Destruction of Western Kurdistan by absolutely EVERYONE

[Anthea]

Joint Turkish-US statement on northeast Syria

DIrectorate of CommunIcatIons

1. The US and Turkey reaffirm their relationship as fellow members of NATO. The US understands Turkey’s legitimate security concerns on Turkey’s southern border.

2. Turkey and the US agree that the conditions on the ground, northeast Syria in particular, necessitate closer coordination on the basis of common interests.

3. Turkey and the US remain committed to protecting NATO territories and NATO populations against all threats with the solid understanding of “one for all and all for one”.

4. The two countries reiterate their pledge to uphold human life, human rights, and the protection of religious and ethnic communities.

5. Turkey and the US are committed to ISIS/DAESH activities in northeast Syria. This will include coordination on detention facilities and internally displaced persons from formerly ISIS/DAESH-controlled areas, as appropriate.

6. Turkey and the US agree that counter-terrorism operations must target only terrorists and their hideouts, shelters, emplacements, weapons, vehicles and equipment.

7. The Turkish side expressed its commitment to ensure safety and well-being of residents of all population centers in the safe zone controlled by the Turkish Forces (safe zone) and reiterated that maximum care will be exercised in order not to cause harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure.

8. Both countries reiterate their commitment to the political unity and territorial integrity of Syria and UN-led political process, which aims at ending the Syrian conflict in accordance with UNSCR 2254.

9. The two sides agreed on the continued importance and functionality of a safe zone in order to address the national security concerns of Turkey, to include the re-collection of YPG heavy weapons and the disablement of their fortifications and all other fighting positions.

10. The safe zone will be primarily enforced by the Turkish Armed Forces and the two sides will increase their cooperation in all dimensions of its implementation.

11. The Turkish side will pause Operation Peace Spring in order to allow the withdrawal of YPG from the safe zone within 120 hours. Operation Peace Spring will be halted upon completion of this withdrawal.

12. Once Operation Peace Spring is paused, the US agrees not to pursue further imposition of sanctions under the Executive Order of October 14, 2019, Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Syria, and will work and consult with Congress, as appropriate, to underline the progress being undertaken to achieve peace and security in Syria, in accordance with UNSCR 2254. Once Operation Peace Spring is halted as per paragraph 11 the current sanctions under the aforementioned Executive Order shall be lifted.

13. Both parties are committed to work together to implement all the goals outlined in this Statement.

https://www.iletisim.gov.tr/english/hab ... east-syria

[Anthea]

Shelling heard after ceasefire

CEYLANPINAR, Turkey (Reuters) - Shelling and gunfire resounded around the northeast Syrian town of Ras al Ain on Friday, a day after Turkey agreed with the United States to pause its offensive in Syria for five days to let Kurdish forces withdraw

Machine-gun fire and shelling could be heard from the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar across the border from Ras al Ain, and smoke rose from one part of the Syrian town.

The truce was announced some 13 hours earlier by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence after talks in Ankara with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey agreed to the five-day pause to let the Kurdish-led SDF militia withdraw from a “safe zone” Ankara had sought to capture.

The deal was praised by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said it would save “millions of lives,” while Turkey cast it as a complete victory.

If implemented, the deal would achieve all the main objectives Turkey announced when it launched its assault on Oct. 9: control of a strip of Syria more than 30 km (20 miles) deep, with the SDF forces - once U.S. allies in the years long fight against Islamic State - obliged to pull out.

Republican and Democratic senators accused Trump of having betrayed the Kurdish allies who were vital in fighting Islamic State militants, of brushing aside the humanitarian costs of Turkey’s invasion and of being outwitted by Ankara.

It was unclear what if any damage came from the shelling heard on Friday.

It was also unclear whether the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) would fully comply with the agreement, which would leave Turkish forces in charge of a swathe of territory that the Kurds once held with U.S. military support.

SDF commander Mazloum Kobani told Kurdish broadcaster Ronahi TV late on Thursday the group would accept the ceasefire agreement but said it was limited to the border areas running between Ras al Ain and the town of Tal Abyad.

The joint U.S.-Turkish statement released after the talks in Ankara said: “The safe zone will be primarily enforced by the Turkish Armed Forces.”

It said Washington and Ankara would cooperate on handling Islamic State fighters and family members held in prisons and camps, a major international concern. Pence said U.S. sanctions imposed on Tuesday would be lifted once the ceasefire became permanent.

In Washington, U.S. senators who have criticized the Trump administration for failing to prevent the Turkish assault in the first place said on Thursday they would press ahead with legislation to impose sanctions against Turkey despite the ceasefire announcement.

A Turkish official told Reuters that Ankara got “exactly what we wanted” from the talks with the United States.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described the deal as a pause, solely to allow the Kurdish fighters to withdraw. They would be forced to give up their heavy weapons and their positions would be destroyed, he said.

He declined to call the agreement a “ceasefire”, saying ceasefires could be agreed only by legitimate sides, and not by a Kurdish militia that Turkey considers a terrorist group.

“When the terrorist elements completely leave the safe zone, we can stop the operation,” Cavusoglu said on Thursday.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

The Turkish assault began after Trump moved U.S. troops out following an Oct. 6 phone call with Erdogan.

It has created a new humanitarian crisis in Syria with - according to Red Cross estimates - 200,000 civilians taking flight, a security alert over thousands of Islamic State fighters potentially abandoned in Kurdish jails, and a political maelstrom at home for Trump.

The House of Representatives condemned his policy in a vote backed by a majority of his fellow Republicans as well as Democrats. Trump announced sanctions on Turkey on Tuesday, after the assault began, but critics said these were too little, too late.

If successful, the ceasefire deal could smooth over a major rift between the United States and Turkey, the only Muslim NATO ally.

But the U.S. withdrawal also leaves U.S. adversaries Russia and Iran in a far stronger position in Syria. The Kurds responded to the U.S. withdrawal by effectively switching allegiances and inviting Syrian government forces, backed by Moscow and Tehran, into towns and cities in areas they control.

There could be friction both along the edges of the new safe zone claimed by Turkey, and within it, where Syrian government forces have advanced in recent days.

While Pence said Washington had already been in contact with the SDF and that it was already pulling out, the Kurdish position was not clear.

Kobani, the SDF commander, said the agreement was “just the beginning” and would not achieve Turkey’s goals. Aldar Xelil, a leading Syrian Kurdish politician, said the Kurds would abide by the ceasefire but would defend themselves.

There was more uncertainty around the flashpoint Syrian border town of Kobani. Pence said the deal provided for Turkey not to engage in military operations there, while Cavusoglu said Turkey had given no commitments about Kobani.

U.S. Special Representative for Syria Engagement, James Jeffrey, said late on Thursday the agreement covered central northeastern Syria, adding Turkey was in separate talks with the Russians and the Syrians about other parts of the region.

“We have a very (convoluted) situation with Russian, Syrian Army, Turkish, American, SDF and some Daesh (Islamic State) elements all floating around in a very wild way,” he said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syri ... SKBN1WX0GT

[Anthea]

Damning evidence of
war crimes by Turkey

Turkish military forces and a coalition of Turkey-backed Syrian armed groups have displayed a shameful disregard for civilian life, carrying out serious violations and war crimes, including summary killings and unlawful attacks that have killed and injured civilians, during the offensive into northeast Syria, said Amnesty International today

The organization gathered witness testimony between 12 and 16 October from 17 people including medical and rescue workers, displaced civilians, journalists, local and international humanitarian workers, as well as analyzing and verifying video footage and reviewing medical reports and other documentation.

The information gathered provides damning evidence of indiscriminate attacks in residential areas, including attacks on a home, a bakery and a school, carried out by Turkey and allied Syrian armed groups. It also reveals gruesome details of a summary killing in cold blood of a prominent Syrian-Kurdish female politician, Hevrin Khalaf, by members of Ahrar Al-Sharqiya, part of the Syrian National Army, a coalition of Syrian armed groups equipped and supported by Turkey.

