Turkey’s threat to US troops; New front in Mosul fight; Army stands up new foreign-training brigade; North Korea’s island mystery; and just a bit more...
A Russian-brokered plan for “de-escalation zones” in Syria gains support from Turkey and Iran, the Associated Press reports. “The Kazakhstan agreement calls for setting up four zones in northern, central and southern Syria. However, no details were provided about how violence will be reduced in these areas.” And that’s been a key point of any deal to secure Syria, as the Middle East Institute’s Charles Lister has been saying for months. Without an enforcement mechanism for either a cease-fire or safe zone plan, the plans are essentially “toothless,” meaning violence is very likely going to continue. Said Lister to Foreign Policy’s Paul McCleary: “It's another agreement based entirely on trust, and there's no trust between the forces on the ground."
Turkey’s threat to American troops in Syria: “We won’t be considering the fact that there are armored American vehicles...All of a sudden, by accident, a few rockets can hit them,” said Ilnur Cevik, an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, FP’s McLeary reported Wednesday.
The context: “For weeks, U.S. Army Special Forces troops have been a visible presence in Kurdish areas of northern Syria, first showing up in the town of Manbij which was being threatened by Turkish-backed Syrian Arab fighters,” McCleary writes. “Over the weekend, Americans troops were again photographed driving through the town of Qamishli, near the site of last week's Turkish airstrikes which killed 18 U.S.-backed Kurdish militias.”
In Iraq, a new northern front has opened in the Mosul offensive as military officials aim to break a weeks-long standstill against the Islamic State group’s final hold on neighborhoods in the western half of the city, The New York Times reported Wednesday. “The attack began early Thursday as the Ninth Iraqi Army Division and Interior Ministry troops who had been pulled from another combat assignment started pushing into Mosul from the north, according to an Iraqi military statement...The theory is that attacking from the north will force the Islamic State to split its defensive operations and make it easier for the Counterterrorism Service to make headway from the south. The Federal Police are also holding their position in the southern part of western Mosul. The operation has been timed to coincide with clear weather so that American Apache attack helicopters, armed drones and warplanes flown by the United States and allies can provide ready air support. Once they clear much of the western part of the city, the Iraqi forces can turn their attention to the densely packed old section of Mosul, which still looms as the most difficult battlefield.” More—including arguments among Iraqi commanders over whose units have suffered the most, and whose units have acted with the most courage—here.
Attention, U.S. soldiers: Who wants to deploy to Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan or Africa to train local forces? The Army is tossing an extra $5,000 if you raised your hand, the Associated Press reports this morning. If you make the cut, you’ll be added to a new training brigade U.S. Army Forces Command is putting together: the Security Force Assistance Brigade. “Almost 200 [troopers] will receive 16 weeks of intensive language instruction. Others will get an eight-week language course.”
The purpose: “to meet the growing demand for advisers in places ranging from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan and Africa,” AP Lita Baldor writes. “The $5,000 bonus got final authorization on Wednesday and is expected to be available beginning in June. The Army has chosen a colonel to lead the first training brigade and he will travel to a number of military posts in the coming weeks to recruit soldiers for the unit. Joining is strictly voluntary.”
Show us the money—well, not all of us: “Of the 529 soldiers in the brigade, 360 will be officers who don't qualify for the bonus. The rest will be enlisted soldiers and non-commissioned officers who can earn the extra money.” Read on, here.
From Defense One
Comey: The Metadata Made Me Do It // Patrick Tucker: The FBI director tries to explain to Congress his pre-election letters about the missing Clinton emails.
Why Putin Wants a Face-to-Face Meeting with Trump // Julia Ioffe: Even after a third phone call in as many months between the two leaders, the 'bromance' has yet to materialize.
Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The D Brief by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. #TBT for May the 4th: “Inside the Battle of Hoth.” Got tips? Email us at the-d-brief@defenseone.com. (And if you’re reading this on our website, consider subscribing. It’s free.)
