| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
ISIS update 12/22/2015..Turkey Descends Into Civil War
Iraqi army to launch operation to retake Ramadi
Retaking Ramadi From the Islamic State: The Battle for Iraq
Iraqi Militia conduct night blitzkrieg assault on ISIS compound, clean many rat bars
Iraqi army attacks to retake Ramadi’s center
CANADIAN PILOT KILLED 9 IRAQI SOLDIERS
Turkish troops in Iraq? Kirby says it’s a training presence
Peshmerga’s Christmas Gift to ISIS
Kurdish Uprising in Turkey Kurdistan
Cizre: 1 million Kurds to march to Cizre to end Turkish Occupation
In a Radio interview today, the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a fiery speech said in which he called nothing short of Genocide against the 20 million Kurdish population in North Kurdistan (Turkey’s Kurdistan) : “We will kill all Kurds if we have to defeat PKK”. Erdogan find the Kurds as an obstacle for his dream of new “Ottoman Empire”. Click CC for English.
Turkish Police & Armors run from Kurdish Youth
Kurdish Villagers join the Uprising in occupied Turkey Kurdistan
Hezbollah Secretary General Nasrallah says Israeli strike killed Lebanese Qantar in Syria
Kirby: Russian airstrikes in Syria lack precision. 21 Dec 2015
RUSSIAN GENERAL: U.S. MISSILE DEFENSES ARE WORTHLESS
The US primary goal is to take out Assad; this goal didn’t change with a new UN Syria resolution
Kirby clarifies positions on Assad’s future…& ISIL. 21 Dec 2015
France, Russia to ‘strengthen’ information exchange on IS
International Military Review – Syria, Dec. 22, 2015
Syrian Arab Army surrounds Aleppo from 3 sides, battles rat-bars pushing them to ISIS
Syrian Special Forces conduct operations on Nusra & FSA terrorists
TOS-1A MLRS vaporize terrorists in Salma, Latakia province, Syria
Syria TV: Mortar attack kills 9 schoolgirls in eastern Dayr al-Zawr prov
US military provided Assad with intel on extremists via Russia, Israel & Germany – report — RT USA
The Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff has been indirectly providing Syrian military with intelligence on Islamic extremists fearing the Obama administration’s agenda to oust Bashar Assad will engender total chaos in Syria.
A new investigation in the London Review of Books by renowned American journalist Seymour M. Hersh exposes the divide between the US top brass and the politicians in the White House when it comes to dealing with Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq.
It seems the US JCS isn’t enthusiastic about Obama’s “Assad must go” maxima, opting to provide Damascus with intelligence and analytics on the jihadists instead. This is, however, done indirectly, an unidentified former senior adviser to the Joint Chiefs told Hersh.
In summer 2013, a highly classified report prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the JCS assessed that ousting President Assad would create chaos in the country, making it an easy prey for Islamic extremists.
By that time, the CIA had been delivering weapons from Libyan arms depots to Syria via Turkey for over a year. This began soon after the assassination of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, writes Hersh.
The arms were handed to any group opposing Assad’s military, including Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State. The so-called ‘moderate rebels’ had “evaporated and the Free Syrian Army was a rump group stationed at an airbase in Turkey,” the source told the journalist. The US military assessment was realistic: moderate opposition to Assad is a myth and the US was arming Islamic extremists.
The DIA’s former head, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, recalled the report “got enormous pushback” from the Obama administration, which “did not want to hear the truth.”
“If the American public saw the intelligence we were producing daily, at the most sensitive level, they would go ballistic,” Flynn said.
“The JCS believed that Assad should not be replaced by fundamentalists,” the former JCS adviser told Hersh.
Under the circumstances, the US military realized that a direct challenge to Obama’s policy was doomed to failure, so the Pentagon’s, General Martin Dempsey, allegedly decided to oppose the extremists without using “political channels.”
To fight the common enemy of Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State, US intelligence was provided to third party militaries, such as Germany, Israel and Russia.
“It was clear that Assad needed better tactical intelligence and operational advice,” the former JCS adviser told Hersh, noting, “Obama didn’t know, but Obama doesn’t know what the JCS does in every circumstance and that’s true of all presidents.”
