A pair of offensives kick up the US-Syrian race for eastern Syria into high gear
The US has evacuated the smaller of its two bases in southern Syria. Together with Syrian rebels in its employ it has left the Zakaf outpost and actually dynamited it on the way out.
It has also told two rebel outfits in the south, with whom it has previously cut links, to exit Syria and head for Jordan. Martyr Ahmad al-Abdo Brigades, and Usoud al-Sharqiya said they would comply especially as Saudi Arabia and Jordan told them the same thing.
Martyr Ahmad al-Abdo was previously backed by the CIA but Trump ended CIA backing of Syrian rebels this July. Usoud al-Sharqiya was previously bankrolled by the Pentagon but the two parted ways in late July when the group kept using the US-rebel al-Tanf base as a staging point for attacks against the Syrian army courting a Syrian response against it.
That leaves Commandos of the Revolution as the only remaining US-linked group in and around al-Tanf. This is because the outfit declined US suggestions it be moved to Kurdish-held northern Syria and participate in the offensive into the ISIS-held Deir Ezzor province from there.
It seems clear the US investment in its occupation zone in southern Syria is waning. Where just months ago it was threatening and bombing the Syrian army to establish it, it is now downsizing its presence. A wholesale evacuation is not unthinkable eventually.
Naturally, the main credit for this goes to the lightning-fast Syrian army advance of early June when it broke through to the Iraqi border and boxed-in the Americans at al-Tanf and made their positions strategically irrelevant.
It has taken some time but it seems the Americans are finally accepting that they have been outmaneuvered in the south.
Perhaps that is the reason that they are doubling down in the east. Though US commanders previously claimed the US-orchestrated SDF offensive into Deir Ezzor would take place only after the battle for Raqqa was wrapped up, the US-Kurdish forces launched an offensive towards the Euphrates river valley on September 8th with substantial SDF forces still bogged down in the city.
Again, the catalyst for US actions was a faster-than-expected Syrian advance which lifted the siege of Deir Ezzor three days prior. If it was going to preempt Syrian advances the US had to have its proxies on the move pronto, especially seeing the Syrian army was seen hauling bridging equipment and boats as soon as connection to Deir Ezzor city was restored.
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