I have been listening to a book on CD and the book is on the fall of the Ottoman Empire. We are now in the WWI period just before and including the British attempt to take the Dard.
Allegedly the Brits got the idea cause the Russians claimed that they needed or wished the Brits to cause a diversionary action to take pressure off of them, even though, with a day or two of the request, the Russians had a large win and were not under pressure.
And, the Brits chose the Dard rather than Syria cause they believed that the French wanted control of Syria sooner or later. Rather than to intrude into an alleged French area of influence, the Brits skipped invading in Syria, though it would have been easy, allegedly.
It seems that the Brits managed to attack the Otto empire at one of the few places where it was strongly defended!