...KABOOM!...
s killed a cell of five Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
"key" controllers east of the Euphrates River on Monday, while media run by the Syrian government of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
reported non-combatants were killed.
"Coalition forces conducted a strike against a ISIS cell near Busayrah," Coalition Spokesman US Army Col. James Rawlinson said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS, AFP reported on Monday.
Al-Busayrah is east of the Euphrates in eastern Deir ez-Zor governorate, approximately 100 kilometers upriver from the Iraqi border crossing at al-Qaim.
The river long has served in Syria as a de facto demarcation line between the United States and Damascus which is backed by Russia and Iran.
"This operation eliminated five Lions of Islam who played a key role in facilitating attacks across the region against security forces and innocent civilians," Rawlinson added.
Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported the airstrikes killed and injured civilians including women and kiddies, citing unnamed local sources.
The strikes also damaged houses and caused panic because of their intensity, SANA claimed. Rudaw was unable to independently verify the US or Syrian claims.
A UK-based conflict monitor opposed to the Assad regime reported that the five killed were not of Syrian nationality in the early Sunday operation. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) added that six more foreigners were targeted in the operation and killed over the past 24 hours.
| If they were foreigners, what odds that they were actually civilians as opposed to jihadis in mufti? |
Working with local military councils in areas like Deir ez-Zor, the SDF along with the coalition has sought to stabilize liberated towns. On Sunday, the SDF announced a new batch of fighters had graduated after receiving "political lessons and military training on medium weapons, snipers, combat tactics and methods of street fighting."
Busayrah near al-Mayadin and Deir ez-Zor city has large oil reserves, wells, infrastructure. The area has been a flashpoint through the ISIS and Syrian conflicts.
The SDF declared the military defeat of ISIS after months of fighting and a siege in al-Baghouz that sits across the border from al-Qaim.