On December 6, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in an official statement that the Russian Aerospace Forces bombed ISIS only on the western bank of the Euphrates river. The US-backed forces also said that its advance in Deir Ezzor governorate was backed by the US-led coalition and stressed that it is committed to its alliance with it.
The main force of the SDF, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) announced in an official statement on December 3 that the Russian Aerospace Forces backed its advance on the eastern bank of the Euphrates. Furthermore, a representative of the Russian military group in Syria revealed during a meeting with the YPG that the Russian Aerospace Forces have conducted 627 combat sorties and destroyed 1,450 targets of ISIS in the Euphrates River Valley supporting YPG military operations there.
The new statement of the SDF is clearly aimed at pleasing Washington, which was immediately triggered by the Russian-YPJ meeting on December 3. Tala Silo former spokesman of the SDF had revealed to the Turkish Anadolu Agency that the SDF released many official statements in the past, only because “the US wanted it”.
Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon had said that the liberation of most of the territories in Iraq and Syria from ISIS militants was possible because of the efforts of the coalition and its partners.
“The Syrian regime and the Russian Federation have not demonstrated a serious approach or commitment to defeat ISIS. They carried out only a small part of the operations against ISIS, and most of the territory liberated in Iraq and Syria was liberated thanks to the efforts of the global coalition and its partners,” said Pahon on December 5.
Many Syrian pro-government activists viewed the new SDF statement as a prove of the US has total control over the group.
