[Tolo News] The NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... ’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan has said the U.S forces will focus on conducting ’unilateral operations’ next year in order to defeat al-Qaeda and other Lion of Islam outfits in the country.
In an interview with an American TV channel, C-SPAN on Thursday, Charles Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone, ...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then went back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ... , a front man for the Resolute Support mission, said the groups are operative in Afghanistan and Pakistain.
"U.S. forces in Afghanistan have two missions ‐ the first mission is a unilateral U.S. counterterrorism mission specifically focused on al-Qaeda and 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 Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... [ISIS]... We do have the authority to conduct unilateral operations with defeating al-Qaeda as well as other groups," the front man said.
He said the reason which they will focus on the mission is to protect their Afghan allies and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie ducked another tomato... military commentator Mirza Mohammad Yarmand commented on NATO front man’s remarks and said: "To defeat terrorists, Afghanistan needs regional and international cooperation. I don’t think Pakistain will be honest in its commitments towards the anti-terror mission. Pakistain should close the illegal madrassas on its soil, if it actually wants to combat against terrorism."
According to Afghan security officials, a large number of Afghan and Pak Taliban entered Afghanistan ‐ from Pakistain ‐ this year and tried to transfer the Taliban’s main council to Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , but they were failed.
"Taliban has been divided into many factions; therefore, it is a good opportunity for the Afghan government to invite the moderate Taliban groups to the peace table," university lecturer Qasim Wahidi said.
NATO has said that the Taliban made lots of efforts this year to take control of central cities of some provinces including Helmand, Kunduz, Uruzgan, Farah and few other provinces; however, the Lion of Islam group failed in this bid.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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Another Children's Crusade, only these are physically adult.
[DeutscheWelle] Wanting to show their solidarity with the people of Syria, a group of Europeans are to walk to Aleppo from Berlin after Christmas. The 'Civil March for Aleppo' is the initiative of a Pole living in the German capital.
What is known, which is of less urgency now that the nice Italian policemen sent him to Hell.
[DeutscheWelle] Anis Amri showed many signs of radicalization before carrying out the terror attack in Berlin. A debate is raging over whether the violent tragedy was preventable and what could be done in the future.
[DeutscheWelle] Police said they have arrested two Kosovo-born brothers in western Germany suspected of planning an attack on a mall.
Thursday night police made two arrests near Duisburg in NRW after uniformed and plain-clothed officers scoured the giant Centro mall in Oberhausen.
The Kosovo-born brothers, aged 28 and 31, were suspected of planning an attack at Centro, including its Christmas stalls, according to a police statement.
NRW was the region where Amri arrived as an asylum seeker in Germany in mid-2015, but authorities said they did not believe the attack on the Christmas market in Berlin and the planned Centro mall attack were directly related.
"We're urgently investigating how far the preparations had got and whether more people were involved," police said in the early hours of Friday.
Berlin's public broadcaster RBB said images a few hours after the attack showed Amri at a mosque in Berlin's district of Moabit, where the truck was hijacked and its Polish driver killed inside the cab.
#2
The children of the Children's Crusade were supposed to have ended up either dead or enslaved, Shipman. The knightly crusades were the ones who sacked Constantinople.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Mac Reports announced, on Thursday, that Turkish police found the IPhone of the killer of the Russian Ambassador who was bumped off, and that the security authorities are seeking to unlock it and know the recordings it contains.
Turkish police and Russian agencies want to crack the PIN code on the device to access its content. Without the 4-digit code, the content of the phone remains unknown. So far, attempts to unlock the IPhone 4s have been unsuccessful.
According to the same site, an important Turkish official said that Russia offered to help the Turkish authorities to try to decode the phone, through a team of technical experts in the field. He pointed out that some officials in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , has had contacts with the international company "Apple". The latter did not issue any statement so far; he stated that "Apple" will probably not provide any assistance in this regard.
The Russian ambassador to Ankara, Andrei Karlov, was killed last Monday, after being shot by a Turkish citizen working in the police force.
