 100 years of breeding

It is not always clear what President Donald Trump is thinking on any particular issue.

On Iran, however, Trump appears to have decidedly hardline leanings.

He repeatedly called the nuclear deal "the worst deal ever negotiated" while on the campaign trail, where he also said Iran was "the number one terrorist state."

While Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson refrained from killing the deal this spring, the president has kept up the rhetorical pressure.

Most recently, during his trip to Saudi Arabia, Trump called for unity against Tehran and told assembled Arab leaders that, "For decades, Iran has fueled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror." (Observers noted that assertion could also be made about his audience.)

"Until the Iranian regime is willing to be a partner for peace, all nations of conscience must work together to isolate Iran, deny it funding for terrorism, and pray for the day when the Iranian people have the just and righteous government they deserve," Trump said.

In the White House and at the Pentagon and CIA, Trump has assembled a team that is well suited for pursuing that isolation — or turning to confrontation.

According to The Washington Post, active or retired military officials hold at least 10 of the 25 senior policy and leadership spots on Trump's National Security Council — five times more than under Obama.

Some see the increase in military presence on the NSC as an important shift from the Obama years — one needed to properly address the protracted conflicts the US finds itself in.

Others, however, see such a concentration of military experience — potentially accentuated by a reduction in diplomatic staff on the NSC — as likely to result in a kind of myopia.

"It would take a remarkable individual to stand back from those experiences and think critically of them," Andrew Bacevich, a retired Army colonel and Boston University history professor, told The Post. "It would be hard for them to consider that the path they had taken [in the wars] might have been a wrong one." 

Those officials, who draw much of their experience from Iraq in the late 2000s, may be limited in their worldview, Colin Kahl, a former Pentagon and White House official, told The Post. They could overestimate their ability to control events and end up provoking more conflict, Kahl said.

Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump's national-security adviser, believes Iran was behind attacks on US troops in Iraq. The NSC's senior director for the Middle East, Derek Harvey, is seen as an Iran hawk. And the NSC senior director for intelligence, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, has said he wants to use US spies to depose the Iranian government.

Across the Potomac River, Trump's top man at the Pentagon is of similar extraction.

As a general, Secretary of Defense James Mattis commanded the 1st Marine Division during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and held other commands during operations there afterward.

While in Iraq and looking to retaliate for Iran-backed attacks on US personnel, Mattis devised plans for strikes in Iranian territory.

Those plans were blocked by the Obama administration, but Mattis has maintained an aggressive stance toward the Iranian regime.

In late 2010, after taking over as chief of US Central Command, Mattis was asked by Obama what his priorities were.

"Iran, Iran, and Iran," Mattis replied.

He has said he wouldn't sign the Iranian nuclear deal (though he also says he considers it binding), and describes Tehran as the region's most dangerous actor, calling it "more of a revolutionary movement than a country,"according to a New Yorker profile.

Mattis has also spoken dimly of what lies ahead for the US in the Middle East. "The future is going to be ghastly,"he said in 2016. "It is not going to be pleasant for any of us."

Trump's CIA also appears to be adopting an anti-Iran posture.

Under its new director, former Republican Rep. Mike Pompeo, who was a ardent foe of the Iran deal, the intelligence agency has made moves toward more aggressive spying and covert operations.

And, according to The New York Times, Pompeo has found a skilled leader for his Iran operations: Michael D'Andrea, an experienced intelligence officer known as the "Dark Prince" or "Ayatollah Mike."

D'Andrea, a Muslim convert, has gotten much of the credit for US efforts to weaken Al Qaeda.

Robert Eatinger, a former CIA lawyer who was involved in the agency's drone program, told The Times it would not be "the wrong read" to see D'Andrea's appointment as step toward a more hardline policy on Iran.

"He can run a very aggressive program, but very smartly," Eatinger said.

In addition to Trump's own bellicosity about Iran, there are signs the nationalist elements on his domestic-policy team are bleeding into the foreign-policy decision-making process, which — given their skepticism of international institutions and cooperation — could heighten the chance for conflict.

