Washington trained, armed extremist groups to topple Syrian govt
Mercenaries from the Syria Free Army received training by US forces at the Al-Tanf base to participate in the lighting assault on Damascus
Washington knew in advance about Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's (HTS) assault on Damascus that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government, preparing a mercenary group to join the offensive from the US-occupied zone at Al-Tanf, The Telegraph reported on 20 December.
Militants from the British and US-trained fighters in the Revolutionary Commando Army (RCA) claim they were told, “This is your moment,” in a briefing by US Special Forces before the invasion to oust Assad began.
The Telegraph writes that “In the first indication that Washington had prior knowledge of the offensive, the RCA revealed it had been told to scale up its forces and ‘be ready’ for an attack that could lead to the end of the Assad regime.”
“They did not tell us how it would happen,” Captain Bashar al-Mashadani, an RCA commander, told the UK newspaper.
“We were just told: ‘Everything is about to change. This is your moment. Either Assad will fall, or you will fall.’ But they did not say when or where, they just told us to be ready.”
Captain Mashadani said that in the weeks before the briefing at the US-occupied Al-Tanf air base on the tri-border area of Iraq, Jordan, and Syria, the US recruited additional mercenaries to join the upcoming invasion.
The RCA’s ranks were “swollen by smaller freelance units like his brought under its command,” Mashadani stated.
The US still pays the militants a salary under the pretext they are fighting ISIS in Syria.
RCA fighters occupying a base in Palmyra said they had been told to prepare for the Syrian government to be toppled in early November, nearly three weeks before the offensive began.
US and Turkish-backed militants from the former Al-Qaeda affiliate HTS launched an assault on the Aleppo countryside on 27 November. They captured Damascus, with help from Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups from Deraa in southern Syria and RCA fighters from Al-Tanf on 8 December.
The RCA now occupies roughly one-fifth of Syria, including pockets of territory in the north of the capital, Damascus.
The fighters’ testimony indicates that Washington knew about the offensive led by HTS and helped to plan and coordinate it.
Also known as the Syrian Free Army (SFA), the RCA appointed a former ISIS chief, Salem Turki al-Antari, as their commander earlier this year.
Antari is from the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. According to ASO Network, he joined ISIS in 2014, going by the nickname Abu Saddam al-Ansari. The extremist group appointed him as the Emir of the Badia desert region in Homs.
Between 2015 and 2017, Antari took part in the ISIS takeover of Palmyra and the battles with the Syrian army that ensued. The ISIS assault on Palmyra destroyed some of Syria’s most cherished cultural heritage.