Arab and international media outlets reported the slogans roared by the killer of the ambassador, after being shot, that expressed sympathy with the tragedy of the people of Aleppo in Syria, as it appeared in a video aired by all media worldwide.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Turks reacted angrily Friday on social media to a video released by the 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 Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group purportedly showing two captured Turkish soldiers being burned alive, while awaiting an official reaction from the government.
The 19-minute video, showing two uniformed men being hauled from a cage before being bound and torched, was posted on jihadist websites and supposedly shot in the IS-declared "Aleppo Province" in northern Syria.
The video, which sparked outrage in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , came as the Turkish military was suffering its worst losses in its fight against jihadists in northern Syria, where nearly 90 civilians have been killed since Thursday in Turkish raids, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Speaking in Turkish, the killer of the two men criticises Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... and calls for "destruction to be sowed" in Turkey.
By mid-Friday, the Turkish authorities had not yet reacted but Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim were due to speak later in the day in Izmir in western Turkey.
Despite reported difficulty in accessing some sites, especially Twitter and Facebook, internet users were widely discussing the brutal video, with one saying "it's a nightmare".
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were difficult to access in Turkey on Friday, according to Turkey Blocks, a website specialising in tracking internet censorship.
The traumatic images added to the pain suffered by Turks, who have had to deal with several attacks -- including several claimed by IS jihadists -- a bloody but failed coup and, this week, the liquidation of Russia's ambassador in Ankara.
According to pro-government news agency Anadolu, Turkish police tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! 31 people suspected of links with IS on Friday and were hunting for 10 more. It was not clear if the arrests were linked to the video.
The shocking images recall the killing of Maaz al-Kassasbeh, a Jordanian fighter pilot, who was captured by the jihadists when his plane went down in Syria in December 2014, and was later burned alive in a cage.
Before being burned, the two victims gave their names in Turkish as Fethi Sahin, born in Konya in central Turkey and Sefter Tas, a 21-year-old serving in Kilis in the southeast.
According to Turkish media, a soldier by the name of Sefter Tas was kidnapped by IS on September 1, 2015, but Ankara never confirmed the capture.
The Turkish army however did confirm last month it had lost contact with two of its troops in Syria and the IS-linked propaganda agency Amaq had claimed their capture by the jihadists. Again, Turkish authorities did not confirm the alleged kidnapping.
The video came shortly after 16 Turkish soldiers were killed by IS fighters in Ankara's biggest loss so far in its unprecedented incursion into Syria.
They were killed in a succession of attacks around the Syrian town of al-Bab on Wednesday that included three suicide boom-mobileings.
The video was also published just hours after Erdogan vowed no let-up in the ongoing campaign.
"Yes, maybe we will have to lay deaders to rest," he said in a speech in Ankara.
"But we are determined to preserve their memory and protect what they left us and continue this struggle."
With Turkish involvement in the battle intensifying, the Syrian Observatory said at least 88 civilians had been killed in 24 hours of Turkish air strikes on an Islamic State group bastion in northern Syria.
At least 35 Turkish soldiers have been killed since the August 24 start of Turkey's campaign in Syria codenamed Operation Euphrates Shield.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Seven convicted bully boyz affiliated with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and sentenced to death by military courts were shifted to a high security prison in Sahiwal from the Central Jail Adiala on Thursday.
Of the seven prisoners, Siraj Khan was placed in durance vile Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! by the Rawalpindi Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Oct 29, 2015 for his involvement in terrorist activity.
Tariq Ismail, who was linked to the TPP, was arrested by the Attock CTD on Feb 15, 2010, for his involvement in case related to terrorism.
The five other prisoners were identified as Tayyab Mirzada, Hussain Shah, Shahid Omer, Shamasul Qamar and Fazal-a-Haq.
According to police sources, Elite Force commandos led by a deputy superintendent of police guarded the seven prisoners while they were being transported to Sahiwal.
In addition, two individuals convicted of involvement in terrorist activity and sentenced to death by the military courts on Thursday were shifted to the high security prison in Adiala jail.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Foreign Office dismissed on Thursday Pentagon’s latest assessment that the Taliban and Haqqani network were freely operating from Pakistain and instead accused Afghanistan of being an epicentre of terrorism in the region.