It's also possible that the military figures in Trump's national security apparatus could moderate the administration's positions and spur more thoughtful consideration of foreign affairs.

Mattis himself has spoken of strong diplomacy as a preventative to war and has said military force can only be successful when it comes as part of a large political strategy.

"The conventional wisdom on this is probably wrong," Peter Feaver, a Duke University professor who was a senior official in the second Bush administration, told The Post. "Empirically, the military is more reluctant to use force ... but if force is used, then they want it to be used without restraint."

SEE ALSO: A showdown could be looming between the US, Iran, and the Assad regime at the Syria-Iraq border

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch how the US would shoot down an incoming ICBM in its tracks

As President Donald Trump’s recent Middle East tour demonstrated, the one thing uniting the United States, Israel, and much of the Arab world is opposition to Iran’s regional activities.

Whereas the Obama administration seemed to acknowledge that coercion alone was unlikely to change Iran’s behavior, and thus favored a carrot-and-stick approach, the Trump administration appears inclined to seek ways of tightening the screws on Iran.

The basic logic of that approach is clear.

The goal is to pressure Iran with increased regional isolation and the threat of sanctions and, more assertively, confront Iranian-backed groups in Syria and Yemen, thus compelling the Islamic Republic to draw back or abandon its regional footprint.

There’s just one small problem: Iran is unlikely to back down.

Iran’s regional clients — especially in Iraq, but also in Syria and Yemen — are the key to its fundamental strategic objective of ending the U.S. military role in the Persian Gulf and competing with its Arab neighbors for regional preeminence. Rather than back down from threats, Tehran will continue to use its clients to create leverage with the United States and its allies wherever it thinks it can.

Trump’s Middle East tour came on the heels of the reelection of Iran’s reformist president, Hassan Rouhani, who has now been placed in a difficult position. He ran on a campaign of hope, and was buoyed by his success at reaching compromise with the West.

Assuming Rouhani wants to temper tensions with Iran’s neighbors and adversaries, he would have to somehow reverse the direction of Iran’s regional behavior. That is unlikely to happen, however, because Rouhani’s government does not hold ultimate authority in foreign policy and strategic decision-making. Such authority resides with the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and Khamenei has long endorsed the strategic agenda of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s most powerful military institution.

As a result of the IRGC’s preeminence, Iran is more alienated from its region than at any time since the Iran-Iraq War during the 1980s. Iran’s supreme leader and the IRGC want the United States out of the region altogether. Iran’s neighbors, however, see the United States as the only effective check on the Islamic Republic’s influence.

These competing visions have fueled the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, where Iran and its adversaries back opposite sides and strive for opposite outcomes.

The IRGC sees those wars —and the war in Iraq — as the product of an American-led cabal (which includes Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Jordan, the Islamic State, and other Sunni extremists) aimed at destroying the Islamic Republic and its faithful allies (notably Lebanese Hezbollah, the Bashar al-Assad regime, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Shiite-led government in Iraq).

The IRGC’s most dangerous weapons, in the eyes of its neighbors, are its foreign militant clients. They have become increasingly effective in recent years.

Before the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the IRGC’s client program was focused on providing Iran with a credible strategic deterrent, primarily through the sponsorship of groups such as Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad that could target Israel with rocket strikes or terrorist attacks.

But after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the IRGC’s special forces division, known as the Quds Force, developed Iraqi militant clients that could be used for more offensive aims.

Under the leadership of Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani, these military clients became the cornerstone of Iranian efforts to transform Iraq from an erstwhile foe into a friendly neighbor. More recently, the IRGC has deployed them to great effect in Syria’s civil war, where it likely controls more troops than the Syrian government, and in the war against the Islamic State in Iraq.

It has also developed close ties with the Houthis in Yemen, and has supported that group’s attempt to secure control over the Yemeni state.