“The Turkish military offensive into northeast Syria has wreaked havoc on the lives of Syrian civilians who once again have been forced to flee their homes and are living in constant fear of indiscriminate bombardment, abductions and summary killings. Turkish military forces and their allies have displayed an utterly callous disregard for civilian lives, launching unlawful deadly attacks in residential areas that have killed and injured civilians,” said Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

Turkish military forces and their allies have displayed an utterly callous disregard for civilian lives, launching unlawful deadly attacks in residential areas that have killed and injured civilians

“Turkey is responsible for the actions of the Syrian armed groups it supports, arms and directs. So far, Turkey has given these armed groups free rein to commit serious violations in Afrin and elsewhere. We call on Turkey again to end violations, hold perpetrators accountable, and protect civilians living under their control. Turkey cannot evade responsibility by outsourcing war crimes to armed groups.”

The Kurdish-led administration’s health authority in northeast Syria said on 17 October that at least 218 civilians have been killed in Syria, including 18 children, since the offensive began.

According to the Turkish authorities, 18 civilians have died and 150 have been injured in Turkey up to 15 October, as a result of mortar attacks they attribute to Kurdish forces in Syria. If Kurdish forces are firing imprecise explosive weapons into civilian areas in Turkey this would violate international humanitarian law. They should stop such unlawful attacks immediately.

Attacks on civilians in northeast Syria

In one of the most horrific attacks documented, a Kurdish Red Crescent worker described how he pulled bodies from the wreckage of a Turkish air strike on 12 October at around 7am, in which two munitions landed near to a school in Salhiye, where civilians displaced by the fighting had sought shelter.

“Everything happened so fast. In total, there were six injured and four killed, including two children. I couldn’t tell if they were boys or girls because their corpses were black. They looked like charcoal. The other two people killed were older men, they looked older than 50. Honestly, I am still in shock,” he said, adding that the nearest frontline was more than 1km away and that there no fighters or military objectives in the vicinity at the time of the attack.

Another Kurdish Red Crescent worker described to Amnesty International his attempts to rescue an 11-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl who were injured when mortars landed as they played outside their home near al-Salah mosque in Qamishli. He said that Qamishli had come under heavy indiscriminate attack since 10 October and residential homes, a bakery and restaurant had been struck.

“The boy was injured in his chest. The injury was horrible. He had an open wound… and he couldn’t breathe. It looked like a [piece of] shrapnel ripped his chest open,” the Kurdish Red Crescent worker said.

The boy later died of his wounds. His sister was also struck by shrapnel in the attack and doctors were forced to amputate part of her leg below the knee. The rescue worker said there were no military bases or checkpoints anywhere in the vicinity.

In a separate incident on 13 October, according to independent international monitors, a Turkish air strike on a market struck a civilian convoy that included several journalists travelling between Qamishli and Ras al-Ain. According the Kurdish Red Crescent six civilians, including one journalist, were killed in the incident and 59 people were injured. A journalist who was present on the scene and witnessed the attack described it as “an absolute massacre”. He said the convoy was made up of around 400 civilian vehicles and that there were no fighters present, only a handful of armed guards protecting the convoy.

“All parties to the conflict must respect international humanitarian law, which requires that all feasible precautions are taken to avoid, or at least, minimize civilian harm. Striking a civilian convoy is inexcusable,” said Kumi Naidoo.

“There is also no justification for indiscriminately shelling civilian areas using imprecise weapons such as mortars. Such unlawful attacks must be investigated and those responsible held to account.”

All parties to the conflict must respect international humanitarian law, which requires that all feasible precautions are taken to avoid, or at least, minimize civilian harm.

The USA is the largest exporter of weapons to Turkey. Other suppliers include Italy, Germany, Brazil and India. Amnesty International is calling on states to immediately suspend arms transfers to Turkey and other parties to the conflict in Syria, including Kurdish forces, against whom there are credible allegations of serious violations of international law, of weapons that could be used to commit or facilitate human rights violations.

Summary killings and abduction

Amnesty International also corroborated witness testimony, verified video footage and reviewed a medical report to shed light on how Hevrin Khalaf, a Kurdish female politician and Secretary General of the Future Syria political party, was ambushed on 12 October on the international highway linking Raqqa to Qamishli. She was dragged out of her car, beaten and shot dead in cold blood by fighters from Ahrar al-Sharqiya. They also summarily killed her bodyguard.

On the same day and location Ahrar al-Sharqiya fighters also captured and then killed at least two Kurdish fighters. They also abducted two civilian men, both of whom work with a local medical organization and were transporting medicine at the time they were captured. Family members confirmed to Amnesty International that their whereabouts remained unknown. Amnesty International verified the time and date of the videos showing that the summary killings and abduction of the two civilians carried out on the afternoon on 12 October.

Killing defenseless people in cold blood is utterly reprehensible and a blatant war crime.

Hervin Khalaf’s close friend told Amnesty International that when she tried to call Hevrin’s phone, a man who identified himself as a Syrian armed opposition fighter answered. In Arabic, he told her: “You Kurds are traitors, all of you in the [PKK] party are operatives” and informed her that Hevrin had been killed.

A medical report seen by Amnesty International lists a series of injuries inflicted on Hevrin Khalaf, including multiple gunshot wounds to the head, face and back as well as fractures to her legs, face and skull, detachment of skin from her skull and loss of hair as a result of being dragged by the hair.

“Killing defenseless people in cold blood is utterly reprehensible and a blatant war crime. Ahrar’s al-Sharqiya’s murder of Hevrin Khalaf and others must be independently investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice. Turkey has a responsibility to stop war crimes and violations committed by forces under its control. Unless Turkey reins in its proxy forces and ends impunity for violations, it will encourage further atrocities,” said Kumi Naidoo.

Deteriorating humanitarian situation

Local and international aid workers told Amnesty International that the US withdrawal from northeast Syria, Turkey’s military offensive and the Syrian government joining the fray was a combination of worst-case scenarios happening all at once.

There are real fears about whether the 100,000 displaced are getting enough food, clean water and medical supplies – and how those in need will continue to receive assistance in the longer term. In camps for the internally displaced, such as al-Hol, the population is entirely dependent on humanitarian aid. A group of 14 international humanitarian organizations warned on 10 October that the offensive could lead to cutting off aid to the population, while the ICRC warned a few days later that hostilities could lead to the displacement of 300,000 people, with serious concerns about water shortages.

Many of those displaced have nowhere to go and are sleeping out in the open, in gardens and in the streets. Some have sought shelter in schools.

In the town of Derbassiya, around 90% of the population are people who were displaced from their homes and moved there. One man in Derbassiya, who fled with his family, told Amnesty International that around half were staying with relatives in the south and the rest had sought shelter in schools and mosques.

“There are no humanitarian organizations in south Derbassiye. We didn’t see anything from them. We need basic supplies like water, food, clothes, blankets and mattresses. We need a medical clinic… Winter is on its way. We need a solution especially for the families who are living outside in the open,” he said.

A humanitarian aid worker told Amnesty International: “People already suffering from chronic diseases will be at huge risk. Their survival will depend on how long this fighting lasts, and whether we are able to operate going forward.”

All parties to the conflict including Turkey, armed groups allied to Turkey, as well as Syrian government and Kurdish forces must provide unfettered access to local and international humanitarian organizations

Many expressed serious concerns that the security situation would lead to further evacuation of international staff and that the advance of Syrian government forces could pose risks to local Arab and Kurdish staff, as well as to displaced civilians who fled other parts of Syria. There are also fears that the ability of aid agencies to carry out crucial cross-border operations to deliver aid would be limited.

“All parties to the conflict including Turkey, armed groups allied to Turkey, as well as Syrian government and Kurdish forces must provide unfettered access to local and international humanitarian organizations," said Kumi Naidoo.

“Turkey’s continued military offensive has driven thousands of already displaced people from what had been places of safe shelter. Turkey’s actions risk hampering the delivery of life-saving assistance and medical aid to those in need, causing a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe in a country already ravaged by war."

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/ ... ir-allies/

[Anthea]

Syrian Kurds say Turkey violating Trump's Syria 'cease-fire'

USA TODAY

President Donald Trump on Friday defended a U.S.-brokered halt to Turkey's military assault in Syria and made a puzzling assertion that the U.S. had "taken control" of oil fields in the region, even as fighting continued near the Syria-Turkey border.

"I just spoke to President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan of Turkey. We're doing very, very well with Turkey," Trump said during an unrelated event at the White House. Turkey is "back to the full pause" on their military operation targeting Kurdish forces in northern Syria, Trump said.

The Kurds "are very happy about the way things are going," Trump added. "We've taken control of the oil in the Middle East ... the oil that everybody was worried about."