The adviser stressed there was no direct contact between the US and the Syrian military.
Turkey Descends Into Civil War as Pro-Kurdish Opposition Leader Arrives in Moscow
Russia Lays a Mine Under Erdogan
Moscow intends to normalize relations with the Kurds and Turkish opposition
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov may meet with the leader of the Pro-Kurdish opposition People’s Democracy party of Turkey, Selahattin Demirtash, informed RIA Novosti with reference to its sources in the Russian Foreign Ministry. It is known that Demirtash arrives in Moscow on Tuesday, he had earlier expressed the desire to meet with Lavrov
The People’s Democracy party is a serious political force in Turkey. According to the results of the last parliamentary elections, it received 13% of votes and formed its own faction, along with three other major political forces of the country. The main difference of the party of Demirtash from the others in that it openly supports the Kurds and opposes President Erdogan.
It is important to note that the planned meeting between Lavrov and Demirtash will take place amid a sharp deterioration in Turkey’s domestic situation. In the southeastern provinces predominantly populated by Kurds, there is currently fighting between the Kurdish militia and the Turkish army. Data on casualties from both sides varies, but we are talking about dozens of dead and wounded. On Sunday there were street battles in Istanbul between police and thousands of protesters demanding to stop the military operation. We can safely say that the internal political situation in Turkey is heating up, and not in favor of Erdogan.
Moscow today actually has all the cards. Dialog with the current political leadership of Turkey is impossible. Ankara still did not apologize for the downed Su-24 and is only trying to intimidate Moscow. The recent statement of the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Chavushoglu that in case of a conflict Russia will be taken in seven days, cannot be classified as friendly.
Meanwhile Russia consistently emphasizes that it considers the Turks a friendly nation. Indeed, Erdogan and his party are not the whole country. Say, the USA actively uses internal contradictions in other countries for regime change. Maybe the time has come for Russia to act in a similar vein?
The head of the Russian Society of Friendship and Business Cooperation with Arab countries, Vyacheslav Matuzov, however, believes that Moscow is not yet ready to actively impact the domestic political situation in Turkey:
— The attitude towards the Kurdish liberation movement in Russia has always been positive. This is a normal situation, when our diplomats meet with their representatives. In my opinion, Russia is actively involved in the formation of opposition groups in Syria. The Kurds of Turkey are connected to the Kurds in Syria. Our country is just establishing working contacts with the Kurds, and this is positive. At a conference in Riyadh, the Kurds were ignored under pressure from Turkey, as Russia seeks to restore their role in the Syrian and Iraqi settlement. The U.S., for example, sent 50 special ops troops to the areas controlled by the Syrian Kurds, Americans have long taken into account the Kurdish factor.
“SP”: — Now we are talking about Turkish Kurds. Maybe we should try to support Erdogan’s opposition?
— The Kurdish movement of Turkey is actively engaged in Syria. The Turkish Kurdish Workers party (PKK) effectively controls Syria’s Northern areas. We have the right to maintain contact with the Kurds. Say, Obama met with the Russian opposition in Moscow.
I see a dialogue not as a jab against the Turkish authorities, but as support for Syrian opposition. Russian foreign policy is distinguished for a serious approach to solving international and regional problems, we won’t waste our time on some jabs towards the Turkish government.
The Director of the Center for the Study of Middle East and Central Asia Semen Bagdasarov believes that dialogue with Turkish opposition is essential:
— People’s Democracy party is not just a pro-Kurdish party, but also left. Now they have 59 seats in parliament, it is quite a strong opposition party to Erdogan. Supporting this party, we support the aspirations of the Turkish people to improve the life of not only the Kurds, but also the Turks. In my opinion, this is absolutely right.
There is also a major opposition Republican People’s party led by Kemal Kilichdaroglu, it is also necessary to talk to him. There is another far-right Party of Nationalist Revival, that is the “Grey wolves”, but a dialogue with them is impossible.