In each of those countries, Iran’s political influence has grown along with its military reach. Through these efforts, the IRGC has established a transnational, pro-Iranian military alliance— one that has proved formidable in war and that embraces the ideological tenets of Iran’s theocratic regime. The cultivation of like-minded allies has been a foundational goal of the IRGC since its establishment. After almost four decades, it has begun to realize success in that effort.

Thus, the issue of Iran’s extraterritorial activities is no small matter. Suggestions that Rouhani has other diplomatic priorities deserve to be taken with a grain of salt. It remains unclear if Rouhani’s approach to the Middle East differs much from the IRGC.

The IRGC is said to have objected to Rouhani’s reelection in part because he had worked to restrain its hand in Yemen during the nuclear deal negotiations. But publicly, his government stands behind Iran’s overt actions in the region and denies the existence of all its covert operations.

Even if Rouhani wanted to, it would be almost impossible for him to persuade the supreme leader to abandon or temper support for the IRGC’s program. To do so, he would have to make a convincing case that the IRGC’s activities no longer served, or were inimical to, the regime’s interests.

A neutral observer could make a persuasive case that the IRGC’s activities have had a severely negative impact on Iran’s economy and international standing, and have contributed to the insecurity of the Middle East. But from the standpoint of Khamenei’s broadly defined anti-American objectives, the IRGC’s efforts advance the core mission of the Islamic Republic. Client groups have become an extension of Iran’s military power and not something that the IRGC and Khamenei will easily part with.

Indeed, in the battle for control of the Middle East, the IRGC’s militant clients have been the great equalizer.

While Iran’s neighbors have poured billions of dollars into conventional weaponry, Iran has invested in comparatively cheap proxy forces that have proven effective in numerous theaters. They have prevented Iraq from becoming an American puppet, saved Syria from being dominated by American- and Saudi-backed Sunni extremists, and redirected the attention and resources of Saudi Arabia and the UAE away from Syria by igniting war in Yemen. Iran’s influence in each of those countries has grown as a result, as has its influence in the region.

Foreign clients enable Iran to keep its adversaries at arm’s length, but they put Iran at risk of escalation with its regional adversaries and the United States. The conflict has so far remained beyond Iran’s borders, but the risk of miscalculation always lurks in the background.

For now, Iraq is Iran’s main point of leverage with the United States. While Tehran and Washington are nominally on the same side in support of the government of Iraq, Iranian-backed groups routinely threaten to target U.S. forces. Should the United States intervene more heavily against Assad in Syria or the Houthis in Yemen, those groups might be given the green light from Tehran to renew such attacks.

That’s one way the conflict could spiral out of control. Iran doesn’t want a fight with the United States — the IRGC can contend with adversaries by proxy, but it would have much less success in a direct war with the U.S. military — but if the situation spirals out of control in Iraq, a military escalation might be the result.

The ability to influence events outside its borders through proxy groups is both the central factor of Iran’s alienation and its most vital strategic asset. Solving that paradox would require a shift in the Islamic Republic’s overarching political and ideological agenda.

But so long as anti-Americanism remains the prevailing tenet of the Iranian regime’s aspirations, and so long as those aspirations are promoted through foreign military adventures, Iranians will not know the peace and stability they so richly deserve.

SEE ALSO: Trump is assembling all the pieces he needs to go after Iran

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'The reign of the Assad family is coming to an end': Tillerson says Russia must choose to align with the US

Two Syrian rebels and a war monitor said a Syrian military plane had come down about 50 km east of Damascus on Monday in rebel-held territory near a frontline with government-held land.

"We have brought down a Syrian jet in Tel Dakwa area in rural Damascus and we are searching for the pilot," Saad al Haj, spokesman for Western backed Jaish Osoud al Sharqiya rebel group, told Reuters. Osoud al Sharqiya is one of the main groups fighting in the southeast Syrian desert, known as the Badia.

Pictures of what appeared to be the human remains of the pilot have been shared on opposition social media sites alongside pictures of aircraft wreckage said to be that of the warplane.

Another rebel official, Said Seif from the Western-vetted Ahmed Abdo Martyrs group that operates in the area, said the plane came down in an area 15 kms east of Bir Qasab between Tal Dakwa and Dumair airport.