The president did not explain what he meant by taking "control of the oil in the Middle East." But he was likely referring to oil fields in eastern Syria, which Kurdish forces gained control over amid the chaos of Syria's civil war.

The Turkish invasion – which began last week after Trump withdrew U.S. troops from northeast Syria – jeopardized the Kurds' hold on those oil fields, as Russia, Iran and other military forces vied to fill a power vacuum left by the U.S.

Trump's remarks came before a scathing new broadside on the president's Syria policy, delivered by one of his chief allies: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria has created "a strategic nightmare for our country," McConnell wrote in a Washington Post op-ed published Friday.

Even if the U.S.-brokered cease-fire holds, McConnell said, immense damage has already been done: the U.S. campaign against the Islamic State has suffered a major setback, the Assad regime and its Iranian backers have expanded their influence in Syria, and Russia has gained new leverage in the Middle East.

"As neo-isolationism rears its head on both the left and the right, we can expect to hear more talk of 'endless wars'," McConnell added, taking aim at one of Trump's oft-cited justifications for withdrawing U.S. forces. But "America’s wars will be 'endless' only if America refuses to win them."

McConnell's op-ed added new heft to the already weighty attacks on Trump's latest foreign policy move and the chaos it has unleased. It came after signs that the U.S.-Turkey deal for at temporary cease-fire – which Trump boasted would save "millions of lives" – might not hold.

Earlier on Friday, a conflict-monitoring group and Kurdish authorities reported ongoing fighting in Syria, despite the "cease-fire" that Vice President Mike Pence announced on Thursday after negotiations with Erdogan in Ankara.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fighting in villages near the northeastern Syrian city of Ras al-Ayn. The Observatory said at least five people were killed and 14 injured. The Rojava Information Center, an independent media organization staffed by volunteers, said its activists on the ground also reported advances by Turkey-backed forces on two villages near Ras al-Ayn.

Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish forces, said on Twitter that Turkish "air and artillery attacks" targeting "fighters, civilian settlements and the hospital" in Ras al-Ayn were still taking place despite the agreement to halt military activity.

Trump downplayed the reports and said Erdogan told him there had been "minor" clashes but they had stopped.

"Just spoke to President @RTErdogan of Turkey. He told me there was minor sniper and mortar fire that was quickly eliminated," Trump tweeted earlier on Friday. "He very much wants the ceasefire, or pause, to work. Likewise, the Kurds want it, and the ultimate solution, to happen."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that he was not sure who was involved in Friday's clashes but suggested it could be Turkish-backed paramilitary forces.

“You have irregular forces in the region," Pompeo told Politico in an interview Friday. "I don’t know precisely what this is, but our sense is, the political commitments that were made yesterday will end up being successful."

Pompeo said Kurdish forces, known as the SDF, had begun to withdraw from the region, "so the key elements of the cease-fire look to be taking effect.”

In Brussels for NATO meetings, Pompeo also said he had not seen Trump's comments about taking control of the oil, and he did not answer questions about how the U.S. could be controlling any Syrian oil fields if U.S. troops were withdrawing.

Under the deal, Turkey agreed to halt its assault in Syria for five days after a Thursday visit to Turkey by Pence and Pompeo. Turkey's government described the agreement as a "pause."

Critics said the deal left many questions unanswered – including the fate of the Kurds – and was too little, too late.

"The Trump administration just capitulated to all of Turkey’s original demands after a week of violence and deep harm to America’s credibility in the world," said Kelly Magsamen, who served as a national security and defense official in the Obama administration. "If this is their idea of successful diplomacy, then we better hold onto our wallets when it comes on to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea."

Even before Friday’s developments, lawmakers in both parties had denounced the U.S.-Turkey deal as a “sham” that sold out the Kurds and weakened America's global standing.

“It is far from a victory,” said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Serious questions remain about how the decision was reached to precipitously withdraw from Syria, and why that decision was reached.”

Romney said the pause in Turkey’s assault “does not change the fact that America has abandoned an ally” and he blasted President Trump for speaking “cavalierly, even flippantly” as the Kurds have “suffered death and casualty, their homes have been burned, and their families have been torn apart."

Since 2014, a U.S.-led coalition, which relied heavily on Kurdish ground forces, has rolled back the gains made by ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria.

Turkey regards the Kurdish fighters as terrorists and warned Trump that it planned an offensive against them. Erdogan ordered an assault on the Kurds shortly after Trump announced the departure of U.S. troops from the Turkish-Syria border region.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the Turkish offensive against Kurds is “on the cusp of genocide.” He and other lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee received a classified briefing Thursday on Turkey’s incursion from Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Blumenthal said he could not reveal the details of the military presentation but described the mood in the room as serious and solemn.

"My reaction was horror and shame," he said. "And the American people should at least hear the essential facts of what is happening there.”

A U.S. official who is not authorized to speak publicly agreed with Bluementhal’s characterization of “horror and shame.”

The official said the cease-fire is not holding, and predicted it would cause more confusion and deaths among the Kurds.

Trump has pushed back hard in response to his critics.

"We've had tremendous success I think over the last couple of days," he said at the White House Friday. "Little bit unconventional, little bit of hard love," he said, referring to sanctions he placed on some Turkish officials Monday.

"Sometimes you have to go through some pain before you get a good solution. But the Kurds are very happy about it. President Erdogan of Turkey is satisfied with it. And we are in a very strong position," he said.

Trump also seemed to suggest that the U.S. had gained control of detention camps holding Islamic State fighters.

"We have ISIS totally under guard," the president said.

He was referring to Islamic State fighters, captured by the Kurdish forces who had allied with the U.S. to defeat that terrorist group in Syria. Some ISIS supporters escaped after Turkey invaded Syria, as Kurdish fighters left the detention facilities to confront the new military threat from Turkey.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House will vote next week on a Turkey sanctions bill that would hit Erdogan’s government much harder than the narrow economic penalties Trump imposed earlier this week.

“President Erdogan has given up nothing, and President Trump has given him everything,” Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement Thursday evening. “Next week, the House will pass a strong, bipartisan sanctions package to work to reverse the humanitarian disaster that President Trump unleashed in Syria.”

That bill would ban the sale of U.S. arms to Turkey for use in Syria and require the administration to investigate Erdogan's net worth and assets. It would also slap sanctions on senior Turkish officials involved in the decision to invade Syria and target certain Turkish financial institutions that U.S. lawmakers said were "involved in perpetuating President Erdogan’s corrupt practices."

Erdogan disputed Friday that his forces were not abiding by the pause.

"I don’t know where you’re getting your news from. According to the news I received from my defense minister, there is no question of clashes. These are all speculation, disinformation," he told reporters in Istanbul Friday, according to Turkey's official Anadolu news agency.

Erdogan also said he wouldn't forget a letter sent to him by Trump, which he described as lacking "political and diplomatic courtesy."

In the letter, Trump urges his Turkish counterpart not to be a "tough guy" over Syria. Erdogan received it before he launched an incursion across the border into Syria. A BBC report claimed Erdogan angrily threw the letter in the trash after reading it.

Cease-fire: Mike Pence announces that Turkey agreed to a five-day cease-fire in its Syria assault

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/worl ... 020261002/

[Anthea]

If Trump said that the U.S. had "taken control" of oil fields in the Kurdish region that can mean only one thing

Trump made a deal with Erdogan to give Turkey Kurdish land in exchange for oil wells in Western Kurdistan

In Brussels for NATO meetings, Pompeo also said he had not seen Trump's comments about taking control of the oil, and he did not answer questions about how the U.S. could be controlling any Syrian oil fields if U.S. troops were withdrawing

The truth is we do NOT know

The internet has become awash with lies and fake news

I found one photo of an injured child that was several years old and hVERYad been used as an attack on Kurds, an attack on Syrians, an attack on Kosovo and a Saudi attack on Yemen

There are some VERY evil minded people using the internet

They want to make the situation worse by finding photos of dead or injured children and pretending those photos are new

[Anthea]

Trump touts Turkey cease-fire
even as it appears shaky

President Donald Trump punched back Friday at criticism that his Syria withdrawal is damaging U.S. credibility, betraying Kurdish allies and opening the door for a possible resurgence of the Islamic State. He touted a cease-fire agreement that seemed at risk as Turkey and Kurdish fighters differed over what it required and whether combat had halted

“We’ve had tremendous success I think over the last couple of days,” Trump declared. He added that “we’ve taken control of the oil in the Middle East” -- a claim that seemed disconnected from any known development there.

