http://www.bild.de/politi(...)e-52553430.bild.htmlBILD SHOWS EXCLUSIVE SATELLITE IMAGE
Artikel von: JULIAN RÖPCKE AND MICHAEL WEH (TRANSLATION) veröffentlicht am
17.07.2017 - 10:58 Uhr
Are these images proof of a long-term US presence in Syria, even post-ISIS?
Given the increasing decline of the “Islamic State in Syria and Iraq”, politicians and experts around the world are wondering: what is the US strategy under President Trump for the Syrian war?
On the one hand, the US government seems to take a tough stance against President Bashar al-Assad. The air strike against one of the dictator’s air force bases in April and the shooting down of one of the regime’s fighter jets in June are clear signs of this.
On the other hand, the US government has retracted from its call for al-Assad to step down. At the G20 summit in Hamburg, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed on a deal. This means that the US are in negotiations with one of al-Assad’s most important military supporters – Russia.
Am 7. Juli beschlossen Trump und Putin einen Waffenstillstand im Süden Syriens. Er trat nie ein
Trump and Putin decided on a ceasefire for the south of Syria on July 7th. This ceasefire has not been realized yet
However, US interests in Syria seem to go much further. An exclusive satellite image that is now available to BILD allows experts to draw conclusions about America’s long-term strategy in Syria.
The image shows an enormous military base that the US have built in Syria’s north, close to the city of Kobane. It is now intended to serve as the US military’s most important logistics base.
The base is one of the US’s best-kept secrets, because it is politically highly controversial. The US military gave TV station CBS access to the base in late June, but the TV images of the facility were limited to a few seconds and very restricted perspectives. In July, the British BBC was only allowed to film the base from the outside and from some distance.
BILD asked the international anti-ISIS operation “Inherent Resolve” about the purpose of the remote base in Syria’s north. As expected, the answer was short: “In order to guarantee operational safety, the coalition does not disclose any details concerning how the Kobane airfield is used.” The military’s spokesperson at least told BILD: “The mission of this base is to support the coalition’s anti-ISIS operations.”
Things become even more mysterious if you search for the base – which is as big as 235 football fields – on the most-used map service of the world, Google Maps. The base does not exist on the publicly available maps. The maps must be too old. The same applies to the maps provided by Microsoft Bing and Russian provider Yandex.
While Google Maps satellite images from July 2017 depict raw desert ground, a TERRA server picture taken in May 2017 clearly shows a complete military airbase. Only at the mobile version of Google Maps, runway construction works in the Syrian desert are visible, however not a single building has been built at the satellite image. BILD asked the US-led anti-ISIS coalition whether the base’s non-visibility is deliberate. We receive no reply. However, there are some indications that this is indeed the case. Commercial satellite image providers have already taken numerous pictures of the base.
The pictures show that construction of the facility already started under President Obama in May 2016. By now, it has grown considerably – to up to 1.6 million square metres. Google usually updates its map service with commercial images. However, this does not apply to the area where the US base is located. BILD bought one of the updated pictures from provider “TERRA server” (taken in May 2017) and analysed it with the help of a military expert and a former soldier. The BILD map shows which areas the experts were able to identify on the satellite image.
image/satellite photo: a secret US Army airbase in Syria
Responding to BILD’s inquiry, a spokesperson of the anti-ISIS coalition called the military base a “logistical centre for the coalition’s support for our partner forces”. This refers to the “Syrian Democratic Forces”, a Kurdish/Arab alliance that, with US support, fights against ISIS in Syria.
Will even bigger planes land here soon? The spokesperson told BILD a remarkable detail: the base is “designed for C-130s and C-17s landing there”. That is an unmistakable statement. So far, pictures and videos only show the 30-metre-long propeller transport aircraft C-130 “Hercules” on the base. The fact that soon the 53-metre-long jet aircraft C-17 “Globemaster” could land here shows how important the military airport could become.
Eight hangars under construction at the base’s eastern edge suggest lively air traffic and a permanent presence of US air force planes, an expert explained to BILD. Moreover, the hangars’ size is striking. With a diameter of approximately 30 metres, they are too small for transport air craft. Fighter jets will possibly be put here.
The base suggests a long US presence in Syria. What do the existence and continuous expansion of such an extensive base in Syria’s north mean? Experts do not believe in the truth of the US’s statement that the base is merely used for the anti-ISIS operation in Syria.
For Kyle Orton of the British think tank “Henry Jackson Society”, the military base’s features only allow for one conclusion: “Its size and location clearly indicate that it will play a long-term role. This suggests a quasi-mandate policy in Syria’s northeast.”
Michael Horowitz, former soldier and analyst at the Middle East risk consultancy “Prime Source”, also regards the US base, which is now fully visible for the first time, as a “consolidation of a long-term presence in order to have a say in shaping Syria’s future.”
The base could lead to tensions with Turkey. Syria analyst Orton thinks that such a large base in the SDF area could lead to further disagreements with neighbouring Turkey. The base is located only 27 kilometres from the Turkish border in an area controlled by the SDF group. The Turkish government regards the SDF as synonymous with PKK. “If the base were to enable SDF/PKK to strengthen their control over the region, Turkey will naturally react with extreme irritation,” Orton warns.
SDF does not try to hide the base’s anti-Turkish stance. BILD spoke to Kurdish activist, Mustafa Abdi, in nearby Kobane. In his view, the military facility was primarily built due to concern about potential Turkish military actions against the region’s Kurdish militia.
What Abdi claims is explosive: “New SDF troops commanded by the US army are also being trained in the facility. The US are our ally.” With the air force base, the US want to improve its strategic position south of the Turkish border. The base will be used by SDF operations against all enemies, Abdi explained to BILD.
Syria expert, Horowitz, thinks that the base is also intended to strengthen the independence of US troops in the region: “independence also from Turkey, since Turkey often uses the presence of US military in the Incirlik base to exercise pressure”. If the US actually were to station fighter jets in the new base – and the satellite image analysed by BILD strongly suggests this – it could turn into the starting point for US operations in Syria. Incirlik would be given up in the mid-term.
Does the base violate Syria’s sovereignty? Assad supporters have been expressing their outrage on social media ever since the latest pictures of US air planes on the base’s runway were published. Assad-supporting media call the existence of the air force base in Syrian territory an “attack on the sovereignty” of Syria. The regime’s supporters state that nobody has invited the US. Syria experts Orton and Horowitz cannot take this claim seriously.
Talking to BILD, Kyle Orton spoke of the “fiction of the sovereignty of Assad’s Syria”. According to Orton, the dictator neither has the moral right, nor the military means of insisting on sovereign borders in the civil war instigated by him. Only Assad’s allies, Russia and Iran, could “bundle their resources in the region in order to drive the US out of Syria”. In this case, the question would be whether the US are willing to “keep their ground” with military means, if necessary.
Michael Horowitz also thinks that Assad has lost his right for a sovereign state, “when he started to murder his population”. There is indeed the question whether the construction of a military base in a foreign country is legal from the perspective of international law. However, the debate in Syria rather concerns the issue of “who the sovereign of the state is”. As long as this issue is being discussed, “the legal question is irrelevant” and “every actor will keep trying to create facts on Syrian ground without asking first.” These actors are, besides the US, also Turkey, Russia, and Iran.