Seif said rebels hit the aircraft with heavy, anti-aircraft machine guns which had been delivered to them in recent weeks by the United States and its allies to fend off a new push into southeast Syria by the government and allied Iran-backed militias.

The Syrian military could not be reached for comment.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said a plane was shot down by a rebel group in the area but it could not confirm if the pilot was dead or alive.

Reuters could not independently confirm reports of the downed plane.

SEE ALSO: US-based Muslim preacher blamed for Turkish coup could lose citizenship

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 9 phrases on your résumé that make hiring managers cringe

Beirut (AFP) - A US-led coalition air strike killed 21 civilians on Monday as they tried to escape the Islamic State group's Syrian bastion of Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. 

"The civilians were boarding small boats on the northern bank of the Euphrates River to flee southern neighbourhoods of Raqqa," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

He said women and children were among the dead but he could not immediately give a specific number.  

Thousands of civilians have fled the northern city as a seven-month offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an Arab-Kurdish alliance, closes in. 

The SDF is now several kilometres (miles) from Raqqa's east, west, and north, and has sealed off routes into the city from those three fronts. 

Their assault has been backed by air strikes from the Washington-led coalition bombing IS in Iraq and Syria since 2014. 

Russian aircraft have also carried out bombing raids against IS convoys fleeing the city. 

According to the Britain-based Observatory, the latest coalition raid took place on Monday morning. 

"The toll may continue to rise as some of the wounded are in critical condition," the monitor said. 

'Annihilation' campaign  

The activist collective Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently also reported the strike, saying it hit people "waiting near the river and others on boats (who) were trying to cross." 

It said civilians had been escaping Raqqa by crossing the Euphrates River via boat, after the two main bridges leading out of the city were destroyed. 

Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with widespread protests against the regime, but it has since morphed into a multi-front war that has left 320,000 people dead. 

The US military has said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed 484 civilians, but observers say the number is much higher. 

The Observatory has given a toll of around 1,500 civilians in Syria alone since the coalition began striking there on September 23, 2014.  

The monitor recorded the coalition's deadliest month for Syrian civilians between April 23 and May 23, with 225 civilians killed. 

Reports of civilian casualties in the air campaign have swelled in recent weeks.

On May 20, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said US President Donald Trump had instructed the Pentagon to "annihilate" IS in Syria in a bid to prevent escaped foreign fighters from returning home.

The president has "directed a tactical shift from shoving ISIS out of safe locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy in their strongholds so we can annihilate ISIS", Mattis said, using an acronym for IS.

But the Pentagon has denied that its rules of engagement have changed and insists that the coalition continues to strike only "military-appropriate targets".

SEE ALSO: Syrian force 'tightens noose' Islamic State in Raqqa: U.S.-led coalition

Join the conversation about this story »

Hazima (Syria) (AFP) - The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces broke into the Islamic State group's Syrian bastion of Raqa on Tuesday after declaring a new phase in their fight for the city.

The drive for the northern city at the heart of IS's Syrian territory has been seven months in the making and has been backed US-led coalition air support, military advisers and weapons deliveries. 

On Tuesday, Arab and Kurdish SDF fighters advanced to the city's eastern edge and broke into Raqa for the first time. 

"Our forces entered the city of Raqa from the eastern district of Al-Meshleb," SDF commander Rojda Felat told AFP.

"They are fighting street battles inside Raqa now, and we have experience in urban warfare," she said. 

Fierce clashes were also raging on the northern outskirts of the city, which lies on the winding Euphrates River, Felat added. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF had seized a number of positions inside Raqa. 

"They have taken control of a checkpoint in Al-Meshleb, as well as a number of buildings," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. 

"The advance came after heavy air strikes by the US-led coalition," he told AFP.

- 'Great Battle' Begins -

After months sealing off access routes to the city from the east, north and west, the SDF on Tuesday announced a new phase in their fight for Raqa. 