Yes, we need to meet with the leaders of the People’s Democracy Party and the Republican People’s party. By the way, Kilichdaroglu and Demirtash come from the people of Zaza, who have always been in the opposition.
“SP”: — Is the establishment of relations of Moscow with the opposition related to the beginning of clashes with Kurds in Turkey?
— There are not just clashes in Turkey, it’s a civil war. Demirtash warned a few months ago that the country is on the verge of civil war, now it has begun. Following the statements of Erdogan and Prime Minister Davutoglu that “the liberation of the territories from bandits has begun.” In fact, we are talking about ethnic cleansing, thousands of people are now fleeing from their towns and villages. The PKK has declared that the war has began.
And naturally, we stand against ethnic cleansing, and will refer to the UN with condemnation. By the way, the sweeps are now conducted right on the border with Syria.
“SP”: — What help can we provide to the opposition in Turkey?
— We need to meet, talk, provide all kinds of support. First of all, we must help the Syrian Kurds who are associated more with the PKK. Between the PKK and the People’s Democracy party there is a significant difference. The People’s Democracy party is in favor of a peaceful solution to the Kurd issue and the PKK is open to the use of force if necessary. In any case, Turkey should brace itself.
“SP”: — Can Russia help the opposition to unseat Erdogan?
- Erdogan cannot be easily unseated, this is not a serious thought. He, apparently, is there for a long haul, although anything can happen. But we can still support the PKK, it will be a serious headache for Erdogan, Davutoglu and all their click.
— Demirtash is a very promising politician, – says a leading researcher of the Center for Asian and African Studies of the Higher School of Economics, Alexey Obraztsov. – He was a successful lawyer, but at some point decided to go first into the human rights movement and then into politics. Of course, he created a miracle. Until recently it was impossible to imagine that a party that did not hide it was a wing of the PKK would make it into the parliament. The first time it was elected into the parliament with fantastic numbers. On second elections, they still received mandates, despite enormous pressure. Demirtash can expect a bright political future if he, of course, will be able to survive in the current situation.
Russia doesn’t aim to gather opposition forces. They have gathered themselves long ago and established ties. If we set aside the far-right Party of Nationalist Revival, the People’s Democracy party and the Republican People’s party certainly are in touch.
In fact, why shouldn’t Lavrov meet with Demirtash. Turkey positions itself as a European state. And it is normal, when the leaders of parliamentary parties meet with representatives of diplomatic agencies of other countries.
“SP”: — But the meeting will be held amid a troubled background.
— The Kurdish areas of Turkey have always been special, the situation has always been difficult there. At one time, Erdogan’s government has invested heavily into the adaptation of the Kurdish areas. Indeed, the imbalance between the regions was monstrous. For example, in Istanbul 15 years ago minimum wage was $400, and in the Kurdish areas not the minimum but the average salary was $150. A lot of money was invested in the regions. A ceasefire was signed with the PKK. Overall, if not pacification, but a long truce was established. But Erdogan now destroyed it.
“SP”: — How can we use the current situation?
— For now, as our president said, the political dialogue with the Turkish leadership is impossible. And thus practical results from the proposed meeting of Demirtash with Lavrov are possible. Turkey should be occupied with internal problems, of which there are many. If these problems intensify, then the Turkish government will have something to deal with besides geopolitical games. By the way, now we see the reluctance of Erdogan to deal with internal problems instead of external.
The head of the International Union of Kurdish Public Associations Merab Shamoev says that the Kurds around the world today place high hopes on Russia:
- Now Russia launched an air operation in Syria, and the situation in this country has changed. Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Despite the attempts to isolate Russia, it remains a great power. The Kurds of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Iran look up to Russia with great hope. Moreover, the Kurds do not stress the issue of secession, they advocate for autonomy, federal or confederate structure of the states, that is, in the framework of international law.
The Kurds need Russia and always talked about it. Demirtash comes to Moscow, and this speaks volumes. Europe, America is far and Russia is close. The Kurds and Russia’s have many common interests. It is a struggle against terrorism and the interest in maintaining the principles of international law.
