Turkish tanks enter Syria in anti-IS operation

[webfact]

Turkish tanks enter Syria in anti-IS operation 

 

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Latest developments in the civil war in Syria (all times local):

 

11:30

Turkey's state-run news agency says Turkish tanks have crossed into Syria as part of a military operation to free a border town held by the Islamic State group.

 

In its report, Anadolu Agency, which cited unnamed government officials, did not say how many tanks had entered Syria.

 

Turkeys' private NTV television says as many as 20 tanks had crossed into Syria. It said clashes were taking place at the border.

___

11 a.m.

Vice President Joe Biden has arrived in Ankara for talks with Turkish leaders as Turkey launched a military operation to clear a Syrian border town of Islamic State militants.

 

Wednesday's visit comes at a difficult time for ties between the two NATO allies.

 

Turkey is demanding that Washington quickly extradite a U.S.-based cleric blamed for orchestrating last month's failed coup. The United States is asking for evidence against the cleric and asking that Turkey allow the extradition process to take its course.

 

In Syria, Turkey is concerned about the growing power of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, who it says are linked to Kurdish groups waging an insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

 

Wednesday's operation puts Turkey on track for a confrontation with the Kurdish fighters in Syria.

 

Biden is scheduled to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

___

10:35 a.m.

Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala says Turkey launched the operation to free the IS-held Syrian town of Jarablus to safeguard its own security.

 

The minister says Turkey "cannot sit and watch" and that "it is Turkey's legal right, it is within its authority" to take action.

 

The minister added that Wednesday's operation aimed to support the moderate Syrian opposition and is being carried out in coordination with the U.S.-led coalition forces. He said he hoped the operation to clear Jarablus would be completed at the soonest, but did not provide a time-frame.

 

About the operation's duration, he says: "Until when? Until this threat is removed and the terror threat on our border disappears."

 

Ala also says that his country "will not provide the opportunity for terror organization to threaten Turkey from across the border," adding that the Turkish town of Karkamis, across the border from Jarablus, had been hit by nine mortar rounds on Tuesday and another round on Wednesday.

___

9 a.m.

A Turkish media report says a small number of Turkish special forces have crossed into Syria as part of a Turkish operation to rid a Syrian border town of Islamic State group militants.

 

Private NTV television says the Turkish special forces entered Syria on Wednesday in what it described was an "intruder mission" to carry out "pinpoint operations" against IS as part of the mission to clear the town of Jarablus of the extremists.

 

The London-based Syrian Observatory also said the Turkish troops had entered Syria.

 

Turkish government officials could not immediately confirm the report.

____

5 a.m.

Turkey's and the U.S.-backed coalition forces on Wednesday launched an operation to clear a Syrian border town from Islamic State militants, the office of the Turkish prime minister said.

 

The operation began at 4 a.m. (0100 GMT), with Turkish artillery launching intense cross-border fire on the town of Jarablus, followed by Turkish warplanes bombing IS targets in the town, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

 

It was not immediately clear if any Turkish or Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces crossed the border to take part in the operation.

 

The news agency said the operation aims to clear Turkey's border of "terror organizations" and increase border security, as well as "prioritize and support" Syria's territorial integrity. The assault followed Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlet Cavusolgu pledge on Tuesday of "every kind" of support for operations against IS along a 100-kilometer (62-mile) stretch of Syrian frontier.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-08-24

[Caps]

Quite surprised its took this long!

[tifino]

 

Syria's Jade Helm...

[webfact]

BEIRUT (AP) - Syrian activist group: Syrian rebel fighters cross into IS-held town from Turkey as part of Turkish-backed operation.

[Galactus]

finally. they will be doing it last November but they shot down Russian plane so Russia did not let them do this

let them exterminate the cockroach ISIS guys!

sad though. they fed ISIS with the orders and/or with US years ago when they were not count as terrorist organization and now they are trying to eliminate them.

bad politics damaging the region and lives are lost due to that.

 

it is never to late to mend though. kill all ISIS cockroaches!

 

Edited August 24, 2016 by Galactus

[stevenl]

Very likely they will also attack Kurdish forces there, who are also fighting Daesh, but are in Ankara considered an even greater threat.