"We declare today the start of the great battle to liberate the city of Raqa, the so-called capital of terrorism and terrorists," SDF spokesman Talal Sello told reporters in the village of Hazima, north of the city.

"With the international coalition's warplanes and the state-of-the-art weapons they provided to us, we will seize Raqa from Daesh," Sello told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS. 

He asked civilians inside the city to keep away from IS positions and from the front lines. 

As the SDF has drawn closer to the city, reports of civilian casualties in coalition air strikes have swelled.  

On Monday, the Observatory said a coalition bombing raid killed 21 civilians as they tried to escape Raqa by dinghy on the Euphrates River.

The same route leading out of the city's southern districts had been used by IS fighters, Abdel Rahman said.

An estimated 300,000 civilians were believed to have been living under IS rule in Raqa, including 80,000 displaced from other parts of the country.

But thousands have fled in recent months, seeking safety in territory newly captured by the SDF. 

More than 320,000 people have been killed since civil war erupted in Syria in 2011.

It began with anti-government protests but has since evolved into a complex multi-front war involving the army and rebel groups as well as the SDF and IS.

SEE ALSO: An exiled Syrian journalist tells us what it was like to write under Assad

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is what Bernie Madoff's life is like in prison

Beirut (AFP) - Secret dates, dead-drops and "bullet-free" maths lessons: These are just some of the ways residents of the Islamic State group's Syrian bastion Raqa resisted years of jihadist rule.

IS has been ruling Raqa with an iron fist since 2014, imposing its draconian interpretation of Islamic law on the northern city's 300,000-strong population.

But as a US-backed offensive broke into an eastern district of Raqa on Tuesday, residents have been telling AFP how they spent years quietly resisting jihadist orders. 

Sami, 24, met 22-year-old Rima six years ago, when Syria's uprising broke out with anti-government protests across the country. 

"We used to meet up, talk in the street, sit together in public spaces," Sami told AFP, using a pseudonym to protect himself as he was speaking from Raqa. But when IS took over, everything changed.

The group deployed its hisba (religious police) units across Raqa to enforce dress codes and a ban on interactions between unmarried people of opposite sexes. 

Sami and Rima were forced to take their relationship underground.

"We started being afraid of IS's patrols, so we tried everything. We wrote notes to each other that would be delivered by young kids," he said. 

With satellites and private internet connections banned, Sami used IS-run internet cafes to send Rima electronic messages, which she could only read hours later when she visited a similar cafe.

The system was a romantic take on the system of dead-drops typically used for covert communication among spies. 

'I wanted to die'

Sometimes, the couple even took the risk of arranging public rendezvous to steal furtive glances of each other. 

"She would tell me, for example, that she was leaving the house at a certain time. We'd agree to meet at a shop," Sami recalled. 

Rima would enter the store in the full black face veil mandated by IS, but Sami always recognised her. 

"I would come in and we'd talk a little bit before a Daesh guy would come in and ruin everything," he said, using the Arabic acronym for IS. 

One morning, their luck ran out. As Sami watched helplessly from a distance, hisba officers detained Rima in the street because "her clothes were not up to par."

"I was so angry and I began crying, but she was signaling to me not to approach them. I wanted to die at the time." 

Rima's parents said they would give their blessing for her to marry Sami only if they fled Raqa together, but financial difficulties have kept him in the northern city. 

Thousands of people have poured out of Raqa as US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces edged closer to the city limits. 

'Ticking time bombs'

When IS overran Raqa, it also seized control of one of its most valuable resources: its schools.

As it has done in other cities, IS replaced the traditional curriculum, including classes on physics and chemistry, with religious courses and its own macabre twist on arithmetics. 

"Studying maths became about counting rifles, pistols, explosives, and car bombs," said a former public school teacher in the city on condition of anonymity. 

One subject taught children how to carry out suicide attacks and boasted about the "virgins" with which the attacker could be rewarded. 

"These courses turn students into ticking time bombs," said the teacher, who refused to work in the IS-run institutions. Parents, too, stopped sending their kids to school, fearing they would be brainwashed. 