"This is more of a rhetoric than anything else. Afghanistan is infested with most terrorist organizations due to the instability there, which has created space for these terrorist elements," Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria said. Then his lips fell off.
He was reacting to the recent biannual report of the US Department of Defence on security and stability situation in Afghanistan, which had said: "Afghan-oriented bully boy groups, including Taliban and Haqqani network’s big shotship, retain freedom of action from safe havens inside Pak territory. The United States continues to be clear with Pakistain about steps it should take to improve the security environment and deny safe havens to terrorist and myrmidon groups."
Mr Zakaria recalled the counterterrorism operations undertaken by Pak security forces in the tribal areas, which had restored peace there. But he also acknowledged that a large number of holy warriors had moved to Afghanistan after the start of the operations.
The number of "senior commanders of Haqqani network, Taliban, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups killed in Afghanistan this year," he stressed, by itself told where the leadership of these organizations was currently based.
A senior FO official, in a testimony at the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee earlier in the week, had said that the Haqqani network and Taliban had been told to end violence in Afghanistan.
The front man in his briefing avoided commenting on the reported statement and said "we remain committed and extend all cooperation to the efforts towards bringing peace and stability in Afghanistan".
It should be further recalled that Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry had in a rare admission told a TV interviewer that some of Haqqani network/Talibs were in Pakistain, but had been instructed not to indulge in any terrorist activity or violence in Afghanistan.
Mr Zakaria renewed Pakistain’s offer to facilitate the Afghan grinding of the peace processor.
Senior officials from Pakistain, Russia and China would meet in Russia on Dec 27 to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, besides the overall regional security situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar on Friday called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... , in the first such visit since his appointment as chief of Inter-Services Intelligence ...the Pak military intelligence agency that controls the military -- heads of ISI typically get promoted into the Chief of Army Staff position. It serves as a general command center for favored turban groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, tries to influence the politix of neighboring countries, and carries out a (usually) low-level war against India in Kashmir... (ISI) earlier this month, a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said. During the meeting, the DG ISI and the prime minister discussed policy guidelines and internal security, sources in the PM House told DawnNews.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] A top U.S. senator who oversees the United States' UN funding threatened on Friday to pull financial support for the international body if it moves forward with a vote on a resolution over Israeli settlements, and for any nation that backs the measure.
Lindsey Graham ... the endangered South Carolina RINO... , a South Carolina Republican who oversees the Senate subcommittee that controls such assistance, said in a statement: "If the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... moves forward with the ill-conceived resolution, I will work to form a bipartisan coalition to suspend or significantly reduce United States assistance to the United Nations."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
No more ignoring New York City parking tickets forr yuuuuu!!!!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/24/2016 11:22 Comments ||
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[REUTERS] The United States on Friday allowed the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements, defying pressure from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... , Israel and some U.S. politicians who urged Washington to wield its veto.
An abstention by the United States paved the way for the 15-member council to approve the resolution, with 14 votes in favor, to a round of applause.
The B.O. regime's action broke with the long-standing American approach of shielding Israel, Washington's long-time ally that receives more than $3 billion in annual U.S. military aid, from such action. The United States, along with Russia, La Belle France, Britannia and China, has veto power on the council.
The resolution, put forward by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... a day after Egypt withdrew it under pressure from the Israel and Trump, was the first adopted by the council on Israel and the Paleostinians in nearly eight years.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Way past time to close it down, move the entire sordid mess to Zimbabwe.
#4
I guess the personnel at State think their resumes are good enough for the Foundation, Trust, and DNC jobs come this year. This is what they've worked towards for many generations. One last great act of defiance. Gut it. No apologies. See - Sun Tzu and the concubines.
#5
Why can't the UN be moved to Zimbabwe ? Would it be harder to order Eggs Benedict for breakfast there and a shortage of Champagne Lunches and Lobster for Dinner and the Red tape and the long halls lined with rubber stamps ?
