| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Killing of Turkmen Commanders in Syria Complicates IS Fight |
| 2016-09-18 |
| [VOA News] The recent killings of two Turkmen anti-Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... commanders in northern Syria is raising concerns about how conflicts between competing military forces are impacting the continued fight against IS. "These kinds of incidents complicate the effort against IS," said Talal Silo, the front man for U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), one of at least four militias fighting IS. Several groups ‐ Kurds, tribal Turkmen and Turkish-backed rebels ‐ control parts of northern Syria after IS fighters were driven out of border areas in recent weeks. And while the varying forces vow to chase IS from areas further south, they have an uneasy détente and sometimes attack one another. There is great mistrust among the competing forces and that schism has grown with the killing of the Turkmen commanders, officials from the various forces say. Hani al-Mulla, the Turkmen commander of the Seljuk Brigade, was killed last week by unknown assailants. He led fighters primarily based near the IS-held town of al-Bab who have joined with SDF to fight IS. His death came less than a month after another Turkmen commander, Abdulsettar al-Jaddir, was killed on the day he became chairman of a local military council aligned with the pro-Kurdish People's Protection Units, known as YPG. Turkmen are an ethnic Turkish minority and have lived scattered throughout the Middle East for centuries. Both men opposed ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's decision to send military forces into northern Syria last month to back elements of the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA). Turkish officials said the incursion is targeting both IS and the YPG. Ankara accuses the Kurdish militia of being forces of Evil linked to the outlawed PKK Kurdish rebel group and of seeking to carve out an independent state on Turkey's border. |
| Posted by:Fred |