Instead, they reached out to former teachers, asking if they could hold secret tutoring sessions at home on biology, English and bullet-free arithmetics.

Teachers would arrive at a student's home at an agreed-upon time for private or small group sessions, but instructors would avoid full-sized classes to stay under the radar. 

"The teachers who are doing this live in constant fear. But we feel like we have a duty to society and to a child's right to a violence-free education," the former teacher told AFP. 

One father has reached out to a close friend and teacher, asking if he could tutor his sons, seven and nine. 

"It's scary for us to think that our kids could start thinking like Daesh — talking about takfir (radical Islam) or slaves or virgins," the parent told AFP.  

"This is destroying an entire generation."

SEE ALSO: A showdown could be looming between the US, Iran, and the Assad regime at the Syria-Iraq border

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Two women risked their lives to capture film in a city controlled by ISIS

US-led coalition forces destroyed what were reportedly pro-Syrian regime forces near al Tanf in southeast Syria on Tuesday, Operation Inherent Resolve officials said in a release.

According to the release, pro-Assad forces, consisting of a tank, artillery, antiaircraft weapons, armed technical vehicles, and more than 60 troops, entered the "well-established de-confliction zone."

That zone covers a 34-mile radius around al Tanf, which is located near the intersection of the Syrian, Iraqi, and Jordanian borders.

"The Coalition issued several warnings via the de-confliction line prior to destroying two artillery pieces, an anti-aircraft weapon, and damaging a tank," the release said.

This is the second time in a month that coalition forces have engaged pro-regime forces around al Tanf, where coalition advisers train local partners (and where US and partner forces repulsed a fierce ISIS attack in April).

On May 18, coalition airstrikes targeted pro-Assad forces "that were advancing well inside an established de-confliction zone" northeast of al Tanf, US Central Command said in a release at the time. The strike came after unsuccessful Russian efforts to stop the movements, a show of force by coalition aircraft, and warning shots.

Defense Department spokesman Eric Pahon told Bloomberg at the end of May that the US was not turning its attention to Assad's forces.

"This is not a new policy," he said of the May 18 strike. "Now that they've backed off, we're not going after them," though, he said, the US "would certainly respond as necessary" to protect partner forces in the area.

The area around al Tanf in southeast Syria looks to be a potential flashpoint going forward, as ISIS' territorial control in Syria erodes and combatants in the country — the US-led coalition and its partners as well as the Assad regime and its partners, backed by Iran — try to position themselves to take control of spaces the terror group leaves behind.

The area from al Tanf north to Sinjar in northwest Iraq "is now being contested by various belligerents on behalf of their regional sponsors,"according to Fabrice Balanche, a French expert on Syria and visiting fellow at the Washington Institute on Near East Policy.

Intelligence sources have told Reuters that the coalition's presence near al Tanf is meant to keep Iranian-backed forces from securing an overland route between Syria and Iraq.

And in May, Western-backed Syrian rebels said Russian jets bombed them to stop their push to capture a checkpoint on the Damascus-Baghdad highway near the Syrian borders with Iraq and Jordan.

Increased activity in eastern Syria has prompted Washington and Moscow to set up a deconfliction hotline to avert potential confrontations.

"Anything can happen," Pahon told Bloomberg. "This is the most complicated battle-space anybody has ever known."

SEE ALSO: A showdown could be looming between the US, Iran, and the Assad regime at the Syria-Iraq border

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch the King of Jordan participate in a military exercise with his armed forces

BEIRUT (AP) — A US official says the fight for Raqqa, the Islamic State group's de facto capital, will "only accelerate" as the militants lose their grip on Iraq's Mosul.

Brett McGurk, the US envoy for the global coalition against IS, says the US and its local allies, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, are prepared for a protracted fight for the northern Syrian city. He spoke at a press conference in Baghdad on Wednesday.

The jihadist group is locked in twin battles for its key strongholds, Raqqa and Mosul. The SDF launched its attack on Raqqa on Tuesday and have already captured a neighborhood on the city's eastern end. Iraqi forces have been battling IS in Mosul since October.