He made the assertion twice Friday, but other U.S. officials were unable to explain what he meant.

Calling his Syria approach “a little bit unconventional,” the president contended that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as the Syrian Kurdish fighters the Turks are battling agree that the U.S.-brokered case-fire was the right step and were complying with it.

“There is good will on both sides & a really good chance for success,” he wrote on Twitter.

That optimism seemed at odds with Erdogan’s own words. He told reporters in Istanbul that Turkish forces would resume their offensive in four days unless Kurdish-led fighters withdraw “without exception” from a so-called safe zone 20 miles (30 kilometers) deep in Syria running the entire 260-mile (440-kilometer) length of the border with Turkey.

There was no sign of any pullout by the Kurdish-led forces, who accused Turkey of violating the cease-fire with continued fighting at a key border town.

They also said the accord covers a much smaller section of the border. And some fighters have vowed not to withdraw at all, dismissing the deal as a betrayal by the U.S., whose soldiers they have fought alongside against the ISIS.

Eric Edelman, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey who served as the Pentagon’s top policy official during the George W. Bush administration, said he doubts Turkey and its Syrian proxies could control the entire border area from the Euphrates to Iraq without help from Russia or others.

“That’s a very big expanse of territory to hold, albeit a lot of it is uninhabited,” Edelman said. “That probably means they’ve cut already some deal with the Russians and the Iranians.”

Even so, Trump insisted peace was at hand.

“There is a cease-fire or a pause or whatever you want to call it,” he said. “There was some sniper fire this morning,” as well as mortar fire, but that was quickly halted and the area had returned to a “full pause,” he said.

Trump also asserted that some European nations are now willing to take responsibility for detained ISIS fighters who are from their countries.

“Anyway, big progress being made!!!!” he exclaimed on Twitter.

Trump said nothing further about the European nations he now contends have agreed to take some of the IS fighters, a demand he has repeated often. No European government announced an intent to take control of IS prisoners.

Speaking in Brussels after briefing NATO ambassadors on the Syria situation, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “We’ve seen comments today from a number of countries who said they may well be prepared to take back these fighters.” He, too, identified no such countries.

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said U.S. troops are continuing their withdrawal from northern Syria. He also said no U.S. ground troops will participate in enforcing or monitoring the cease-fire.

“The force protection of our service members remains our top priority and, as always, U.S. forces will defend themselves from any threat as we complete our withdrawal from the area,” Esper told reporters.

One important unknown in the wake of Turkey’s military incursion, which began Oct. 9, is whether IS fighters who have been held by U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces will escape in large numbers. Even before the Turkish offensive, some U.S. officials had noted signs that IS was seeking to regroup.

Officials have said a number of ISIS fighters, likely just over 100, have escaped custody since Turkey launched its invasion last week.

There are 11 prisons with ISIS detainees in the so-called safe zone between Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn

Accounting for the broader border area that the Turks contend is the safe zone - that number grows to 16 prisons. It’s unclear exactly how many of those are currently under Turkish control - but as they push the Kurds out, the Turks are supposed to take control of the prisons.

Trump has been widely criticized for turning his back on the Kurds, who have taken heavy casualties as partners with the U.S. since 2016. Even some Republicans are taking aim.

“Withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria is a grave strategic mistake. It will leave the American people and homeland less safe, embolden our enemies, and weaken important alliances,” Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote Friday in a Washington Post opinion column.

Erdogan said Friday he and Trump share “love and respect,” but he also left little doubt that he was offended by an Oct. 9 letter from Trump telling him, “Don’t be a fool!”

Erdogan told reporters Trump’s words were not compatible with “political and diplomatic courtesy” and would not be forgotten. He said he would “do what’s necessary” about the letter “when the time comes.” He did not elaborate.

While U.S. officials have insisted that Trump did not authorize Turkey’s invasion, the cease-fire codifies nearly all of Turkey’s stated goals in the conflict.

During a campaign rally in Texas on Thursday night, Trump said, “Sometimes you have to let them fight, like two kids in a lot, you got to let them fight and then you pull them apart.”

https://www.apnews.com/8f709724b8b5465fab01e56f6c56d064

[Anthea]

Turkey plans presence
across Western Kurdistan

Turkey will set up a dozen observation posts across northeast Syria, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, insisting that a planned “safe zone” will extend much farther than U.S. officials said was covered under a fragile ceasefire deal

Less than 24 hours after he agreed the five-day truce to allow Kurdish forces time to pull back from Turkey’s crossborder assault, Erdogan underlined Ankara’s ambition to establish a presence along 300 miles of territory inside Syria.

On the border itself shelling could be heard near the Syrian town of Ras al Ain on Friday morning despite Thursday’s deal, and a spokesman for the Kurdish-led forces said Turkey was violating the ceasefire, hitting civilian targets in the town.

But Reuters journalists at the border said the bombardment subsided around mid-morning and a U.S. official said most of the fighting had stopped, although it would “take time for things to completely quiet down”.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he had spoken with Erdogan who told him there had been some “minor” sniper and mortar fire in northeastern Syria despite the truce, but that it had been quickly eliminated.

“He very much wants the ceasefire, or pause, to work,” Trump said in a post on Twitter. “Likewise, the Kurds want it, and the ultimate solution, to happen.”

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs described the situation as “reportedly calm in most areas, with the exception of Ras al-Ain, where shelling and gunfire continued to be reported earlier today,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The truce, announced by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence after talks in Ankara with Erdogan, sets out a five-day pause to let the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia pull out of the Turkish “safe zone”.

The deal was aimed at easing a crisis that saw Trump order a hasty and unexpected U.S. retreat, which his critics say amounted to abandoning loyal Kurdish allies that fought for years alongside U.S. troops against Islamic State.

Turkey’s offensive created a new humanitarian crisis in Syria with 200,000 civilians taking flight, according to Red Cross estimates. It also prompted a security alert over thousands of Islamic State fighters held in Kurdish jails.

Trump has praised the deal with NATO-ally Turkey as one that would save lives. Turkey cast it as a victory in its campaign to control territory more than 30 km (around 20 miles) deep into Syria and drive out Kurdish fighters from the YPG, the SDF’s main Kurdish component. Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group because of its links to Kurdish insurgents in southeast Turkey.

“As of now, the 120-hour period is on. In this 120-hour period, the terrorist organization, the YPG, will leave the area we identified as a safe zone,” Erdogan told reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul. The safe zone would be 32 km deep, and run “440 km from the very west to the east”, he said.

But the U.S. special envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, said the accord covered a smaller area where Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies were fighting, between the two border towns of Ras al Ain and Tel Abyad, just 120 km away.

Smoke rises from a building near the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain as seen from the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar, Sanliurfa province, Turkey, October 18, 2019. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

Speaking to journalists later on Friday, Erdogan said Turkey plans to set up 12 observation posts in northeast Syria. A map of the region showed the planned posts stretching from the Iraq border in the east to the Euphrates river 300 miles to the west.

NATO DISCUSSIONS

In Brussels on Friday night at NATO headquarters, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “we also saw some very positive activity - the beginning of a coordination that will be required so that there can in fact be a safe withdrawal of the YPG fighters that are inside the Turkish-controlled area that is covered by the agreement.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg emphasized that northern Syria was of concern and matters to all NATO allies.

“We all understand that we have a common enemy - Daesh,” Stoltenberg said, using another name for Islamic State. “We must not jeopardize the gains we have made in the fight against our common enemy Daesh.”

NATO defense ministers would address the issue when they meet next week, Stoltenberg said.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States would continue aerial surveillance in northeastern Syria to monitor prisons holding Islamic State militants.

RUSSIA, IRAN FILL VACUUM

With the United States pulling its entire 1,000-strong contingent from northern Syria, the extent of Turkey’s ambitions is likely to be determined by Russia and Iran, filling the vacuum created by the U.S. retreat.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Moscow and Tehran, has already taken up positions in territory formerly protected by Washington, invited by the Kurds.

Jeffrey acknowledged that Turkey was now negotiating with Moscow and Damascus over control of areas that Washington was vacating and were not covered by the U.S.-Turkish truce pact.

“As you know we have a very convoluted situation now with Russian, Syrian army, Turkish, American, SDF and some Daesh elements all floating around in a very wild way,” Jeffrey said.