Syria: The Break For The Border
By Pepe Escobar
Who is the supreme profiteer of the Russia-Turkey drama? No question: it’s the Empire of Chaos. A desperate Ankara increasingly depends on NATO’s embrace. In the crucial Pipelineistan arena, the Turkish Stream project has been suspended (but not canceled). Eurasia integration – the key 21st century project for both China and Russia – is severely hampered.
Meanwhile, what passes for the Obama administration’s “strategy” is more slippery than a Japanese eel. US Think Tank land interprets it as an “effort” to “de-conflict the battlefield” even as the main NATO planks acting in Syria (US, UK, France, Germany, plus Turkey) gear up for an alleged “large offensive” against Islamic State (ISIS). “Alleged” because the whole op involves prime shadow play. And “de-conflict” could rather mean “re-conflict.”
It’s no wonder President Putin interpreted Sultan Erdogan’s downing of the Russian Su-24 as supremely illogical. Reasons, of course, include the Russian Air Force’s pounding of the Turkmen – Ankara’s fifth column in northern Syria. And the relentless Russian assault on the stolen Syrian oil racket, which involves collusion between some pretty prominent Turkish figures and ISIS.
It gets even more illogical when we look at the crucial energy sphere. Ankara depends at a rate of 27 percent on oil, and 35 percent on natural gas. Last year, Turkey bought 55 percent of its natural gas from Russia, and 18 percent from Iran.
Because of its manifold infrastructure problems, Iran simply won’t be a strong competitor to Gazprom for supplying natural gas to Turkey – and Europe – anytime soon. Assuming it will be restarted in the future, Turkish Stream would be a very good deal for both Turkey and central and southern Europe.
Spin me a coalition
The current shadow play – which includes the deployment of US Special Forces to northern Syria – opens the possibility that Turks and Americans are about to launch a major offensive to expel Islamic State from the crucial Jarabulus crossroads. Erdogan’s pretext is well known: to block by any means the attempt by YPG Syrian Kurds to unite their three cantons in northern Syria. In this corridor, Erdogan wants to install a dodgy, hazy bunch of Turkmen – his proxies – mixed with unspecified Sunni “moderate rebels,” keeping all lines of communication (and smuggling) with Turkey open.
Syrian Kurds, on the other hand, want to get there first. With American air support. And with Russian air support. This is one of the few things Team Obama and the Kremlin do agree on in Syria – to the absolute despair of the Sultan. The inside word from Ankara is that Turkey would be ready for a ground push on Jarabulus but only under American cover. Quite absurd, considering Washington and Ankara hardly are looking for the same endgame.
Meanwhile, discussing Syria in Moscow, US Secretary of State John Kerry was forced to agree, on the record, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that “the Syrian people,” via elections, must themselves decide the future of Assad. So even the Obama administration now seems to convey the impression “Assad must go” may be six feet under.
Not so fast. Shadow play firmly remains part of the equation. After all, the famous Top Ten Terrorist List now being haggled upon by all players must be approved by… Turkey and Saudi Arabia, who continue to weaponize all manner of desert snakes, as long as they hiss “Assad must go.”
Into this snake pit crawls the joke of the holiday season; the 34-nation, Riyadh-led anti-terrorism coalition “from all over the Islamic world.” The perpetrator of the war on Yemen, Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman, even pledged this hazy new racket to “stop the flow of funds” to terrorists. As if the House of Saud would decapitate their own, indigenous wacko imams and pious, wealthy “financiers.”
This “coalition” inbuilt in the already existing, US-led, monstrously ineffectual Coalition of the Dodgy Opportunists (CDO) is undiluted spin. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have done absolutely nothing against ISIS since summer. They’d rather merrily bomb Yemen. Their “armies” are mercenary-infested. No mercenaries, no Saudi army. Pakistan and Egypt do have armies, but they are consumed by dire local problems and would not relocate troops to the “Syraq” quagmire even if bribed by a mountain of petrodollars.
With this spin, concocted by their savvy Edelman lobbyists, Riyadh believes it can change the subject from how it’s trying hard to break up Syria.