McGurk said the fight for Raqqa will be a "difficult and very long-term battle."

SEE ALSO: A US service member was killed in blast near Mosul, Iraq

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'Really?': A reporter calls out Huckabee's claim that 'countless' FBI employees were happy with Comey's firing

With the territory it controls diminishing by the day and its sources of income increasingly squeezed, Islamic State is attempting to channel the group’s assets out of Iraq and Syria in order to secure a financial lifeline, according to European and American diplomats.

The apparent survival strategy means that Western governments and financial institutions may need to start devoting as many resources to stopping the outflow of IS funds as preventing supporters donating money to the militants.

The diplomats say IS are employing methods typically used by organised crime groups to launder their assets before investing the proceeds in legitimate business.

While many international banks have strong anti-money laundering measures in place, smaller less rigorously regulated financial services companies and banks may be unwittingly exploited by IS as it seeks to preserve its cash reserves in safe havens.

After IS proclaimed its Caliphate in June 2014, it stood out among terror groups for having a sophisticated bureaucracy and robust economy. The militants controlled significant swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, which allowed them to loot captured towns and villages, extort taxes from their inhabitants and trade oil from seized fields and refineries.

The money enabled IS to buy advanced weaponry, pay fighters’ salaries and even support welfare programmes. The group could thus appeal to foreign recruits by presenting itself in polished online propaganda as a genuine alternative to what it regards as morally corrupt states in the West and the Middle East.

The military campaign to stop IS has aimed to reduce the group’s territory in order to not only weaken its fighting ability but also disrupt its sources of income. Since the militants’ peak in 2014, their territory has more than halved, with some of the biggest losses in Iraq. A recent joint study by King’s College London and accountancy firm EY estimated that their revenues have halved in the last two years, to less than $900 million.

With its money-making operation diminished and ability to secure assets locally impaired, the diplomats say that IS has begun looking for safe havens to store its wealth, in effect reversing the measures it employed to channel funds into onetime strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

As late as 2015 there were still over 20 banks operating in IS territory. But after it was cut off from the international financial system, the group often received funds via Turkey, where it could access wire transfers or receive cash donations.  It then smuggled the money across the border to Syria, or transferred value to more mobile assets like pre-paid credit cards, digital accounts or crypto-currencies.

The diplomats say IS is now using its established smuggling routes to channel assets out of Iraq and Syria, after which they are laundered to conceal their origin. The process is likely to be conducted through small financial services companies – such as money transfer operations and boutique banks – which receive little regulatory scrutiny.

Once integrated into the financial system IS might then use the same boltholes that money-launderers have employed for years, such as shell companies, offshore accounts and networks of trusts registered in jurisdictions with little oversight.

The diplomatic sources say IS’s laundered funds are being invested in legitimate businesses. Although they would not disclose the nature of these companies, they are likely to be inconspicuous enterprises such as car-dealerships and electronics stores, from which money can easily be retrieved without arousing suspicion.

Many major banks are already able to detect when illicit funds are deposited into seemingly legitimate businesses. But regulators in Europe and the US have not put smaller financial services companies under the same level of scrutiny, which has meant that some of the latter do not possess the kind of safeguards that mainstream banks have in place.

Moreover, while many governments in less developed parts of the Middle East and Africa have formally adopted international anti-money laundering standards, they have been slow to enforce them, leaving banks in these regions exposed to exploitation by the likes of IS.

In order to cut the chain of links in the militants’ laundering process,  Western governments will need to both ensure small financial services companies comply with regulations and isolate developing world banks with weak controls. Unless the outflow of IS funds is kerbed, its members will continue to pose a serious threat to the Middle East and the West, long after they are defeated on the battlefield and their sources of revenue have dried up.

Martin Fischer is an analyst at Alaco, a London-based business intelligence consultancy.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's why the American flag is reversed on military uniforms

A coalition of anti-Islamic State groups backed by the United States has officially begun its assault on the jihadist-held city of Raqqah in northern Syria. Raqqah has been controlled by jihadist forces since 2013 and has become the de facto capital of the Islamic State inside Syria.

