Baghdad: In a reflection of how intertwined the Syria and Iraq conflicts have become, thousands of Shiite Iraqi militiamen helping President Bashar Al Assad crush the Sunni-led uprising against him are returning home, putting a strain on the overstretched Syrian military as it struggles to retain territory recaptured in recent months from rebels.
On Wednesday, Iraqi and US officials confirmed that Syrian warplanes hit at Isil targets in Iraq. Anthony Cordesman, a prominent foreign policy analyst at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said that with Syria’s apparent willingness to now take on Isil directly, “the real problem is how will Iran, the Iraqi Shiites and the Alawites in Syria coordinate their overall pressure on the Sunni forces?”
Al Qaim, where the Syrian airstrikes took place Tuesday, is located in vast and mostly Sunni Anbar province. Its provincial government spokesman, Dhari Al Rishawi, said 17 people were killed in an air raid there. Reports that the Sunni militants have captured advanced weapons, tanks and Humvees from the Iraq military that have made their way into Syria, and that fighters are crossing freely from one side to the other have alarmed the Syrian government, which fears the developments could shift the balance of power in the largely stalemated fight between Al Assad’s forces and the Sunni rebels fighting to topple him. Bilal Saab, a senior fellow for Middle East Security at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Centre on International Security, said Al Assad’s immediate priority is to fight the rebels inside his own country. “His army is already overstretched and every bullet that doesn’t hit enemy targets at home can be a bullet wasted,” he said. “Going after Isil along border areas could serve tactical goals but is more a luxury than anything else.”