Or perhaps the hotel accommodations don't measure up in ( what is the capitol of ZimBOB by the WAY? )
#6
Wretchard T. Cat on FB: The most instructive thing about Obama's Security Council abstention is he didn't have the guts to do it earlier, when he stood to lose something by doing it. Only after he calculated there was nothing more to squeeze from that particular quarter did he run up the Jolly Roger. Had it cost him it would have meant something, even as a gesture.
But even more interesting was his willingness to damage the Democratic party who he's leaving with political bill, not to mention the fact that the policy his abstention represents makes little sense.
Israel is likely to emerge as a linchpin in the region, after Obama's power vacuum bomb reduces the nearby countries to waste. If Turkey and Iran fall apart, which is not inconceivable, then Obama will have antagonized the last man standing.
It was bad timing and pointless, like a punch thrown by a fighter lying on the canvas -- at the referee. That would leave his legacy a consistently dysfunctional whole: conceived in delusion, executed in incompetence.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/24/2016 10:47 Comments ||
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#7
The resolution, put forward by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal
#8
An abstention by the United States paved the way for the 15-member council to approve the resolution, with 14 votes in favor, to a round of applause, and provided Baraq Obama one last chance to vote present.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/24/2016 15:33 Comments ||
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#9
A dick move for sure Tennessee, but I suspect Senegal is the only one receiving funds.$140 million as of 2012, not enough to buy a U.S. Soccer team.
#10
Also to blame: Shanty-Irish Willem Dafoe lookalike Samantha Powers who has been ineffective when she's not being just Anti-American
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/24/2016 16:49 Comments ||
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#11
Add any nation who voted for it to the list of terrorist nations. Declare all treaties with them null and void, deny any and all travel to and from them, call in any loans they have and expel their embassies from the United States. Sink any vessel flying their flag, I'm sure we can use the target practice.
[IsraelTimes] Documents issued by EU foreign policy chief reduce the amount of material currently held by Iran that is counted as enriched uranium
Iran and world powers have agreed on clarifications to the 2015 nuclear deal that will effectively allow Iran to enrich more uranium than previously thought, Rooters reported Friday.
The technical documents released by the office of European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini state that some of the enriched material held by Iran is not counted under the limits set by the accord -- for instance unrecoverable uranium left in pipes.
"All current low-level solid waste contaminated with low-enriched uranium (LEU)...which is deemed unrecoverable, is not part of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile as specified in the [accord] provided that Iran does not build or operate any facility or part of a facility capable of recovering LEU from solid waste for 15 years," one clause quoted by Rooters said.
The new documents would apparently allow Tehran more leeway in its activities, after diplomats warned earlier this week that Tehran could soon pass the agreed-upon limit on the material.
The deal originally stipulated that Iran can possess only low-enriched uranium -- which is not suitable for weapons -- and no more than 300 kilograms (660 pounds) at any time. That’s far less than would be needed to make a nuclear weapon, even if it were further enriched to weapons-grade levels.
Even a slight violation of Iran’s enrichment commitments would be politically volatile at a time when the deal is on shaky ground. The incoming US administration wants the agreement renegotiated, and many American politicians oppose it. Iran says it won’t renegotiate the deal, and accuses the United States of reneging on commitments to lift sanctions.
Iran insists it is not interested in nuclear arms. Its president, Hassan Rouhani, said after talks with IAEA chief Yukiya Amano last weekend that his country would abide by the deal if other nations do as well.
An IAEA statement said Amano "stressed the vital importance of full implementation by Iran of its nuclear-related commitments." Asked whether he had concerns about Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, he told news hounds that Tehran is within the limits -- "for now."
While Iran has generally kept its obligations since the deal was implemented in January, it has twice exceeded the limit on stockpiles of heavy water, which cools reactors that produce large amounts of plutonium.
On Tuesday Iran’s nuclear energy agency indicated that Tehran would soon begin injecting gas into the latest generation of advanced centrifuges, IR-8, in a move that marks the next step to make them operational and that Iran says is permitted under the terms of the nuclear deal.
