Hi there, !
Today Fri 02/23/2018 Thu 02/22/2018 Wed 02/21/2018 Tue 02/20/2018 Mon 02/19/2018 Sun 02/18/2018 Sat 02/17/2018 Archives
Rantburg
531698 articles and 1855974 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 59 articles and 128 comments as of 13:43.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
9 abducted civilians found dead in Afghanistan
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
0 [1] 
6 22:14 trailing wife [2] 
0 [] 
1 07:03 Frank G [] 
2 09:44 Raj [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
5 20:25 Mullah Richard [1] 
1 16:03 M. Murcek [1] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 08:19 Winky the Ruthless3340 [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
3 09:54 swksvolFF [2]
0 []
0 []
2 21:18 Fred [1]
0 [1]
0 []
0 [3]
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
0 [1]
Page 3: Non-WoT
3 18:37 Otto the Rash4373 [2]
0 []
0 []
4 22:00 trailing wife [2]
2 15:44 Zenobia Floger6220 [1]
2 11:59 Anguper Hupomosing9418 []
0 []
3 20:23 Mullah Richard [1]
0 []
2 03:48 Snilet Brown4492 []
1 05:29 Threlet Grundy8315 []
3 08:16 AlanC []
0 []
1 07:59 Procopius2k []
6 15:16 Frank G []
0 []
Page 4: Opinion
0 []
3 20:36 SteveS [1]
3 22:19 KBK [2]
7 15:34 DooDahMan []
10 16:34 charger [2]
9 12:08 Anguper Hupomosing9418 []
11 16:57 M. Murcek [1]
11 21:02 Sock Puppet of Doom [1]
Page 6: Politix
5 21:07 Sock Puppet of Doom [1]
5 15:03 rjschwarz []
8 16:38 charger [1]
1 02:08 g(r)omgoru [1]
7 13:43 Vast Right Wing Conspiracy []
Africa North
Calls in Tunisia to hold minister accountable for financing terrorism with Qatari funds
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A Tunisian parliamentary bloc called for holding Tunisian defense minister accountable for the issue of financial transfers attributed to a retired Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i officer.

The case against Abdel Karim al-Zubaidi also involves opening an account in a bank branch in Tataouine in 2014, and the use of these suspicious funds by several associations and personalities accused of supporting terrorism.

In this regard, Sahbi Ben Faraj, the leader of the Tunisian Project Movement parliamentary bloc, said that accountability will revolve around the identity of the associations benefiting from these funds and the history of remittances, stressing that the bank account contained money that came from an account in the name of the Qatari armed forces, which is part of a bank account in the name of the Embassy of Qatar in Tunisia.

The suspicious funds were estimated at around 4.5 million Tunisian dinars (about 1.8 million dollars). The Financial Analysis Committee has identified a major suspicious transaction that included military personnel who have benefited from these sums.

The case dates back to 2014, when the competent authority at the Ministry of Defense questioned the Qatari general, and the whole file was referred to the military judiciary. The relevant bank accounts were suspended based on an order by the magistrate of the judicial court on July 24, 2015. The frozen amount was estimated at around 3 million Tunisian dinars (about 1.2 million dollars), but in return, the identity of the parties involved with the retired Qatari general has not been disclosed.
Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Qatar (MB)


Africa Subsaharan
Police Accused of Killing Boko Haram Founder Reinstated
[AnNahar] Five Nigerian coppers who were accused of killing Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
's founder Mohammed Yusuf while in their custody have been reinstated, a police oversight body said on Monday.

The officers were charged with committing a terrorist act and unlawfully killing the Islamist group's spiritual leader during days of unrest in the northeast city of Maiduguri in July 2009.

The festivities, in which about 800 Boko Haram followers were killed, prompted an escalation in violence that has since left at least 20,000 dead and made over 2.6 million more homeless.

A judge in Abuja in late December 2015 acquitted the police on the grounds the prosecution could not establish a case against them. The ruling attracted little publicity at the time.

A front man for the Police Service Commission, Ikechukwu Ani, confirmed a report in the Daily Trust newspaper that the officers were now back on the beat.

