"The UK has quietly halted its efforts to train the so-called Syrian moderate opposition within a network of camps established in Turkey, Jordan and Syria, the Telegraph reported.
One of the camps where UK special forces were training the “opposition” was the at-Tanf garrison controlled by the US-led coalition in southeastern Syria.
According to the Telegraph, the UK Defense Ministry has confirmed the last 20 UK soldiers involved in the program returned home.
The UK troops were involved in the Pentagon’s $500m program aimed at training and equipping 5,000 “moderate opposition” fighters. However, the effort clearly failed." SF
———
There remains a lot of hard fighting in the east of Syria and in Idlib Province, it would appear that the UK thinks the Syria War is coming to an end. pl
https://southfront.org/uk-withdraws-all-troops-training-syrian-militants-in-turkey-jordan-and-syria/
Even though the MSM seems to acknowlage that Idlib is AQ controlled, UK stil pumping “aid” into Idlib. A quick look through UK foreign office shows them endorsing whitehelmets, and various aid shipments.
One UK aid organisation even had a graphic of a ship leaving Birmingham and arriving at a port on the coast of Idlib, though this one did not appear on the foreign office account.
Yet I continue to read that we didn’t intervene in Syria, no matter what they can still spin it their way.
Idlib is landlocked.
What Southfront and Telegraph do NOT tell you is that the US stopped training that group back in July. Reason given was that they refused to only fight against Daesh.
PeterAU: Idlib has no coastline and no ports. You should check your sources. Any UK shipping for the white helmets in Idlib would have to go through Latakia (not likely) or Turkey (who would probably appropriate it for their own use).
mike
The SF/Telegraph article spoke of support to AQ/unicorn fighters being halted. DJT only recently ordered a halt to supporting them. support for them would have come in through Turkey and Jordan and did. The post on US support for an SDF further advance into Deir al-Zor province east of the Euphrates is a separate matter. It seems to me that you are confusing these phenomena. pl
mike, did not take into account you would think I had no knowledge of geography. The graphic was in a tweet by a UK aid organisation. I ran onto it by chance a couple of weeks ago.
Relevent tweet here
https://twitter.com/sktwelfare/status/900022252644835329
A couple here where UK foreign office endorses aid to Idlib and promotes whitehelmets.
https://twitter.com/DFID_UK/status/898192829087985664
https://twitter.com/foreignoffice/status/898824370121867266
Colonel –
At my age SWMBO tells me I am often confused. But I believe I commented separately on both this post and on the US-SDF-advance post. On my comment here at 6:06 above I was referring to al-Tanf and nowhere else.
I am confused about the reference in southfront about the UK leaving the training camps in Turkey. It was my understanding that both the US and the UK stopped that training mission in Turkey a year ago. About the time that Turkey invaded northern Syria. But perhaps I am wrong and they stayed.
“Idlib is landlocked.”
So is Birmingham.
Peter –
No offense. I was not impugning your knowledge of geography. Only that of your source.