Iran has said that its IR-8 centrifuges enrich uranium 20 times faster than the IR-1 centrifuges, which the country used prior to the deal.
Under the terms of the agreement as issued in a fact sheet released by the US State Department last year, Iran "will not use its IR-2, IR-4, IR-5, IR-6, or IR-8 models to produce enriched uranium for at least ten years. For ten years, enrichment and enrichment research and development will be limited to ensure a breakout timeline of at least 1 year. Beyond 10 years, Iran will abide by its enrichment and enrichment R&D plan submitted to the IAEA, and pursuant to the JCPOA, under the Additional Protocol resulting in certain limitations on enrichment capacity."
Iran has maintained that, under the accord, it was allowed to conduct R&D on its more advanced centrifuges.
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12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[Hurriyet Daily News] The capture of Syria’s al-Bab from the 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 Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) is almost complete, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... said on Dec. 23.
The president initially slammed the opposition’s criticism on the military operation in Syria, dubbed Euphrates Shield, saying that the Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) fighters were close to retaking the ISIS-held town.
"When bombs drop on Kilis, you say ’Where are you government?’ When we advance on those who drop bombs on Kilis, this time you say ’Are we the ones who will save the world?’ How naive those people are. Of course we will advance on. Did we make a ’terror-free safe-zone’ statement from the very beginning? We said be patient but they did not understand. So, we said ’We will advance on terror not just in our country but also in there [Syria]. Right now, [capture of] al-Bab is about to be completed by our armed forces and the FSA," Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of the LNG Terminal project in the Aliaga district of the Aegean province of Izmir.
Erdogan also refuted claims that there was no diplomatic process during the operation.
"The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... does not need any diplomacy lessons," he said.
The battle in al-Bab has recently intensified as FSA fighters continue to battle to take the town from ISIS myrmidons.
Defense Minister Fikri Isik announced on Dec. 22 that a total of 16 soldiers were killed in al-Bab a day earlier, marking the highest casualty for Turkey in a single day since the launch of the operation in August.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Lebanese Ministry of Finance announced that Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport Customs seized bag containing 20 kilograms of heroin on Friday.
The bag belonged to a traveler holding a Venezuelan passport who entered the country two days ago, the statement said.
Authorities have initiated legal proceedings against the suspect, it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] The United States does not support the Kurdish groups in northern Syria linking together the three cantons of Afrin, Kobane and Cizre along the Syrian-Turkish border, the US ambassador to Ankara said in an interview broadcast on Friday.
John Bass said that his country has two goals in its support for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The first goal is to ensure the defeat of ISIS in Syria, especially along the Syrian-Turkish border, therefore eliminating the threat of the bully boy group to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... . Secondly, this outcome should not come at the expense of creating other problems for Turkey, a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... ally.
"[T]he other goal we have had is to approach this problem set in Syria and to ensure we conduct military operations in ways that do not create a long-term strategic problem for Turkey, our NATO ally," Bass told Turkish NTV.
"That is an important reason why we do not support, have never supported, connection of the so-called Kurdish cantons in Syria."
Kurds have three self-administered cantons located along Syria’s northwestern border with Turkey, collectively known as Rojava. Afrin canton in the west is separated from the eastern cantons of Kobane and Cizre by a 100 kilometre-long stretch that is now under control of Turkey and its allied militias. The lands between Afrin and Kobane cantons are demographically mixed.
Turkey opposes the Syrian Kurds advancing westward from Kobane to link up with Afrin. Ankara does not want to see the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) ‐ the foremost gang in the SDF ‐ dominate the border region as Turkey considers the YPG to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
"We do not support anyone on the ground changing demography or changing political governance structures unilaterally based solely on their military success against ISIS," Bass said, using another name for ISIS.
Fawzi Sleman, spokesperson for the defence committee of Afrin canton, told Rudaw in late June that uniting the three Rojava cantons is decisive for the Kurdish administration.