China says it just wants to be good neighbors with North Korea after Pyongyang warned Beijing against pressuring it over its nuclear and missile programs. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday: “China should no longer try to test the limits of the DPRK’s patience,” North Korea said in the commentary published by the official Korean Central News Agency. “China had better ponder over the grave consequences to be entailed by its reckless act of chopping down the pillar of the DPRK-China relations.”
Adds the Journal: “China’s hardening line on North Korea, the commentary said, showed that Beijing was ‘dancing to the tune of the U.S.,’ and that China was exercising ‘big-power chauvinism’ that meant ‘the dignity and vital rights of the DPRK should be sacrificed for the interests of China.’”
China’s foreign ministry this morning bucked at the allegation from Pyongyang, saying China’s “good-neighborly” intentions have been “consistent and clear.” More here.
ICYMI: North Korea’s island mystery: “Over the past five years, North Korea has constructed several military facilities on small islands surrounding the city of Sohae, a leading missile development and testing site,” The Diplomat reported this week, citing newly-available satellite imagery. “Some of the islands look like offensive asset deployment sites — that is, ballistic missile launch pads — but building Transporter Erector Launcher pads on these islands would not be strategically wise. Anti-air missile sites would be a strategically wiser choice, but the available imagery lacks some of the evidence traditionally indicative of such deployments.”
One big caveat: “It is entirely possible that these islands are part of a land reclamation project for agricultural or other civilian purposes which has nothing to do with military applications and never will. It should be noted, however, that North Korea has in the past conducted civilian construction operations for dual purposes.” A great deal of imagery and analysis, here.
Trump leans on Manila. President Trump convinced the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte to call China’s Xi Jinping so they could discuss North Korea, Duterte said this morning after the chat. Reuters: “Duterte said he spoke with Xi on Wednesday to convince him to play a bigger role in defusing tension in the Korean peninsula...Xi and Duterte spoke for about 26 minutes, a source at the Philippine president's office told Reuters, and exchanged views about regional developments and how some concerns could be addressed. Duterte said if asked by Trump, he would happily relay what was discussed with Xi.”
Duterte: "Definitely they are getting the help of everybody here," he said of the White House’s diplomatic pressure on North Korea. More here.
Failure after launch in Iran. Tehran reportedly attempted to launch a submarine-fired cruise missile this week, but Fox News says it ended in failure. “An Iranian Yono-class ‘midget’ submarine conducted the missile launch. North Korea and Iran are the only two countries in the world that operate this type of submarine.” Very little additional detail from that launch, here.
A big exercise is underway in Alaska featuring nearly 6,000 troops and roughly 200 aircraft and ships, Alaska Dispatch News reported Wednesday. Lt. Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region, “said the military could not divulge specifically what it was learning during Northern Edge. However, he said the training would improve the military's ability to "respond to crises" around the world, and specifically in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.” A bit more, here.
1977 was a golden year for the Canadian Navy, and it’s gonna take a lot more money for Ottawa to make the badly-needed rise back up to naval greatness, Canadian Defense Minister said on Wednesday, Seapower magazine reports.
For what it’s worth: “Canada spends just over 19 billion Canadian dollars ($14 billion) a year on defense. It is expecting to announce by the fall of the warship design it has selected for its new Canadian Surface Combatant. That program is expected to cost more than 26 billion Canadian dollars. The first of those vessels are to be delivered sometime after 2023. Next year, the RCN will accept the first of five Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships. But two new supply ships aren’t expected until after 2020.” More on all that, here.
Lastly today: Germany tells Russia: We know you’re sitting on a bunch of hacked data—you would be wise not to use it in our upcoming election. "Whether they do it or not is a political decision ... that I assume will be made in the Kremlin," Hans-Georg Maassen, president of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, BfV, told a conference in Potsdam, near Berlin. Added Maassen, “We expect further attacks, and we are keeping a very close watch on the threats.” Reuters with those two short hits this morning, here and here.