"It is true. They have all been reinstated. The Police Service Commission acted upon a memo sent to it by the inspector general of police," he told AFP.

"The memo was accompanied with the court orders that they should be reinstated. The court acquitted them of all the charges and we have no choice but to obey the orders of court."

Amaechi Nwaokolo, a Nigeria security analyst at the Roman Institute for International Studies in Abuja, said the acquittal and reinstatement was "a source of concern."

Boko Haram has long used the fact that no-one has been prosecuted or convicted for Yusuf's death as a reason for its armed struggle, he argued.

"This development will further give Boko Haram a tool for recruitment and radicalization of its ranks by using it to show the lack of justice it has been preaching," he said.

"Extra-judicial killings by state security apparatus give terrorist groups the needed tool and justification to recruit others and carry out terrorist acts as retaliation.

"It was the killing of Yusuf that led to the escalation of the violence and the degeneration of the conflict to the level we have today."

Nigeria's security services have been repeatedly accused of abuses against civilians during the insurgency, including arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial killing.

Many civilians have been held for years without access to lawyers or being brought to court.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)


Europe
Denmark is reluctant to take back its jailed Daesh terrorists in Syria
And so they should be.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Several hundred ISIS fighters are currently imprisoned in Syria, where the terrorist movement has gradually been subdued in recent years. A group of them are Danish and may be taken back for prosecution, despite that fact that the Danish Defense Minister would rather have them tried in the Middle East.

Following a US-led coalition meeting in Rome, during which US Defense Secretary, James Mattis urged the coalition partners to "provide relief" to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Danish Defense Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen argued that his country might be forced to "take back" Danish jihadists for prosecution, Danish Radio reported.

By Frederiksen’s own admission, the Danish authorities were currently trying to establish the concrete number of the captured jihadists and examine their cases. However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
Frederiksen himself made no secret of the fact that he would prefer them to go on trial in the respective countries where their crimes were committed.

"They have beheaded people, raped women and kiddies and sold people. For me, it is paradoxical for those murderous Moslems to now claim Western norms regarding the protection of rights," Frederiksen told Danish Radio. "I think it’s pathetic for those people to ask to be given safety in the Western countries that they so despicably wanted to defeat," he added.

While stressing that the "imported muscle" must be prosecuted where they have committed their crimes, Frederiksen also stressed that the US-backed SDF should not be left with the sole responsibility of dealing with the panful issue.

"We must not let down an ally by trying to leave everything at their door. We must therefore examine the cases specifically," Frederiksen said.

By contrast, the UK, a fellow coalition member, has previously refused to bring British jihadists "back home." Defense Minister Gavin Williamson stressed that they "turned their backs on Britannia and everything it stands for," calling them "the worst of the worst."

While seemingly more docile compared with his British counterpart, Frederiksen nevertheless stressed Denmark’s preparedness to go for the "maximum possible punishment."

Around 150 Danish citizens have joined bad boy Death Eater movements in Syria and Iraq since 2012, above all ISIS (ISIS/ISIS). An unknown fraction of them, whom Frederiksen described as a "little group," ended up incarcerated by the SDF.

Previously, Copenhagen had made it clear that "imported muscle" are not welcome back in Denmark. Since March 2015, the Nordic nation’s Immigration Service has been able to revoke the residence permits of the suspected jihadists who went to the Middle East from Denmark, but were not Danish citizens.

Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Perhaps the Danes could chip in for a wood chipper.
Posted by: Winky the Ruthless3340 || 02/20/2018 8:15 Comments || Top||

#2  I do get that technically having a (legitimately issued) passport from nation X makes one "a citizen of nation X," but in cases like this what is actually being described is "a piece of muzz trash with a nation X passport."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/20/2018 10:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Since Denmark abolished capital punishment in 1930, the war crimes trials '45-50 the exception, Europe's liberal chickens are coming home to roost.
Posted by: One Eyed Speaking for Boskone7919 || 02/20/2018 10:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Perhaps western nations should pass a law saying that if you leave to fight on behalf of ISIS you automatically renounce your citizenship and will be treated as a spy upon return.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/20/2018 14:59 Comments || Top||