“Now, the Turks have their own discussions going on with the Russians and the Syrians in other areas of the northeast and in Manbij to the west of the Euphrates. Whether they incorporate that later into a Turkish-controlled safe zone, it was not discussed in any detail.”

LIFTING SANCTIONS?

The joint U.S.-Turkish statement released after Thursday’s talks said Washington and Ankara would cooperate on handling Islamic State fighters and family members held in prisons and camps - an important international concern.

Pence said U.S. sanctions imposed on Tuesday would be lifted once the ceasefire became permanent.

In Washington, U.S. senators who have criticized the Trump administration for failing to prevent the Turkish assault said they would press ahead with legislation to impose sanctions against Turkey.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post that the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria was “a grave strategic mistake.”

The Turkish assault began after Trump moved U.S. troops out of the way following an Oct. 6 phone call with Erdogan.

Turkey says the “safe zone” would make room to settle up to 2 million Syrian war refugees - roughly half the number it is currently hosting - and would push back the YPG militia.

Reporting by Orhan Coskun in Istanbul; Additional reporting by Daren Butler and Ali Kucukgocmen in Istanbul, Steve Holland, Tim Ahmann, Idrees Ali and Susan Cornwell in Washington, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Writing by Jonathan Spicer and Dominic Evans; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Grant McCool and Daniel Wallis

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syri ... SKBN1WX0GT

[Anthea]

Kurdish group PKK pens open letter rebuking Trump's comparison to ISIS

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist group by both the U.S. and Turkey, penned an open letter in English rebuking President Trump's comparison of the group to ISIS amid a fight between Kurds and Turkish forces in northern Syria

The PKK said in Friday's letter that it “refused comparisons” to ISIS after Trump said at a press conference on Wednesday that the Kurds were “no angels” and that the PKK is likely “more of a terrorist threat” than ISIS.

“We refuse comparisons being made between our movement and the inhumane thugs of ISIS,” the PKK’s Foreign Relations Committee wrote in the letter.

“We are not guilty of terrorism; we are victims of state terrorism. But we are guilty of defending our people. We believe that the American people will be able to judge for themselves who the dangerous terrorists of this world are,” the group added.

The PKK has been in armed conflict with Ankara for decades as part of an anti-Turkish insurgency to establish an independent Kurdish state. Turkey has accused the PKK and People’s Protection Units (YPG), which is fighting against Ankara in Syria and allied with the U.S. against ISIS, of being linked.

The letter comes amid a fragile five-day cease-fire in northeastern Syria that calls for Turkey to cease its military operations for 120 hours to allow Kurds in the area to withdraw from a designated safe zone along the Turkish and Syrian border.

The deal, brokered by Vice President Pence and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was panned by critics who said the ceasefire essentially allows Turkey to continue its offensive after five days while forcing Kurds to retreat.

Reports have already emerged of fighting in the border region of Syria.

Trump, who drew criticism that he greenlighted Turkey’s offensive by withdrawing U.S. troops from northeastern Syria, sparked rebukes for his comments about the PKK, with former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice on Wednesday calling him a “total sell-out.”

The PKK suggested it did not deserve the criticism, arguing it is committed to human rights.

“The PKK has never targeted the U.S. or any other country,” the group wrote. “We have never shied away from the negotiating table to solve this conflict peacefully and politically. As a matter of fact, we have declared no less than eight ceasefires since 1993 to pave the way for negotiations. The PKK’s political project is founded on basic human rights and liberties, gender liberation, religious pluralism and ecological rights.”

https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... o-american

[Anthea]

'Powderkeg' in Germany
amid Turks-Kurds conflict

Syrian Kurd Mohamed Zidik, 76, still buys his bread and baclavas from his Turkish neighbours in Berlin, but he knows better than to expound on his views about Ankara's offensive in his hometown

Since Turkish forces launched their assault on Kurds in northeastern Syria, tensions have risen in Germany where millions of Turks and Kurds live side by side.

Shops have been trashed, knife attacks reported and insults traded, prompting Germany's integration commissioner Annette Widmann-Mauz to call for restraint.

"We have a responsibility to prevent the conflict in the region from becoming a conflict in our society," she said in an interview with the Funke newspaper group.

Of the roughly three million people with Turkish nationality or roots living in Germany, around one million are Kurds.

"We are sitting on a powderkeg in Germany," Turkish expert Burak Copur told ZDF broadcaster.

"The emotions here cannot be viewed in isolation from the political developments in Turkey, which are mirrored in Germany."

Some 15,000 pro-Kurdish demonstrators are set to take to the streets in Cologne on Saturday, with similar demos planned in other European cities.

German police are on high alert to ward off any new violence from protests over the Turkish offensive after clashes erupted on the sidelines of a demonstration on Monday in the western city of Herne.

Turks performed the "wolf salute" hand gesture linked to the country's nationalist far right as a Kurdish protest passed.

It was one provocation too far for some marchers, and a fight erupted leaving five injured.

In Germany, the hand sign mimicking a wolf's head remains legal, but in neighbouring Austria it has been banned -- just like the Nazi-era Hitler salute.

- 'Daily consequences' -

In a small cafe in the German capital, Mohamad Khalil, 23, is keeping an eye on a slew of charging walkie-talkies which will be distributed to fellow demonstration organisers to keep order during planned marches this weekend.

"For now, all we have left is protest," the student acknowledges bitterly, underlining the helplessness he feels over the lot of fellow Kurds.

Germany's Kurds fear that Ankara's offensive could pulverise the foundations they have built in Rojava, the self-proclaimed Kurdish zone in northeast Syria.

Ankara for its part says the main Kurdish militia in Syria is a "terrorist" group with links to its own outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency in Turkey for three decades.

Melahat Yavas, who works at a Berlin driving school, whole-heartedly backs the Turkish offensive.

"We are sending our soldiers to their deaths to free Syrian children and families, and be it against the terrorists of PKK or IS, Erdogan is a man of his word and he won't leave until our Syrian Muslim brothers are secure within their borders," Yavas told AFP.

"Turks and Kurds, we live, work and sometimes we laugh together there or here in Germany. My colleague is Kurdish and that's fine. But the PKK is something else," she added.

In a similar show of backing for the military action, at least five German regional football teams face disciplinary action after their players imitated the military salute performed by the Turkish national team during matches earlier this month.

Such gestures lead to "daily consequences for Kurds, in the streets, when they are protesting, in their work places and definitely in the schools where they are victims of discrimination by Turkish children," charged Rohat Geran of a Kurdish umbrella federation.

https://www.france24.com/en/20191019-po ... nflict#_=_

[Anthea]

Turkish troops ready to continue Syria offensive if truce deal not implemented

ANKARA, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Turkish troops in northern Syria are ready to continue their offensive if a deal with Washington to pause the conflict while Kurdish fighters withdraw is not fully implemented, Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday.

Turkey and Washington agreed on Thursday for Ankara to halt its offensive for 120 hours while the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia withdraws from a “safe zone” in northeastern Syria. On Saturday, the fragile ceasefire was holding along the Syrian border.

“We paused the operation for five days. In this time, the terrorists will withdraw from the safe zone, their weapons will be collected and position destroyed. If this doesn’t happen, we will continue the operation,” Akar said.

“Our preparations are ready. With the necessary order, our soldiers are ready to go anywhere,” he told an event in Kayseri.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Mark Potter)

https://www.reuters.com/article/syria-s ... H?rpc=401&

[Anthea]

Turkey wants Syrian forces
to leave the border areas

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Syrian government forces to move out of areas near the Turkish border so he can resettle up to 2 million refugees there, his spokesman told The Associated Press on Saturday. The request will top Erdogan’s talks next week with Syria’s ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin

Arrangements along the Syrian-Turkish border were thrown into disarray after the U.S. pulled its troops out of the area, opening the door to Turkey’s invasion aiming to drive out Kurdish-led fighters it considers terrorists.

Abandoned by their American allies, the Kurds — with Russia’s mediation — invited Damascus to send troops into northeastern Syria as protection from Turkish forces. That has complicated Turkey’s plan to create a “safe zone” along the border, where it can resettle Syrian refugees now in Turkey. Most of those refugees fled Syria’s government.

Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara does not want either Syrian forces nor Kurdish fighters in the border area because refugees would not go back to areas under their control.

