US: Not on the same page as Damascus against ISIS

The US State Department denied yesterday being on the same page with Damascus in the fight against Islamic State (ISIS) at a time when the US air force launched raids against the radical organisation in Iraq, while the Assad regime continues to wage similar raids in Syria.

The State Department refused to pay tribute to the Syrian regime’s fight against ISIS, stressing at the same time that eliminating the organisation’s fighters, who control large areas in both Syria and Iraq, is a “good thing”.

State Department deputy spokeswoman, Marie Harf said: “I would strongly disagree with the notion that we are on the same page here in terms of what we’re doing.”

Harf stressed: “In Iraq, we have a government that has asked for our help and asked for our support and welcomed us in. That obviously is not the case in Syria. The regime of President Bashar Al-Assad is responsible for the rise of the Islamic State and other Jihadist organisations such as Al-Nusra Front.”

Yesterday, the Syrian Air Force launched raids for the second consecutive day against ISIS sites in Raqqa and Aleppo in the north of the country. At the same time, the US air force launched 15 air strikes against the organisation’s sites around the strategic Mosul Dam in northern Iraq.

Harf said: “It is too simplistic to compare between these two attacks”, adding, “It’s a good thing when ISIS fighters are taken off the battlefield, period.”