America has a secret anti-ISIS airstrip

February 03, 2016 19:28

The rutted road stretches into the distance across the plains of Hasakah. Herdsmen watch over their few dozen sheep. A scattering of oil pumps nod lazily as they extract a few dollars of crude from deep below. Above, the contrails left by coalition warplanes drift across the blue sky in hazy circles.

We bump through the mud-brick villages. Wide-eyed children stop playing marbles in the dirt to gaze at us. Old men wearing keffiyehs, the traditional red and white headscarf, peer suspiciously. This corner of northern Syria -- close to the border with Iraq -- is a mix of Arab tribes and Kurds, Muslims and Christians. It has long been neglected, despite its oil and farming, by the Syrian regime hundreds of miles away in Damascus. But in the war against ISIS, Hasakah is suddenly a place of interest, and especially for the Pentagon.

Our destination is an airstrip used for crop-spraying. From satellite images we've worked out where it is.

It would be easy to miss: just a strip of concrete that almost sinks into the dark soil. But for all its modesty, this is the United States' latest outpost in its deepening campaign against ISIS.

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