A breakdown of Syria’s population, including the masses of refugees, would yield something like 14 percent Alawite Shi’ites, 5 percent Christians, 3 percent Druze, 1 percent twelver Shi’ites, 10 percent Kurds – the absolute majority leftist – and around 40 percent Sunnis, mostly secular and many of them leftists, not to mention comfortably linked to the Damascus and Aleppo business elite, that is, accommodated with the government for generations.
Riyadh’s – and Ankara’s – belief that a small bunch of Salafi-jihadist, from whatever persuasion, would be able to disrupt such a complex balance, not to mention rule a whole nation, does defy any logical explanation.
The break for the border
So everything now hinges on the break for the border. Syrian Kurds have been loudly announcing something along the lines that “Real Kurds go to Jarabulus.” Jarabulus is, in a nutshell, Turkey’s last stand in Syria (the Russian Air Force has all but exterminated the Turkmen fight column in northern Latakia).
Imagine a Kurdish unification corridor – running from Afrin to the rest of Rojava. This means Turkey cut off from Syria; crucially, the end of the Jihadi Highway; the end of Turkish secret services offering lavish logistical support for Daesh, from Big Macs to holidays in Turkey; the end of the Syrian stolen oil Daesh Highway. Not to mention the YPG – allied with the PKK – controlling a semi-autonomous province with the status of a proto-state.
Make no mistake: the Sultan will go no holds barred to prevent it. ISIS was never an “existential threat” to Ankara. On the contrary; it was always a very useful indirect “ally.” Ankara will continue to plug the myth that the road to Daesh’s defeat goes through Assad regime change.
Russia exposed the bluff. Yet the lame duck Obama administration is still uncertain; should we use Erdogan even as he recklessly tries to pit NATO directly against Russia? Or should we dump him? The answer lies in who, and how, wins the break for the border.
Pepe Escobar
US Friendly Fire… With Friends Like That Who Needs Enemies?
By Finian Cunningham
“RT“
Pentagon chief Ashton Carter has put his hands up and admitted that the deadly US airstrike last Friday killing nine Iraqi soldiers was “a mistake”. Carter said it was a case of “friendly fire” committed in the fog of war.
Trouble for Washington is that many Iraqis, including military ground personnel, do not buy the “friendly fire” explanation. Rather, Iraqis will see the latest American “mistake” not as an accidental error, but as further evidence that the US military is in reality working covertly in Iraq to support the terror group known as Islamic State (also known as Daesh, ISIS or ISIL).
The latest incident occurred near the city of Fallujah, some 50 kilometers west of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi troops were making advances against the IS stronghold when their commanders called in US air support. Several missiles were subsequently fired from American fighter jets, but it was Iraqi soldiers who took the hit.
Iraqi military spokesmen appear to back up the US account of the incident as being a result of mistaken friendly fire. They said that miscommunication with US “coalition partners” led to a miscalculation on the movement of Iraqi troops in the heat of battle.
“The coalition air forces were covering the advance of army ground troops near Fallujah because the Iraqi army helicopters were not able to fly due to the bad weather. The final death toll of the strike is nine soldiers killed, including an army officer,” said Iraq’s defense minister Khaled al-Obeidi.
Nevertheless, one Iraqi member of parliament (MP), Hakim al-Zamili voiced the suspicions of many when he told RT: “We don’t believe it was a technical mistake. We constantly see that the United States are trying to provide air cover to Islamic State. They are preventing us from making an offensive,” he said.
The Iraqi MP added: “I think everyone is now convinced that the United States is not sincere in its fight against Islamic State. Maybe they have another agenda. The Pentagon, the CIA and other agencies in the US are trying to make a [rift] between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq,” he added. “They are trying to tear [apart] Iraq with the help of their allies like Turkey and the Gulf states.”
Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported on rife suspicions among Iraqi public, politicians and military that US forces were “in cahoots” with the IS terror group. The belief in a Machiavellian agenda held by the Americans was, as the paper noted, harming the supposed US “anti-terror” effort and standing in the region.