#5  I suggest ejection over the North Sea, but I'm a deplorable or something.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 02/20/2018 20:25 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Allah strikes Pir Sialvi
[DAWN] SARGODHA: Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi had a brain haemorrhage and he was shifted to a Lahore hospital on Sunday.
Still time for repentence...
Mr Sialvi was going to Chiniot from Sial Sharif to participate in a Khatm-i-Nabuwat conference when he fell unconscious. He was shifted to a local private hospital. Earlier, the doctors thought Pir Sialvi had suffered from a cardiac problem but the CT scan revealed that he had a clot in brain. He was referred to Lahore where the phones of his associates did not respond. He had had a heart bypass about two years back and these days he was reportedly under stress due to differences between his son Qasim Sialvi and nephew Nizamuddin Sialvi.

Hameeduddin Sialvi remained senator from PML-N ticket and got prominence recently after a launching movement against Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah over a controversial statement by him.

Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Anbar Antix: ISIS hideouts and caches destroyed, ISIS 2.0 secretly planned

Iraqi troops destroy IS arms depot, three missile launchers in western Iraq

Anbar (Iraqinews.com) – Iraqi troops launched on Monday a wide-scale military operation, targeting hotbeds of the Islamic State (IS) group at desert areas in western Iraq, a source from the Anbar Operations Command was quoted as saying.

Speaking to Basnews, the source said, “A joint force from the Iraqi army and police started a military operation Monday, targeting Islamic State hideouts scattered at desert areas near Al-Qa’im and Ar-Rutbah districts in western Anbar, and on the country’s border with Syria.”

“The troops destroyed an Islamic State (IS) arms depot, four trenches and three missile launchers,” the source said, adding that three other caves that were used by IS militants for hiding were destroyed in the crackdown as well.

Newspaper: Senior IS leader eyes forming new militant group in Iraq
Shhhh — don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret!
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – A senior Islamic State (IS) leader plans to form a new militant group in western Iraq in retaliation for last year’s defeat at the hands of the Iraqi army, a Jordanian paper reported Monday.

Quoting well-informed sources, the Jordanian Ad-Dustour newspaper said, “Abu Yehia al-Iraqi, a senior IS leader, started to form a new militant group in Anbar’s Wadi Hauran, depending on remaining IS militants who suffered a crushing defeat throughout their strongholds in Iraq last year.”

The sources pointed out that militants of the new terrorist group are “secretly working as shepherds, waiting for the right moment to emerge and recapture cities they lost in their fight against the Iraqi army.”
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Newspaper: Senior IS leader eyes forming new militant group in Iraq

First glance I thought they were writing about the NY Times.
Posted by: Winky the Ruthless3340 || 02/20/2018 8:19 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinians slam Facebook for removing pages glorifying attacks on Israelis
A great deal more antisemitic and anti-Israel content produced elsewhere is left intact, but this is something,
[IsraelTimes] Journalists and activists accuse the social media giant of 'waging war on the Paleostinians,' Israel has long accused it of not doing enough to combat incitement.

Paleostinian activists and journalists on Monday launched a campaign to protest against Facebook after the social media giant removed dozens of pages in recent weeks, saying they incited and glorified terrorism.

"Facebook is waging war on the Paleostinians," the activists and journalists complained in a statement as they launched a Twitter hashtag entitled "#FBfightsPaleostine" to protest the Facebook measures.

According to the Paleostinians, the Facebook crackdown intensified after the killing of Ahmed Jarrar, the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, terrorist who was part of a cell that killed Rabbi Raziel Shevach in the northern West Bank last month.

Israeli security forces killed Jarrar in a shootout on February 6 in the village of al Yamoun, near Jenin.

IDF troops operate in the Jenin area in pursuit of Ahmed Jarrar, the Paleostinian who murdered Raziel Shevach, on February 3, 2018.
Since then, the Paleostinians said, Facebook has temporarily suspended or permanently removed more than 50 private and public pages and posts, most of which were dedicated to glorifying Jarrar. One of the deleted pages belonged to the Jarrar clan in Jenin.

