En mars de cette année, une mystérieuse « New Syrian Army » annonçait avoir pris le contrôle du poste-frontière d’al-Tanf, aux confins des frontières syrienne, irakienne et jordanienne, jusque là détenu par Da’ich. Al-Tanf, c’est là : ▻https://www.google.fr/maps/place/At+Tanf,+Syrie/@33.745316,36.4217732,7z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x153e0a85826f8d3f:0xfbaab842977dcbd6!8m2!3d33.48959!4d38.663
Ce groupe sans aucun fait d’armes connu jusqu’ici semblait être soutenu par la Jordanie et les USA, voire servir de couverture à des forces spéciales de ces deux pays : ►http://seenthis.net/messages/474150 et ►http://seenthis.net/messages/468261
Dans un récent article, le Washington Post nous donne des nouvelles de la "New Syrian Army"et décrit un groupe, armé et formé par le programme du pentagone sur une base en Jordanie, et qui connaîtrait désormais des difficultés, malgré l’appui aérien américain, du fait d’un attentat suicide de Da’ich qui aurait décimé ses rangs :
The last remaining Pentagon-trained rebel group in Syria is now in jeopardy WaPo 27.05.16
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/the-last-remaining-pentagon-trained-rebel-group-in-syria-is-now-in-jeopardy/2016/05/27/91de194a-1c5f-11e6-82c2-a7dcb313287d_story.html
The New Syrian Army completed the U.S. training course in Jordan, infiltrated into Syria and then, in March, without fanfare or publicity, seized a pinprick of territory from the militants at the remote Tanaf border crossing with Iraq in the far southeast corner of the Syrian province of Homs.
There they have remained, holding their ground without deserting, defecting or getting kidnapped, unlike many of the other similarly trained rebels whose mishaps prompted the temporary suspension of the program last year.
Even this modest success is now in jeopardy, however, following an Islamic State suicide attack this month. An armored vehicle barreled into the rebels’ base shortly before dawn on May 7, killing a number of them, said Lt. Col. Mohammed Tallaa, a Syrian officer who defected and is the group’s commander.
Avec les échecs du nouveau programme du Pentagone, au sud avec les difficultés de la New Syrian Army et au nord où ces groupes sont en situation difficile dans la poche d’Azaz, il ne reste plus pour les USA pour combattre Da’ich que le YPG kurde qu’on essaie d’enrichir d’arabes au sein des SDF (dans le contexte d’une avancée rapide des SDF au nord de la province de Raqqa) :
In March, the training was restored, with the less ambitious goal of working with existing rebel groups in northern Syria’s Aleppo province. Those groups are now battling for their survival against Islamic State fighters advancing in the area around the town of Azaz near the border with Turkey.
In the meantime, however, the Pentagon has forged ahead with a different alliance, with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which is seen as a rival or worse by many Arab rebel groups. The YPG is responsible for almost all of the territorial gains made so far against the Islamic State in Syria, and its close coordination with the U.S. military is a source of deep resentment among other Syrian rebels. An effort to rebrand the YPG as a coalition with Arab rebels called the Syrian Democratic Forces has brought only a small number of Arabs into the force so far.