Since August 2014, the US began air operations in Iraq in conjunction with the government in Baghdad with the stated objective of “degrading and defeating” the IS, in the words of President Barack Obama. The US has also been carrying out airstrikes in Syria – although those operations are not approved by the authorities in Damascus.
Last week, Obama claimed that the US was “hitting IS harder than ever” and that it was stepping up its air campaign to “hunt down” terror operatives and commanders. Obama said that the US has carried out over 9,000 strikes in the past 16 months, with the number of strikes roughly split evenly between Iraq and Syria.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has explicitly expressed skepticism about the so-called “anti-terror” objective of the US air campaign. The Russian government has also questioned the American commitment to its stated goals.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has not made public comments of an ulterior, sinister American agenda and still refers to the US as a coalition partner in the fight against terrorism.
However, that’s not how many ordinary Iraqis see it. As the Washington Post reported: “The perception among Iraqis that the United States is somehow in cahoots with the militants it claims to be fighting appears… to be widespread across the country’s Sunni-Shiite sectarian divide, and it speaks to more than just the troubling legacy of mistrust that has clouded the United States’ relationship with Iraq since the 2003 invasion and the subsequent withdrawal eight years later.”
The Post article cited several Iraqis who say they have seen videos purporting to show US forces air-dropping weapons and other supplies to IS brigades. Iraqi soldiers complained that US air “support” has been more a hindrance than a help in the battle against the terrorists. One Iraqi elite force member, Lieutenant Murtada Fadl, even told the Washington Post: “We’d be better off without them [the Americans]. The paper added: “He said that the only air support had come from the Iraqi air force and that he wishes the government would ask the Russians to replace the Americans.”
A recurring complaint among Iraqis is that US air power has done so little to destroy IS bases and oil smuggling operations. The figure of 9,200 US airstrikes cited by Obama last week compares with over 4,200 strikes carried out by Russian forces across Syria in only three months. The evidence suggests that Russia’s military operations have inflicted far greater damage to IS and other jihadist brigades compared with the American operations.
A New York Times article this weekend said that the Obama administration is in “a dilemma” about the “risks of civilian casualties” if it were to step up the aerial campaign in Iraq and Syria against IS.
The NY Times noted that Washington military planners are aware of precise IS positions in the eastern Syrian stronghold city of Raqqa, but are loathe to order in airstrikes on those targets out of concern to avoid “collateral damage”.
Such official care by the US military for civilian victims has a serious credibility problem in light of the bombing and strafing of a hospital in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan. In that strike on October 3, some 30 hospital staff and patients were killed when an AC-130 gunship opened up on the facility in a sustained attack that lasted for nearly an hour.
Doctors Without Borders, the medical group who ran the Kunduz hospital, has described it as a “war crime”. US officials said it was “a mistake” – another case of “friendly fire”. But other reports point to a deliberate decision by the US military to wipe out the facility because they believed it contained a wounded insurgent belonging to the Taliban. In other words, there was a complete disregard for civilian casualties in order to take out a single target.
So the idea that US military strikes against IS terror bases in Syria or Iraq have been curtailed out of an ethical duty for safety of civilians does not seem plausible.
In another incident, this time in Syria, it was reported earlier this month by McClatchy News that 36 civilians, including 20 children, were killed in a US airstrike on the village of Al Khan in Hasakah Province. That attack was allegedly carried out to hit an IS brigade in the vicinity.
That’s why the latest deaths of Iraqi soldiers in Fallujah caused by American forces will fuel suspicions that the US is not serious about hitting IS. Hitting Iraqi troops advancing on IS positions seems more consistent with claims that the Pentagon is far more concerned about preserving its covert “regime change” assets – in the Islamic State.
Finian Cunningham
Russian-Syrian Airstrikes Target ISIL’s Long Columns of Oil Tankers
Militants in Syria’s Aleppo Surrender to Government
Syrian Army Finds Saudi Aid Supplies in Positions Seized from Terrorists Southwest Aleppo
Army Completes Phase 2 of Military Operations in Aleppo
Syrian Army, Hezbollah Take Back More Lands Southwest of Aleppo Province
Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2015/12/isis-update-12222015turkey-descends.html