During 2017, Facebook took action against 200 Paleostinian accounts, the statement said. The measures also included the removal of posts and photos deemed inflammatory and supportive of terrorism.

Earlier this week, Facebook removed the Hamas-affiliated "Paleostine.net" page, which had more than 180,000 likes.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Like"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2018 7:03 Comments || Top||


Qatari envoy abused, thrown out of hospital in Gaza
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i ambassador in Paleostine was kicked out from a hospital by the staff and public images and video shared on Monday revealed.

The video showed angry staff at the Shifa hospital in Gazoo showing Qatari envoy, Mohammed al-Emadi, being forced out, throwing shoes at him and tearing up the flag of Qatar while chanting slogans against Qatar.

Ambassador al-Emadi planned to hold a presser at the hospital before being attacked and thrown out by staff.

The assailants justified their act by saying that Qatari aid was not genuine and aimed at strengthening the Paleostinian divide.
Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Qatar (MB)

#1  Palestinians - making friends and influencing people.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/20/2018 1:58 Comments || Top||

#2  A Paleo hospital? They might have been doing the guy a favor.
Posted by: Raj || 02/20/2018 9:44 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Radio (show?) conversations of presumably Wagner contractors say 200+ dead
On Febuary 10, 2018, Telegram channel WarGonzo admistered by military journalist Semen Pegov (in Syria, reports w/ life.ru pro-Putin TV channel) published radio conversations of presumably Wagner contractors.

The youtube vid is submitted by a pro-Ukranian site.

Posted by: Winky the Ruthless3340 || 02/20/2018 04:43 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iran has 10 military bases in Syria, two near Israel border — analyst
[IsraelTimes] Up to 20,000 fighters trained by Tehran are in country, now focused on Israel, after neutralizing IS threat, NY Times reports

Iran operates 10 military bases in Syria and is training militias loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
’s regime for a possible battle with Israel, with two key facilities located near the border with Israel, an analyst for an American think tank said in an article published Monday.

Up to 20,000 fighters from various militias throughout the war-torn country have been trained by Iranian military personnel, giving Tehran its "true muscle" in Syria, according to the Monday report in The New York Times

...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...

Israel has been warning for years that Iran is seeking to entrench itself militarily in Syria. According to Israeli political and military assessments, Tehran, which has shored up Assad in the Syrian civil war, has been working to create air and naval bases in Syria, from which it can arm the Leb-based terror organization Hezbollah and other Shiite groups, as well as carry out attacks of its own against the Jewish state.

In November, Israeli satellite photos appeared to strengthen a BBC report that Iran was building a permanent military base in Syria, just 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Israel’s northern border.

The ImageSat International pictures, published by Hadashot News, showed that renovations and alterations had been recently undertaken at the site at al-Kiswah, some 13 kilometers (8 miles) south of the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Iran has repeatedly rejected the claim, with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif telling news hounds on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Monday that Iran has no military bases in Syria.

At least two Iraqi militia leaders have toured Leb’s border with Israel in recent months, The New York Times also said, quoting militia members as saying plans were made for "collaboration" in a possible conflict in the future.

Monday’s report said hundreds or thousands of Iranian military officials are in Syria and that about 6,000 of the Iran-trained combatants in the country are members of Hezbollah, with the rest coming from Leb, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistain, and other countries. Most of them view the battle against non-Shiite Moslems and against non-Moslems in the region in religious terms, the report added.

After neutralizing most of the threat posed by the Sunni 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....
terror group, militias loyal to Assad are now shifting their focus to the Israeli front, Ali Alfoneh, a researcher at the US-based Atlantic Council told The New York Times.

Alfoneh said in his research that he had identified 10 Iranian military bases, seven of which are tactical bases and located near active front lines, and three "main" bases overseeing activities throughout the country. Two of those main bases are located south of Damascus, near the border with Israel.