The US Department of Defense announced the commencement of the operation to liberate Raqqah in a news article on its website.

“The offensive would deliver a decisive blow to the idea of ISIS as a physical caliphate,” according to the DoD.

The push to take Raqqah is led by the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is largely comprised of the Kurdish YPG (or People’s Defense Units). The YPG is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US government for terrorist attacks throughout Turkey. The Turkish government has opposed US support for the YPG.

The US military attempts to mitigate Turkish anger over the support of the YPG by emphasizing the “Syrian Arab Coalition’s” role in the offensive. However, there is no official group known as the Syrian Arab Coalition, it is merely the Arab component of the SDF.

The US military noted that it is “providing equipment, training, intelligence and logistics support, precision fires and battlefield advice” to the SDF for its Raqqah offensive. To emphasize this point, the US military, in a separate press release that tallied air operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria noted that “24 strikes engaged 18 ISIS tactical units; destroyed 19 boats, 12 fighting positions, eight vehicles, a house bomb and a weapons storage facility; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit” in and around Raqqah yesterday.

The SDF and the US have shaped the battlefield in northern Syria for months in preparation to advance on Raqqah. But the final push on Raqqah could not be launched until the SDF secured the town of Tabqa and its dam, which are located about 20 miles west. The SDF seized Tabqa on May 11 after six weeks of fighting.

The SDF now controls the terrain north of the Euphrates river from Tabqa all the way to the town of Madan, which is due east of Raqqah. Madan is south of the Euphrates, remains under control of the Islamic State. Raqqah is situated north of the Euphrates, so the SDF does not need to cross the river to take the city.

The fight for Raqqah takes place as Iraqi forces are making their final push to root out the Islamic State in Mosul. The Mosul offensive began six months ago, however, the Islamic State still controls pockets within the city.

While the US military insists that the loss of Raqqah and Mosul will deal “a decisive blow” to the Islamic State, the group still controls a significant amount of terrain in both Syria and Iraq. The Islamic State still occupies a large area in central and southern Syria, and continues to besiege Syrian military forces in the city of Deir al Zour. The Islamic State controls all of the Euphrates River Valley south of Madan down to the Iraq towns of Rawa and Anah.

SEE ALSO: US-led coalition air strike kills 21 Syrian civilians fleeing Raqqa, human rights monitor says

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is what Bernie Madoff's life is like in prison

A US aircraft shot down a large drone piloted by pro-regime forces after it dropped "one of several weapons" near coalition forces in Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement on Thursday.

The Pentagon said the drone aircraft was similar in size to an MQ-1 Predator, which has a wingspan of 55 feet and weighs more than 1,000 pounds.

The statement did not specify what type of US aircraft was involved during the incident, which occurred in southern Syria.

Unmanned aerial vehicles have become a fixture on the battlefield in Syria, as both the US, Syria, Iran, and Russia all have operated weaponized and unarmed surveillance drones there. The Islamic State has also built their own makeshift drones, which have been used to harass coalition troops.

The incident on Thursday, however, came soon after the US had to destroy two "pro-regime armed technical vehicles"— a term that usually describes trucks outfitted with machine guns or other heavy weapons — that had advanced toward coalition troops in the deconfliction zone at At Tanf.

Such incidents are troublesome, given the Pentagon's reliance on local partners to conduct much of the fight against ISIS, and the risk of getting bogged down in open conflict with others in the conflict.

"As long as pro-regime forces are oriented toward Coalition and partnered forces the potential for conflict is escalated.  Coalition forces are oriented on ISIS in the Euphrates River Valley," the statement said. "The Coalition calls on all parties to focus their efforts in the same direction to defeat ISIS, which is our common enemy and the greatest threat to regional and worldwide peace and security."

SEE ALSO: Why a purely defensive, unarmed US missile defense system scares the pants off of China

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: ADMIRAL McRAVEN: Attacking Syria was 'the exact right thing to do'