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Turkey launches major new ground and air cross border operation in Syria
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Ottoman Turkish army on Saturday confirmed it had started a major new ground and air cross border operation against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia in Syria, which The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
 deems to be a terror organization.

Dubbing the new campaign operation ’Olive Branch’, the Ottoman Turkish army said it had begun at 1400 GMT and was aimed against the YPG and also ISIS Death Eaters.

The army also said the operation would be carried out "with respect for Syria's territorial integrity" and stemmed from Turkey’s rights under international law.

In latest reports, Turkey’s state-run news agency
...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
 said Ottoman Turkish jets have attacked a military airport in northwest Syria that is under the control of a Syrian Kurdish military group.

Anadolu Agency said the jets struck Mannagh air base.

Separately, the agency quoted Turkey’s military officials as saying warplanes had so far struck 108 out of a total of 113 Syrian Kurdish militia targets in the Afrin region.

Turkey said it was informing Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
’s regime of its new offensive against Syrian Kurdish militia regarded as a terror group by Ankara, in a rare official contact with Damascus.

"We informed all parties on what we are doing. We are even informing the Syrian regime in writing," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the 24 TV broadcaster. "Even though we don’t have relations with the regime, we are taking our steps in compliance with the international law."

Turkey has been one of the leading foes of Assad’s regime since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011.

Russia voices concern
Meanwhile,
...back at the mall, Clarissa suddenly spied Mr. Bartlett at the checkout counter. He was buying Grecian Formula!...
 Russia voiced concern and urged restraint over a new Ottoman Turkish operation to oust Kurdish militia from a northern Syrian enclave in Syria.

"Moscow is concerned at this news. We call on the opposing parties to show restraint," the foreign ministry said in a statement after the launch of an operation which has also drawn US warnings.

Russia's Defense Ministry said it was pulling back troops that had been deployed near the Syrian city of Afrin after bombing strikes by Ottoman Turkish warplanes.

In a statement reported on Russian news agencies, the ministry said Saturday that "to prevent possible provocations, to exclude the threat to life and health of Russian servicemen, the operational group of the Center for Reconciliation of warring parties and military police in the Afrin area is relocated to the Tell-Adjar area."

Tell-Adjar is within a so-called "de-escalation zone" established in September.

There were no immediate reports of how many Russian servicemen were affected by the move.

Yildirim confirms aerial offensive
Ottoman Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Ottoman Turkish jets had begun an aerial offensive against the Syrian Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin in northwestern Syria.

"As of this moment our brave Armed Forces have started the aerial offensive to eliminate the PYD and PKK and ISIS elements in Afrin," said Yildirim at a speech in the city of Bilecik, referring to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party and the Kurdistan Worker’s Party respectively, and using an Arabic acronym for the ISIS group.

Turkey’s state-run news agency, meanwhile, said that a group of Ottoman Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces crossed into the area on Saturday as part of an offensive to oust a militia group Turkey considers to be terrorists.

News Agency that Dare Not be Named journalists at the Ottoman Turkish border saw at least five jets heading toward Afrin. They also witnessed a convoy of buses, believed to be carrying Syrian opposition fighters, traveling along the border across from Afrin. The convoy included trucks mounted with machine guns.

Rojhat Roj, a front man for the Syrian Kurdish militia group, confirmed that a Ottoman Turkish plane was striking Afrin city.

A Syrian Kurdish YPG front man in Afrin said people were maimed in Ottoman Turkish air strikes on Afrin, even though it was unclear how many. Ottoman Turkish warplanes were striking Afrin city and several villages around it, he said.

The warplanes struck residential parts of Afrin, forcing people to hole up in their homes and in shelters, a senior Kurdish official there said.

Hevi Mustafa, a top member of the civilian administration that governs Afrin, said several maimed people had arrived in the hospitals.

Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in a statement said that Ottoman Turkish authorities have started "an aggressive war against our people in Afrin, targeting civilian districts with air strikes."

YPG said "we have no choice but to resist" after the Ottoman Turkish attacks. "Wwe will defeat this aggression like we have defeated other assaults against our cities."

Erdogan speech
Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
 had earlier said on Saturday that Ankara had "de-facto" already launched an operation on the ground to oust Kurdish militia from the Syrian town of Afrin.

"The Afrin operation has de-facto been started on the ground," Erdogan said in a televised speech in the city of Kutahya, without specifying further.

"This will be followed by Manbij," he added, referring to another Kurdish-controlled Syrian town to the east.

Speaking to the members of his ruling AK Party in the western province of Kutahya, Erdogan did not specify if that meant Ottoman Turkish troops had crossed the border.

Earlier, the Ottoman Turkish army said it launched new strikes on Saturday against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in northern Syria. The army said it shelled Kurdish positions in Afrin on Friday and Saturday, hitting shelters and hideouts used by bandidos murderous Moslems from three groups.


Posted by: Fred 2018-01-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=506186