Turkey has said it wants to oversee that area

“This is one of the topics that we will discuss with the Russians, because, again, we are not going to force any refugees to go to anywhere they don’t want to go,” he said. “We want to create conditions that will be suitable for them to return where they will feel safe.”

Turkey has taken in about 3.6 million Syrians fleeing the conflict in their homeland but now wants most of them to return. So far, very few have returned to an enclave Turkey already took over and controls since 2017.

Under an agreement made by the U.S. and Turkey Thursday, a five-day cease-fire has been in place. Turkey expects the Kurdish fighters to pull back from a border area.

A senior Syrian Kurdish official acknowledged for the first time that the Kurdish-led forces agreed to the pull-back, stating that his forces will move 30-kilometer (19 miles) south of the border.

Redur Khalil, a senior Syrian Democratic Forces official, told the AP that the withdrawal will take place once Turkey allows the Kurdish-led force to evacuate its fighters and civilians from Ras al-Ayn, a border town under siege by Turkish-backed forces. He said that Kurdish-led force was preparing plans to conduct that evacuation on Sunday, if there are no further delays.

Khalil said Kurdish-led fighters would pull back from a 120-kilometer (75-mile) stretch along the border from Ras al-Ayn to Tal Abyad, moving past the international highway.

“We are only committed to the U.S. version not the Turkish one,” Khalil said.

A previous agreement between the U.S. and Turkey over a “safe zone” along the Syria-Turkish border floundered over the diverging definitions of the area.

Erdogan has said the Kurdish fighters must withdraw from a far larger length of the border from the Euphrates River to the Iraqi border — more than 440 kilometers (260 miles) — or else the Turkish offensive will resume on Tuesday.

But U.S. officials say the agreement pertains to the smaller section between the two towns. Kalin confirmed that is the area affected by the pause in fighting, but said Turkey still wants the larger zone.

Two days into the cease-fire, the border town of Ras al-Ayn has been the sticking point in moving forward.

“We hope that as of tonight or tomorrow, they will stick to this agreement and leave the area,” Kalin said.

The Kurdish official meanwhile said his force had negotiated with the Americans the details of its pull-back from the border, starting with the Ras al-Ayn evacuation. But he said the evacuation stalled for 48 hours because Turkish-backed forces continued their siege of the town.

A partial evacuation took place Saturday. Medical convoys were let into part of the town still in Kurdish hands, evacuating 30 wounded and four bodies from a hospital. Khalil said the plan to complete the evacuation from Ras al-Ayn is now set for Sunday.

Turkish officials denied violating the cease-fire or impeding the fighters’ withdrawal, blaming the continued violence on the Kurds.

If Kurdish fighters then pull back from the 120-kilometers (75 miles) border area, it is uncertain what the arrangement would be along the rest of the northeastern border, most of which remains solely in the hands of Kurdish-led fighters.

Last week, Syrian forces began deploying into Kurdish areas, moving only into one location directly on the border, the town of Kobani, and a few positions further south.

Khalil said the Syrian government and its ally Russia did not want to deploy more extensively in the area, apparently to avoid frictions with Turkey.

“We noticed there was no desire (from the Russians and Syria) to have the Syrian military on the dividing line between us and the Turks except in Kobani,” he said.

The border town of Kobani also stands between Turkish-controlled Syrian territories to the west and Kurdish-held eastern Syria.

Khalil said it was not clear what would happen after his forces’ withdrawal and five-day cease-fire ends.

“The deal essentially is handing Syrian land to a foreign country. This is not good. It is bad for us,” he said. “We have nothing to win. The only win is the international sympathy.”

https://www.apnews.com/45cc25e071f944f5b80b7bde201780ba

NOBODY

No American
No coalition member
No Iranian
No Kurd
No NATO country
No Russian
No Syria
No Turk
No UN representative

NOBODY
Has the NO right to hand over land belonging to the people of Western Kurdistan, to the vile Turkish government

Turkey has a long history of oppressing, imprisoning, torturing and barbarically slaughtering Kurds

Turkish troops should not only be banned from the Western Kurdistan area of Syria but they should also be banned from entering the Northern Kurdistan area of Turkey

[Anthea]

All U.S. troops withdrawing from Syria expected to go to western Iraq

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Saturday that all of the nearly 1,000 troops withdrawing from northern Syria are expected to move to western Iraq to continue the campaign against Islamic State militants and “to help defend Iraq.”

On Thursday, Turkey agreed in talks with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to a five-day pause in an offensive into northeastern Syria to allow time for the Kurdish fighters to withdraw from a “safe zone” Ankara aims to establish near the Turkish border with Syria.

The truce also aimed to ease a crisis triggered by President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision earlier this month to withdraw all 1,000 U.S. troops from northern Syria, a move criticized in Washington and elsewhere as a betrayal of loyal Kurdish allies who had fought for years alongside U.S. troops against Islamic State.

“The U.S. withdrawal continues apace from northeastern Syria... we’re talking weeks not days,” Esper told reporters en route to the Middle East, adding that it was being carried out through aircraft and ground convoys.

“The current game plan is for those forces to re-position into western Iraq,” Esper said, adding that they would number about one thousand.

He said the mission for those troops would be to “help defend Iraq” and carry out a counter-Islamic State mission.

A senior U.S. defense official clarified that the situation was still fluid and plans could change.

Any decision to send additional U.S. troops to Iraq is likely to be heavily scrutinized in a country where Iran has been steadily amassing influence.

“That is the current game plan, things can change between now and whenever we complete the withdrawal but that is the game plan right now,” the senior official added.

It is unclear whether the U.S. troops will use Iraq as a base to launch ground raids into Syria and carry out airstrikes against Islamic State militants.

The additional U.S. troops would add to the more than 5,000 American troops already based in the country, training Iraqi forces and helping to ensure that Islamic State militants do not resurge.

While Esper said he had spoken with his Iraqi counterpart and will continue to have conversations in the future, the move will likely be viewed with skepticism by some in Iraq.

Iraq is in the midst of a political crisis, as mass protests have led to more than 100 deaths and 6,000 injuries during the week starting Oct. 1.

Iran’s role in responding to the demonstrations has been another reminder of Tehran’s reach in Iraq, where a sizable number of former militia commanders are now members of parliament and support the Iranian agenda.

SYRIA CEASEFIRE “GENERALLY” HOLDING

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey would press on with its offensive into northeastern Syria and “crush the heads of terrorists” if a deal with Washington on the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from the area was not fully implemented.

On Saturday the fragile truce was holding along the border, with a few Turkish military vehicles crossing the border, Reuters journalists at the scene said. In the last 36 hours, there have been 14 “provocative attacks” from Syria, Turkey’s defense ministry said.

Esper said that the ceasefire in northeastern Syria was generally holding.

“I think overall the ceasefire generally seems to be holding, we see a stabilization of the lines, if you will, on the ground, and we do get reports of intermittent fires, this and that, that doesn’t surprise me necessarily,” he added.

There has been concern that the Turkish incursion into northeastern Syria would allow Islamic State militants to make gains and see militants escaping prisons guarded by Kurdish fighters.

Esper said that the United States was still in contact with the Kurdish fighters, known as the YPG, and they appeared to continue to defend the prisons in areas they still controlled.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syri ... S?rpc=401&

[Anthea]

Turkey-backed militia vow to behead
'infidel Kurds' they find in Syria

Footage of a Turkey-backed militia threatening to execute any Kurds they find in Northern Syria has emerged, as both sides accused each other of breaking a ceasefire agreement negotiated by the United States

There is NO difference between the savage ISIS and the barbaric Turkish-backed militia

The return of violence comes as President Recep Erdogan, who agreed to a five-day truce in his military offensive with US Vice President Mike Pence, vowed to 'crush the heads' of Kurdish forces if they do not retreat from a 120-kilometre stretch of the border.

Turkey's offensive, launched earlier this month, has prompted hundreds of thousands to flee their homes - the latest humanitarian crisis of Syria's eight-year civil war.

Earlier today a Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in an attack by Syrian Kurdish forces near the Tal Abiad border town by what the Turkish defence ministry called 'terrorists'.

'One of our heroic comrades fell martyr and another was wounded after anti-tank and small arms fire by... terrorists during their reconnaissance and surveillance mission,' the ministry said in a statement.

