Turkey to launch invasion of Syria Kurdistan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been threatening an attack on Syria Kurdistan for months without action, but the moment appears to have arrived.
Turkey's president vowed "to purge terrorism" across the border in Syria as Turkish forces pounded US-backed fighters with artillery fire on Sunday.
A military operation in northern Syria against the city of Afrin - controlled by the Syrian Kurdish armed group YPG - will be launched "in the days ahead", President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted by the official Anadolu news agency as saying.
...He said the attack on Afrin would be an extension of the 2016 Euphrates Shield Operation, which targeted Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters, as well as the YPG. The eight-month combat effort officially ended in March 2017.
Turkish soldiers are currently based in rebel-held territory on both sides of Afrin.
Most of our 2,000 U.S. soldiers in Syria are stationed in Syria Kurdistan.
Euphrates Shield Forces&Free Syrian Army (FSA) is on alert and waiting for the order to launch offensive on Syria's #YPG held #Afrin
Fırat Kalkanı ve ÖSO güçleri Türkiye'nin #Suriye #Afrin'deki YPG varlığına yönelik olası harekatı için son hazırlıklarını yapmaya başladı pic.twitter.com/7gb5cVspO3
— Mete Sohtaoğlu (@metesohtaoglu) January 14, 2018
In November, Washington agreed to stop arming the Kurdish militias.
That seemed to delay the Turkish invasion, but then something happened this week.
The U.S.-led coalition is working with its Syrian militia allies to set up a new border force of 30,000 personnel, the coalition said on Sunday, a move that has added to Turkish anger over U.S. support for Kurdish-dominated forces in Syria.
A senior Turkish official told Reuters the U.S. training of the new “Border Security Force” was the reason that the U.S. charge d‘affaires was summoned in Ankara last week, and President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said the development was worrying and unacceptable.
..The force will deploy along the border with Turkey to the north, the Iraqi border to the southeast and along the Euphrates River Valley, which broadly acts as the dividing line separating the U.S.-backed SDF and Syrian government forces backed by Iran and Russia.
That appears to be the last straw for Turkey.
As if to emphasize the point, Turkey invaded Iraq today.
The Turkish military has launched a land operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, stating that its aim is to “prevent PKK militants from threatening border security.”
The operation is the first time in nine years that Turkish land forces have engaged in Iraq.
How much danger this puts U.S. troops in we'll have to wait to see.
Comments
End-timers will love this.
They've been itching for the great Middle Eastern war that will launch the 2nd coming of Jesus for a long time. If only all the religious nuts would just kill each other and leave us atheists alone....
2000 troops in harms way, as they say.
Sacrificial lambs, I believe, is the biblical reference.....
What could possibly go wrong?
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Meanwhile in southern Syria
Trump Has The Democrats and M$M On His Side
It is difficult, if not impossible, to get traction on any issue that has the approval of both parties and the M$M. Unless there are substantial American casualties, (which is unlikely) this is another military incursion that everybody but the American public will be informed about. We are looking at multiple wars of aggression by the U.S. Military and by proxy with no end in sight.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
"They" have made no
secret that this, perpetual war, is exactly what they have wanted since before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"They" of course being the NeoCons, members of the Repub party too chicken to oppose them for fear of appearing too chicken to Beltway insiders and voters back home.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Republicans and their little butt buddies the Democrats
with a few notable exceptions, of course/
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Wondering why US military and State Dept have such a hard on
For this push back against Turkey?
Maybe this?
...
Neocons still trying to prove they weren’t lying when said Iraq war would pay for itself. /s.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
WW3 will be started by loose cannons like Ergodan
The think tanks do not factor in the level of narcissistic stupidity of someone like Ergodan.
The CIA and Mossad think they can "use" this guy, even after they tried to take him out in a coup. In the aftermath of that, there was talk of him holding the nukes at Inkerlik hostage. The guy considered nuclear blackmail; but the bright folks at Langley continue to scheme.
Why? Because the guy is too big to ignore. He is sitting on a very strategic piece of real estate, Turkey. Since the coup, he has locked the place down and is trying to figure out which side will pay him more, the US or the Russians.
He keeps making head fakes to try to read the big boys. One of those head fakes is going to go a step to far, and presto, WW3.