Satellite imagery that The War Zone has exclusively obtained calls into question the scale, scope, and effectiveness of airstrikes the U.S. military carried out on its own key base in northern Syria. U.S. personnel had operated the facility alongside their predominantly Kurdish allies, the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, up until being abruptly evacuated last week under very controversial orders. The photos indicate that a substantial portion of U.S.-constructed structures at the site remain intact despite statements that the strikes were supposed to have degraded "the facility’s military usefulness." This all comes amid the announcement of a Turkish-Russian agreement on a buffer zone along the Turkish-Syrian border and uncertainty over the future of the U.S. military's presence in the country as a whole.

The U.S. military publicly announced that a pair of U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles had struck the now-defunct Lafarge Cement Factory in northern Syria, on Oct 16, 2019. This facility sits along the highly strategic M4 highway between the cities of Ain Issa and Kobane, also written Kobani, and had served as the "headquarters of the de facto Defeat-ISIS coalition in Syria," U.S. Army Colonel Myles Caggins, the chief spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq, said on Oct. 15, 2019.

The United States has been hastily pulling troops out of cities across northeastern Syria in increasing numbers after Turkey launched its own incursion into the region, dubbed Operation Peace Spring, ostensibly targeting the SDF, in cooperation with the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA), on Oct. 9, 2019.

Google Maps A map showing the general location of the Lafarge Cement Factory within Syria, situated between Kobane, to the north, and Ain Issa, to the south.

Google Maps A closer look at the relative position of the Lafarge Cement Factory in relation to Kobane and Ain Issa.

The strikes only occurred "after all Coalition personnel and essential tactical equipment departed" the site, Caggins had stressed in a Tweet on Oct. 16, 2019. "As Turkish-backed militias advanced towards the Lafarge Cement Factory, between Kobani and Ain Issa, on Tuesday, Oct. 15, the SDF set fire to, then vacated, its facilities and equipment," the colonel had explained to Foreign Policy's Lara Seligman the day before.

"We want to be very deliberate and very safe as we go about it," U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper had told reporters on Oct. 19, 2019, in reference to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria. "Job number one, though, remains [the] protection of our forces." Satellite imagery that The War Zone obtained of the site as it existed on Oct. 12 and then how it appeared on Oct. 22, after the withdrawal and subsequent strikes, seem to tell a different story about just how useful the installation may remain now.

Photo © 2019 Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission. The main body of the Lafarge Cement Factory as of Oct. 12, 2019.

Photo © 2019 Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission. The plant as of Oct. 22, 2019.

The U.S.-led coalition's official statement only identified "an ammunition cache" as one intended target of the Oct. 16 strikes, but there is clear damage to at least two distinct buildings. One smaller structure is almost entirely destroyed and there is significant damage to another. It is not clear if the F-15Es struck these buildings or if personnel on the ground may have demolished them. We also don't know if the structures held ammunition or if they housed other assets or had been serving in another role, such as acting as a command center. There is evidence of another possible strike on or demolition of a set of small structures to the immediate southwest of the damaged buildings, as well. This does not appear to have been the area that SDF forces had burned on Oct. 15, which is further to the southwest, meaning that coalition forces would have been responsible for destroying any assets at this particular location, as well. This could have been the ammunition depot mentioned by the coalition spokesperson, we just don't know at this time.

Photo © 2019 Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission. This image from Oct. 22 shows the two damaged structures, both to the right of the long tan-roofed building.

Photo © 2019 Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission. The image from Oct. 12, shows both of the structures intact.

Both of the damaged buildings predate the U.S. ground intervention into Syria, though the smaller one appears to have received some additions on the left side since American personnel arrived. Lafarge's operations in the country also began before the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. Last year, a French court indicted the company over complicity with crimes against humanity and financing terrorists after years of investigations indicating that the firm had paid millions to ISIS to release hostages and leave the plant alone. The French government also intervened in 2014 to ensure that the U.S. military did not bomb the site on the grounds that it was still a functioning civilian enterprise. It's not surprising that U.S. and other coalition forces chose to occupy it and use it for their own purposes after beginning to move into the region in force circa 2015. The site was already relatively fortified and offered the high ground, providing great force protection and offering a unique opportunity to monitor surrounding areas over a great distance. It also had a number of large concrete pads that were readily convertible into helicopter operating areas, too.

Google Earth These structures as they existed in 2014.

Other satellite imagery from Oct. 15 had shown a large fire at a tertiary location just to the southwest of the main Lafarge plant, which is likely where SDF forces had their associated base of operations. As of Oct. 22, whatever this adjacent site had been was still smoldering a week after the blaze was spotted.

Photo © 2019 Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission. An image of the apparent former SDF base near the Lafarge Cement Factory on Oct. 22. Fires appear to still be smoldering in an area to the southwest.

Photo © 2019 Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission. How this area appeared on Oct. 12.

It's impossible to tell from the imagery what the inside of the remaining structures might look like and what U.S. and other coalition forces removed before making a hasty retreat. The satellite images from Oct. 12 and Oct. 22 make clear that the base's occupants had evacuated a substantial number of helicopters, vehicles, and other equipment, including entire shipping containers, before they left for good.

Photo © 2019 Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission. This image from the northern end of the Lafarge Cement Factory on Oct. 22. Compared to the image from Oct. 12 immediately below, there are containers and vehicles visibly missing and a structure has been curiously moved on top of part of the square green-colored area at center, which may be a water reservoir of some kind.

Photo © 2019 Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission.

At the same time, the assertion that the subsequent airstrikes made a real impact to "reduce the facility’s military usefulness" is questionable at the very best. It certainly pales in comparison to other "terrain denial" strikes the U.S. military has carried out to deny opponents access to certain areas in the past. It's certainly valuable to deny any potential enemy forces access to any weapons and ammunition, but that doesn't negate the value of the facilities there, which American forces substantially upgraded and expanded for military purposes. Days after all coalition and SDF forces had left the site, the vast majority of the facilities, seem to be intact. Three clamshell hangars, ubiquitous features of U.S. military forward operating locations around the world, notably remain standing adjacent to an area that U.S. forces had turned into a heliport. Satellite imagery shows that these had supported U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk transport helicopters and AH-64 Apache gunships.

Special operations helicopters, such as those belonging to the Army's elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment have made use of the site, as well. Various satellite images over the years clearly show the presence of shadowy Sikorsky S-92 helicopters, which have been seen supporting coalition special operators on multiple occasions.

Photo © 2019 Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission. An image from Oct. 22 showing the heliport area with the three prominent clamshell hangars, at right. Coalition forces had also used the parking lot at left as a helicopter landing area.

Photo © 2019 Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission. A view of this portion of the site from Oct. 12, with various UH-60 and AH-64 helicopters visible at left. What appears to be a one the secretive S-92 helicopters is seen at right in the parking lot on the left.

Rows of structures, include large tents and shipping containers, which would have provided living space, mess halls, and other amenities to U.S. and coalition personnel at the site remain in place across the factory, the main boundaries of which are around a mile long from north to south and nearly a half a mile wide. While they may not offer the same quality of life as before, they certainly look habitable, at least from the air. Some regional journalists have already shot video inside the site, which shows fires burning in some buildings, but it is unclear if these were set before or after American personnel left or how widespread that damage might be. By every available indication, U.S. and other coalition forces left significant and potentially useful infrastructure behind.