"Iran has realized that it is actually possible to maintain a front against Israel where there is no war, but also no peace," Alfoneh was quoted as saying.

On February 10, Israel struck what it said was a number of Iranian installations in Syria after an Iranian drone infiltrated into Israel, in what some analysts saw as the first direct confrontation between the two countries.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to protect itself against Iranian activities in Syria, including striking Iran directly.

"Israel will not allow Iran’s regime to put a noose of terror around our neck," he added. "We will act without hesitation to defend ourselves. And we will act if necessary, not just against Iran’s proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself."
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Iran is moving on multiple fronts - against KSA through Yemen, and Israel through Syria, and still working deeper into Iraq. Where an when will Egypt come in - against Iran and soon? Russia has lined up with Iran, but that may be more for arms sales than politics - they can't trust the mullahs any more than we can.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/20/2018 1:34 Comments || Top||

#2  GOG and MAGOG.
Posted by: newc || 02/20/2018 3:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Where an when will Egypt come in

As far as I can tell, Egypt doesn’t really want to repay Saudi Arabia by providing her sons as cannon fodder.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2018 10:37 Comments || Top||

#4  ^They've something else to sell to buy food, etc...?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/20/2018 13:34 Comments || Top||

#5  TW, I was more thinking about Egypt being concerned about keeping Iran at a distance rather than risking expansion into Egypt. I would not expect any overt military involvement unless the SHTF but perhaps covert or political involvement?
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/20/2018 13:39 Comments || Top||

#6  They've something else to sell to buy food, etc...?

Not really, no. You’re right about that, g(r)omgoru.

Glenmore, I don’t think Iran would get much traction in 90% Sunni, 10% Christian (almost exclusively Coptic) Egypt. Some of their spies were caught a few years ago watching traffic in the Suez Canal a few years ago, but I don’t recall more than that. It seems to me Egypt would be more concerned about Sunni jihadi groups in Libya and Gaza, but I can’t claim more than a surface understanding of such things. And you’re no doubt right that Iran would be very happy to find a wedge to cause trouble in Egypt...
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2018 22:14 Comments || Top||


Turkey denies reports Syria will help YPG in Afrin
How on earth would they know? Until afterward, that is...
[Al Jazeera] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's deputy prime minister has dismissed as "false" media reports that Syrian government forces were poised to enter a Kurdish enclave in Syria's Afrin.

Bekir Bozdag, however, warned any move by Syrian soldiers to help the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, repel a Ottoman Turkish offensive in northwestern Syria would be a "major disaster" for the region.

Turkey will continue its air and ground offensive against the YPG "with determination until the last terrorist is rendered ineffective", Bozdag told news hounds after a weekly cabinet meeting on Monday.

He was responding to a report by the Syrian state-run SANA news agency earlier in the day that said pro-government forces would enter Afrin "within a few hours to support its people's stand against Ottoman Turkish regime's attack".

The report by SANA raised fears of a potential clash between Ottoman Turkish troops and Syrian forces, which are backed by Russia and Iran.

SANA said the planned deployment followed an agreement between the Syrian government and the YPG.

But a front man for the YPG denied agreeing on a deal with Damascus.
Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Kurdish media publishes names of 100 Turkish-backed rebels killed in Afrin
[ALMASDARNEWS] The pro-YPG ANF News Agency published the names of 103 Ottoman Turkish-backed rebels that were killed during the one month long battle for Afrin.

Among the 103 Ottoman Turkish-backed rebels killed in Afrin, almost all of them were allegedly from the Aleppo Governorate.

The claims by ANF cannot be verified by al-Masdar.

ANF’s list of dead Ottoman Turkish-backed rebels comes just days after the Ottoman Turkish media published the names of some 450 Kurdish YPG killed in Afrin.

Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  That should be interesting.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/20/2018 16:03 Comments || Top||


Convoy of Aleppo residents arrives in Afrin amid reports of YPG-Syrian gov’t deal (video)
[ALMASDARNEWS] A convoy of residents of Aleppo was greeted by thousands of people in Afrin on Monday, in a show of unity amid an escalation of Ottoman Turkish shelling of numerous villages in the Kurdish-dominated region.