American volunteers search the rubble of a house for the bodies of victims in the border town of Ras al-Ayn, northeastern Syria. Fighting in the area has continued while the US ceasefire collapsed

Turkey's offensive, launched earlier this month, has prompted hundreds of thousands to flee their homes - the latest humanitarian crisis of Syria's eight-year civil war

The army returned fire in self-defence, it added.

Further east along the Syria-Turkey border, a militia group in the town of Ras al-Ayn posted a disturbing video in which they proudly claimed they would display the heads of any Kurdish 'infidel' they find.

In the footage, one of the group shouts: 'Desist sons of Muwali. We've come to behead you, you infidels, you apostates. God willing, we're coming for you.'

Another adds: 'Just a few hours and we'll show you the (decapitated) heads.'

A third then quips: 'Victory only comes from God! With beheading.'

Another, more graphic video was also posted, showing summary executions believed to be on the M4 highway, an east-west road further inside Syria.

The head spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces posted the footage, saying: 'Turkish-backed armed groups threaten to behead any "infidel Kurd" they capture on their way to NE Syria.

A militia group in the town of Ras al-Ayn posted a disturbing video in which they proudly claimed they would display the heads of any Kurdish 'infidel' they find

'To all those who are worried that ISIS may come back. ISIS is already back to NE Syria with Turkish protection.'

Yesterday SDF commander Abdi accused Turkey of sabotaging the truce by blocking the withdrawal of his forces from flashpoint border town Ras al-Ain.

The Turkish defence ministry said Sunday that Kurdish forces carried out 20 attacks.

'Despite all the hostile acts in violation of the agreement, a convoy of 39 vehicles, mostly ambulances, safely entered and exited Ras al-Ain on Saturday' to help evacuate the wounded, the ministry said.

Turkish presidency spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara abided by the agreement and urged the US to use its leverage to ensure Syrian Kurdish forces' pullout.

'We are committed to this agreement: Within five days they are supposed to leave and we have told our American colleagues to use their leverage, their connections to make sure that they leave without any incidents,' he said in Istanbul yesterday.

Syrians flee with their belongings the countryside of the northeastern Syrian town of Ras al-Ain on the Turkish border, toward the west to the town of Tal Tamr

The return of violence comes as President Recep Erdogan, who agreed to a five-day truce in his military offensive with US Vice President Mike Pence, vowed to 'crush the heads' of Kurdish forces if they do not retreat from a 120-kilometre stretch of the border

The Turkish offensive launched earlier this month has prompted hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in the latest humanitarian crisis of Syria's eight-year civil war.

Syrian Democratic Forces are now asking the United States to pressure Turkey to allow the safe passage of civilians out of the 120-kilometre-long area of border.

Yesterday a senior Syrian Kurdish official said his forces would pull back from a border area in accordance with the US brokered deal when Turkey allows the evacuation of its remaining fighters and civilians from a besieged town there.

Redur Khalil, a senior Syrian Democratic Forces official, said the plan for evacuation from the town of Ras al-Ayn is set for today, if there were no delays.

He says only after that will his forces pull back from the area between the towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tal-Aybad. It will withdraw and move back from the border 30 kilometres.

This is the first time the Kurdish force has publicly acknowledged it will withdraw from the border, saying it has coordinated it with the Americans. The agreement has not specified the area of its pullback.

Previous agreements between the US and Turkey over a 'safe zone' along the Syria-Turkish border floundered over the diverging definitions of the area.

Khalil said a partial evacuation happened earlier Saturday from Ras al-Ayn after much stalling and with U.S. coordination.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... Syria.html

[Anthea]

Is ISIS Back?

The American political leadership may not have been able to connect the dots on a withdrawal in Syria, but it’s really quite simple:

1) Americans step aside

2) Turks swarm across the border and attack Kurds

3) Kurds cut a deal with Assad and the Russians for protection

4) Assad gets his oil back, because it’s all in Kurdish-controlled territory in the northeast

It renders sanctions rather null and void. It empowers Assad exponentially because if there’s one thing he’s desperate for its oil. It gives the last remaining chunk of territory back to Assad, with the exception of Idlib.

Now, conflicting reports are emerging about whether the Americans are actually going to leave Syria.

It’s occurred to Trump, no doubt with some prompting, that an abrupt exit will simply give Assad all of his oil back.

On Thursday, reports citing an anonymous “military official in Damascus” began to circulate to the effect that the Americans would stick by the key oil area of Dier Ezzor (Dier al Zor), home of the Omar oilfields.

This report originated with AMN, out of the Middle East. And despite the fact that the source is both unnamed and clearly not an American military source, Western media have also picked up the story in the fashion of the day.

As of late Thursday, there has been no confirmation whatsoever that the Americans have been ordered to reverse their decision and stick by the oilfields.

From the Western perspective, the worst-case scenario should be an ISIS resurgence in Syria’s oil heartland. The second worst-case scenario is a fully revived and empowered Assad regime backed by Russia and Iran.

The US has been impotent against both.

Who Will Get Western Kurdistan’s Oil?

The Assad regime is desperate for oil, so the American withdrawal means they can move into Kurd-controlled territory without a fight--even more so now that the Turks have invaded. The Kurds have no choice now but to align themselves with the regime. They are, after all, highly pragmatic. They would put up a good fight against the Turks, but they would not likely best the Turkish military.

The Kurds controlled everything north of the Euphrates:

But the Kurds were already dealing in oil with Assad. Again, they are pragmatic. Despite the fact that the Kurds were the key American ally in Syria, the Kurds were supplying the Assad regime with crude through a Syrian broker targeted by US and European sanctions.

No one cares now. The Trump Administration has washed its hands of Syria.

Regime forces are likely to first take over the Omar oilfield.

Russia, which has the exclusive rights to extract oil in Syria from the Assad regime, will be eyeing the American withdrawal greedily. Since they’ve already cut a deal with the regime for oil extraction, these two agendas flow together.

Russia has long been working to secure Syrian oil for itself. It needs this oil--and pipeline access--to strengthen its position in the Eastern Mediterranean. Syria is the key to maintaining Russia’s control of the Mediterranean and getting out in front of any new gas projects that threaten its EU market share. Eventually, Europe’s gas is going to come from the Mediterranean: The question now is who will control that gas.

Supported by US military advisors and NATO aircraft, the Syrian Kurd SDF forces had succeeded in driving ISIS out of the territory and taking control of the oil-rich Deir Ez-Zor area. This entire area became a major threat to Turkey because it united a large collection of Syrian tribes and clans and ended up weakening Turkey’s ties with the Al Nusra Front. Turkey is now desperate.

Russia, Iran and Turkey are now going to war for Syrian oil and infrastructure. On paper, Russia has the exclusive rights to produce oil and gas in Syria. The regime has also given the Iranians the port of Latakia, much to Moscow’s dismay; plus, Syria is in substantial debt to the Iranians for credit for fuel. The Russians get the much smaller port of Tartus, which will probably be used for Syrian offshore gas facilities in the prolific Levant basin.

A resurgent ISIS could wreck everyone’s conflicting plans.

Jihad Incorporated

ISIS has been a rather diversified, integrated company.

As ISIS oil business dwindled in the face of Syrian Kurd fighting forces backed by American military support and Russian operations, the radical group relied on other avenues of funding, never putting all of its eggs in a single basket. That also means they’re never destroyed. They can regroup elsewhere.

In just a few years, the Islamic State leadership managed to accrue an estimated $6 billion by various means, with operations in both Syria and Iraq, making itself the wealthiest terrorist group in history.

In 2018, the US-led coalition fighting against ISIS said that 98 percent of the territory once claimed by the jihadist group across Iraq and Syria has been recaptured.

When it did hold territory, ISIS primarily generated its wealth from three main sources: oil and gas--which it said to have totaled about $500 million in 2015--taxation, extortion and robbery, including the 2014 looting of Mosul during which the Islamic State stole about $500 million from bank vaults--and there have even been indications that ISIS has floated investments in equities.

And when times are particularly tough, there’s always drug trafficking.

The area ISIS previously controlled in Syria was also rich in other natural resources, including phosphate, cement and sulfur, from which the group is believed to have generated up to $350 million. Likewise, wheat and barley were said to have generated some $200 million in annual income for the Islamic State.

In 2015 airstrikes, US-led coalition forces destroyed more than 2,500 tanker trucks operated by ISIS, along with mobile refineries and other oil-related infrastructure. By 2017, ISIS oil production in Iraq and Syria had been cut to less than $4 million a month from a peak of $50 million in 2016.