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12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] Rudaw spoke with Ibrahim Idlibi, a Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) spokesperson on Friday about the state of affairs in Aleppo before their retreat from the city and the assistance or lack thereof from their foreign backers during the siege.
Below is the text of Idlibi's conversation with Rudaw TV.
Yesterday the last fighters of FSA left Aleppo for the countryside. Now Aleppo is empty of FSA fighters. More than 30,000 civilians and 7,000 fighters left the eastern neighborhoods in seven days after a Turkish-Syrian deal. Some of them have gone to the northern countryside. The city has no FSA. There are now Hezbollah militia, Iranian militia and regime forces.
We have not given up on the city, but the war compelled us to do that. FSA managed to resist inside the city under 113 days of siege. But regime and Iranian forces alongside Russian jets exhausted the fighters in the eastern neighborhoods. They killed civilians and devastated the city. This led FSA to retreat temporarily and reorganize our forces for if there is a new battle.
Had there been food supplies and medicine to treat the maimed civilians the FSA would not have retreated. Regime and Iranian militia brought food and medical supplies into the eastern neighborhoods and filmed it and said they belonged to FSA and FSA had kept it away. But that is not true. If the FSA had such supplies the FSA would have stayed longer. We had plans to resist six months or longer but the heavy bombing and destruction compelled us to withdraw.
Not only The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , but all friends of Syria abandoned the FSA and in fact they bear responsibility for the demographic changes taking place in this city. The friends of the Syrian people should have dropped assistance to us through the air. The UN convoys were all around the city and the regime forces couldn't enter the city. They could have airdropped assistance to us but they were not honest with their friends inside Aleppo.
The FSA did not give up on Aleppo, and it is still fighting on many fronts. We have only lost 13 percent of the area and the rest of the countryside is still under FSA. There is Idlib and Hama and we get help from the friends of Syria not only Turkey. And there is the Euphrates Shield still going. I can only say that people abandoned us in Aleppo. Everywhere else, on the east and western fronts battles still continue and they are helped by our allies. For sure the loss of Aleppo was a big loss for the revolution but it was for the safety of the people and our fighters.
Yes there were big losses in lives and material. There were more than 30 FSA deaders throughout the 113 days of siege. We lost tanks and our heavy weapons were not useful for the street fight. The FSA killed more than 1,300 regime forces and its militias. But the main victims were the civilians because Russian jets and Iranian forces destroyed their resources. All of this is considered loss for the revolution. But our losses cannot be compared to the high level of regime, Iranian and Iraqi militias.
3,000 non-combatants were killed during the 113 days of siege. 13 medical centers were destroyed. Regime forces destroyed Sulaimani Halabi plant that supplied the eastern part of the city with water and electricity. All electricity lines were destroyed with jets and artillery fire.
Yes, 1,300 regime and militia forces were killed. Seven tanks destroyed inside the city with armor-piercing missiles and we handed over 14 Iranian militia prisoners based on the deal. And we handed over maimed personnel of the regime. In the outskirts of the city of Aleppo many regime army machinery have been destroyed.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Russia has sent a battalion of military police to keep order in Aleppo, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Friday, after the Syrian army and allies retook full control of the city.
"We sent in a battalion of military police yesterday evening to maintain order in the liberated territories," Shoigu told Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... A Russian battalion normally numbers between 300 and 400 soldiers.
The Russian military police is a subdivision of the military that is meant to ensure order and discipline in the army.
Putin hailed the recapture of Aleppo as a "very important part of the normalization in Syria" and said that "everything needs to be done for fighting to stop on all Syrian territory."
Russian media earlier this month reported that scores of Chechens have been sent in as military police to Syria, with one video showing them chatting in the Chechen language while getting ready for their sendoff and wearing military police uniforms.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2016 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Mac Reports announced, on Thursday, that Turkish police found the IPhone of the killer of the Russian Ambassador who was 
[DAWN] Seven convicted 
Lindsey Graham
[REUTERS] The United States on Friday allowed the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements, defying pressure from U.S. President-elect 
[Hurriyet Daily News] The capture of Syria’s al-Bab from the 
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