A significant number of convoy members reportedly hailed mostly from the Kurdish area of Aleppo.

The convoy arrived in Afrin following Syrian State TV reports of a deal between pro-Syrian government forces and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to allow forces loyal to the Syrian government in the Afrin region. Authorities have not confirmed these reports.

According to local media, armed troops are due to enter the city imminently, following an YPG-Syrian government agreement to deploy pro-Syrian government fighters on the Ottoman Turkish border.
Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syrian army to help Kurds repel Turkish offensive
[DAWN] Syrian Kurdish forces and the Damascus government have reached an agreement for the Syrian army to enter the Afrin region to help repel a Ottoman Turkish offensive, a senior Kurdish official said on Sunday.

Badran Jia Kurd, an adviser to the Kurdish-led administration in north Syria, said army troops will deploy along some border positions and could enter the region within the next two days.

The agreement underscores the increasingly complex situation in northern Syria where Kurdish groups, the Syrian government, rebel groups, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
, the United States and Russia are tangled in a complex web of enmities and alliances.

The complex relationship between the Damascus government and the Syrian Kurds, which each holds more territory than any other side in the war, will be an important element in determining the future course of the conflict.

Turkey launched an air and ground offensive last month on Syria’s Afrin region, opening a new front in the multi-sided Syrian war to target Kurdish fighters in the autonomous canton in the north.

The Kurdish YPG militia, which has received arms from the United States, has seized swathes of northern Syria from the holy warrior 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 during the conflict, and has a rival vision for the country’s future to that of the Damascus government.

But while the United States has a military presence in the much larger area of Syria the YPG and its allies control further east, it has not given any support to the YPG in Afrin.

Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
’s government has had a complex relationship with the YPG during the conflict. They have mostly avoided direct conflict and both sides have at times suggested a long-term agreement between them might be possible, but they have also sometimes clashed and espouse utterly different visions for Syria’s future. Assad has said he wants to take back control of the whole country.

Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



Who's in the News
32[untagged]
7Islamic State
4Sublime Porte
3Govt of Syria
2Boko Haram (ISIS)
2Govt of Qatar (MB)
2Govt of Iran
2Govt of Pakistan
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)
1TTP
1Hamas
1Houthis
1Pirates

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2018-02-20
  9 abducted civilians found dead in Afghanistan
Mon 2018-02-19
  Syrian Army deploys entire artillery division of howitzers, field guns, mortars and Grad rocket launchers for east Damascus battle
Sun 2018-02-18
  Drone strike kills 2 al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen
Sat 2018-02-17
  Senior IS Leader Returned to Iraq from Turkey
Fri 2018-02-16
  Syria's Idlib IS-Free after 'Surrender' Tuesday
Thu 2018-02-15
  Rebels strike western Syria’s primary power grid to leave millions without electricity
Wed 2018-02-14
  'White powder' sent to Pres.Obama's DC office just 24 hours after Don & Vanessa Trump got similar package
Tue 2018-02-13
  Drone strike kills six Al Qaeda suspects in Yemen
Mon 2018-02-12
  Sword-wielding man injures 4 worshipers at Indonesian church
Sun 2018-02-11
  Jaish-e-Mohammad targets sleeping families at Sunjuwan Army camp, kills two soldiers
Sat 2018-02-10
  TTP splinter group chief Khan Said ‘Sajna’ reported killed in US drone strike in Afghanistan
Fri 2018-02-09
  Houthi leader killed in precision strike along with 35 others
Thu 2018-02-08
  US kills more than 100 Assad regime fighters in largest deliberate strike against Syrian government forces
Wed 2018-02-07
  Israelis kill Ahmad Nasser Jarrar, terrorist behind murder of Rabbi Raziel Shevah
Tue 2018-02-06
  Chlorine gas dropped in rebel-held territory of Idlib, Syria

Better than the average link...



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.
44.221.45.48
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (17)    Non-WoT (16)    Opinion (8)    (0)    Politix (5)