Through its extortion and kidnapping ‘subsidiaries’, ISIS threatened commercial enterprises primarily in eastern Syria and western Iraq in sophisticated protection rackets. In 2014, the UN estimated that the group had generated up to $45 million the previous year in kidnapping for ransom alone.

It also taxed citizens in territory it controlled, particularly targeting farmers. At its peak, ISIS controlled some 10 million people. Some analysts estimate that these ‘taxes’ netted ISIS around $800 million annually, or around six times the estimated returns from selling oil.

Taxes included everything from “welfare” and “salary” taxes to road taxes, customs taxes for trucks entering Iraq at Syrian checkpoints; non-Muslim protection taxes, and a long list of others.

The thing is, ISIS doesn’t rely on territory for its economic survival today. It’s raised enough to invest and stash away. After all, controlling territories is expensive in terms of overhead.

In part, that’s because its surviving leadership may have smuggled as much as $400 million in cash and gold out of Iraq and Syria. The group’s extended network will seek to launder this money through front companies in the region, especially in Turkey.

Since the defeat, the group is raising money through a range of new criminal activities, including but not limited to extortion, kidnapping for ransom, robbery and theft, drug smuggling and trafficking in antiquities.

ISIS is now a full-fledged business, and oil helped it get there.

What Next?

In order to keep ISIS out, chaos cannot take over--and chaos is exactly what the Americans have unleashed.

Either Assad’s forces will have to cross the Euphrates and push the Kurds forward, where they would be left to their own devices against the Turks, or Russia will have to step in provide safe passage for the Kurds to move southward away from the Turks. That would come at the price of the Kurds returning territory to the regime.

If no deal is cut and civil war breaks out, it will be an open door for ISIS, and all that oil will be fair game--again.

Link to Article - Map of Oilfields:

https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/Middle ... -Back.html

[Anthea]

Turkey is suspected of using white phosphorus against Kurdish civilians in Syria



Stop the burning, I beg you stop the burning, cries bombed boy

Mohammed, 13, had 12 hours of agony before his burns could be treated

The burns on the screaming child brought into the Syrian-Kurdish hospital at Tal Tamir were enough to reduce even hardened medical staff to silence yesterday.

Yet the terrible wounds that had all but flayed the 13-year-old Mohammed Hamid Mohammed’s skin from his torso, penetrating deep into his flesh, suggested his injuries were caused by something far worse than blast alone. They added to the growing body of evidence that suggests Turkey, a Nato member, is using white phosphorus against Kurdish civilians in its eight-day offensive into northern Syria.

In recent days Turkey had intensified its attack on the Kurdish held city of Ras al-Ain in the lead-up to the announcement of a 120-hour ceasefire deal brokered with Mike Pence, the US vice-president, last night. Its forces have repeatedly been accused of using white phosphorus in civilian areas. The boy suffered the burns after a Turkish airstrike on his town at midnight on Wednesday, according to his father.

“This very much looks like it was caused by white phosphorus,” said Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a British chemical weapons expert, after being shown photographs of the child’s burns.

“In 24 hours I have been shown more photographs of these kinds of burn than at any recent stage in Syria’s war. White phosphorus is a horrific weapon, which can be delivered by aircraft or artillery. It reacts to the moisture in the skin in a way that intensifies its burning, so that water cannot put it out.”

Kurdish leaders have accused Turkey of using the chemical, which is banned for use on civilian targets by the Geneva and Chemical Weapons conventions.

Burnt from his throat to his waist by a weapon that produced such heat it moulded the fingers of his left hand together, Mohammed’s cries were a sound unlike any other among the war wounded. Injured fighters on nearby trolleys ceased their moans. A man standing beside me burst suddenly into tears at the sight of the boy’s ordeal.

It was 20 minutes before a nurse managed to pump morphine into the screaming child, and in that time every bit as bad as the sound of his terrified cries was the expression on his face: the horror that the sight of his own disfigured body caused him.

“Dad, Dad, Dad,” he screamed at his father in staccato bursts, gulping for breath. “Stop the burning, I beg you, stop the burning!”

The Turkish bombardment of Ras al-Ain has come to epitomise the humanitarian crisis facing Syria’s Kurds

Whatever ordnance burnt Mohammed when it exploded outside his family’s house in Ras al-Ain amid a furious Turkish bombardment on Wednesday night also transformed the street into a sea of flame and burning bodies.

“I heard the Turkish jet overhead just before the explosion,” his father, Hamid Mohammed, 35, a labourer, said as he stood, head bowed, beside his boy. “There was a Turkish bombardment already going on, then came one massive explosion outside our house. In the confusion of the blast I found the rest of my children but not Mohammed. The street seemed to be on fire. I saw other bodies lying there aflame. Then I saw my son. He was also on fire.”

The fate of Ras al-Ain, a town abutting Syria’s border with Turkey, has come to epitomise the humanitarian crisis facing Syria’s Kurds since a tweet by President Trump paved the way for Turkey’s invasion. President Erdogan of Turkey has been desperate to seize territory along his border with Syria and repel Kurds who control it.

The battle has precipitated a humanitarian disaster that the UN says has already caused hundreds of casualties and displaced more than 165,000 people, among them 70,000 children. The big aid organisations, including Médecins Sans Frontières, have all pulled out of northern Syria.

Kurdish-led SDF fighters in the besieged town have held out for more than a week against an offensive by several thousand Syrian Islamists backed by the air power and artillery of a Nato army. But an unknown number of civilians inside are trapped.

Staff at the hospital in Tal Tamir, about 20 miles to the southeast of the town, say that every medical facility in Ras al-Ain has been destroyed by Turkish shelling and that many wounded civilians are dying untreated.

“Human rights organisations should be here to see what is happening and investigate the weapons being used on civilians,” said Hassan Amin, the hospital director, whose 30-bed facility has received more than 550 wounded civilians, most from Ras al-Ain, since the Turkish offensive began last week.

“Just 2 per cent of those we treat have been shot. The rest are injured by airstrikes or artillery. Some burns patients are so badly injured as to be barely recognisable. But there are no international aid organisations to witness this. They gave us their promises — then left us.”

Mohammed’s life hangs in the balance too. Although his father managed to spirit him out of Ras al-Ain at night along with his wife and three other children, the doctors say he has more than 70 per cent burns and is unlikely to survive without specialist treatment. “We just don’t have the facilities to treat a child with that level of burning,” said Ibrahim Ali, an assistant surgeon. “Unless he can be evacuated to a hospital in Damascus, or elsewhere abroad, his chances of survival are slim.”

It was just after midday yesterday when Mohammed arrived at Tal Tamir, by which time he had endured 12 hours of excruciating pain, without morphine.

There is no transport to take the burnt boy away for further treatment, so as the sound of gunfire echoed around Tal Tamir last night Mohammed’s father sat with his semi-conscious son in a darkened room, hoping the boy would be strong enough to survive his burns until dawn.

“If he is still alive in the morning,” he told The Times last night, “then I will take him away from here in my own car and find somewhere else to treat him.”

Four casualties had arrived just before Mohammed, SDF fighters wounded by an aircraft bomb. Their stoicism, despite their pain, illustrated the Kurds’ determination not to yield to the Turkish onslaught. “Fix my leg so I can go back to the fight and rescue my brother,” Zana, 21, called to a doctor. The limb appeared to be broken in several places . “Fix it or I’ll give you a kick to show it’s nearly mended,” he added.

Rony Iskan, 18, his arms broken and his body pockmarked by shrapnel, said he had been trained by the US to guard a jail in Hasakah holding 5,000 Isis prisoners. “The Americans taught me how to be a guard and trained me in unarmed combat so I could deal with unruly Isis prisoners,” he said. “I thought we were allies unified against a joint enemy. But then the Americans left us last week and I was sent from the prison to the front where I was blown up by a Turkish airstrike. I don’t have words to describe the sense of betrayal.”

No such expression of betrayal was possible for Mohammed. As the nurse injected him, his screaming slowly faded. “Which grade are you in?” she asked him. “Fifth grade,” he whispered.

“Do you like your teacher?”

“Yes. I like my teacher.”

He did not speak after that, but his unblinking eyes stared upwards and the expression of horror never left him.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/turk ... -jp23jmqvv