 

As usual in that region, there is much more to a single action than meets the eye, and the effects of the action will be even more diverse.

[JemJem]

As a Turk who is totally against AKP, I think this is probably major bad news.

ISIS will NOT be significantly weakened, with this operation.

Probably, Turkey got the 'approval' of at least the US (and possibly also Russia. Remember, Erdogan was Putin's guest in Russia a short time back) for this operation.

Sadly, I think that the aim of this operation is not to weaken ISIS; but to make sure the Kurds (PYD and its military arm YPG) don't get Jarablus, a strategic town in Syria, near the Turkish border). What AKP (read that as Erdogan because he is virtually the only one who decides on critical things) wants is to place the FSA (Free Syrian Army) there, while maintaining some Turkish military presence. There is a high chance that Turkey (and/or its proxies in Syria) had already tipped off ISIS terrorists, and most of them had already escaped Jarablus by the time the Turkish tanks arrived there. So, I don't even think that a significant number of ISIS rats will be killed there.

Things might get worse afterwards; if AKP decides to attack PYD/YPG territories further to the east.

What is the US really thinking ? We can only guess. But I have a bad feeling that they have maybe sold out the Syrian Kurds. I hope I am wrong.

AKP is bad news for everyone in this world (except of course for its local supporters and its proxies in the region). I think that sadly the West hasn't yet fully realised this.

[craigt3365]

What you say is documented here:

Lots of angles to everything that done there.

[SOTIRIOS]

...."We're not invading your country....we are fighting the bad guys"......

 

...meanwhile who has been supplying arms to the bad guys.....

 

...what a sick, sick world.....

[Galactus]

13 hours ago, JemJem said:

As a Turk who is totally against AKP, I think this is probably major bad news.

ISIS will NOT be significantly weakened, with this operation.

Probably, Turkey got the 'approval' of at least the US (and possibly also Russia. Remember, Erdogan was Putin's guest in Russia a short time back) for this operation.

Sadly, I think that the aim of this operation is not to weaken ISIS; but to make sure the Kurds (PYD and its military arm YPG) don't get Jarablus, a strategic town in Syria, near the Turkish border). What AKP (read that as Erdogan because he is virtually the only one who decides on critical things) wants is to place the FSA (Free Syrian Army) there, while maintaining some Turkish military presence. There is a high chance that Turkey (and/or its proxies in Syria) had already tipped off ISIS terrorists, and most of them had already escaped Jarablus by the time the Turkish tanks arrived there. So, I don't even think that a significant number of ISIS rats will be killed there.

Things might get worse afterwards; if AKP decides to attack PYD/YPG territories further to the east.

What is the US really thinking ? We can only guess. But I have a bad feeling that they have maybe sold out the Syrian Kurds. I hope I am wrong.

AKP is bad news for everyone in this world (except of course for its local supporters and its proxies in the region). I think that sadly the West hasn't yet fully realised this.

 

this operation will weaken ISIS and 100s of ISIS militants are reported dead. 5 days ago 54 people were dead, bombed in a wedding ceremony, i am nto even mentioning their other attacks at Istanbul airport and more. 35 of the dead were small kids! and 21 dead at turkish border towns due to the mortar and rocket attacks of ISIS from the beginning of 2016. 

so Russia is there, US is there, Iran is there and when it is turks trying to protect their border due to some recent bombings and aggressive of ISIS, is it a big problem?

Turks just are protecting their national security and interest and they are doing it at their border not like US or Russia coming from tens of thousands km away too.

Plus their aim i guess is creating a no fly buffer zone for handling the migrants and humanitarian relief measures there instead of them going to turkey or Europe. and of course supporting and harboring opposition forces in that safe zone.

you have to ask yourself why kurds are sad when turks are fighting with ISIS?

werent they need to be happy as kurds also fight with ISIS? Werent the kurds claiming that ISIS killing kurds and they need help? why suddenly they are sad and opposing this operation?

bc they have hidden agendas and they were using their fight with ISIS as an international leverage and popularity, all those rich female fighters while real kurdish people are suffering from hunger, they are playing games there. etc

but once turks intervened, they lost the opportunity to be the main actor and also lost their opportunity to grab more land or displace locals.

 

Kurds of course sold again by US. but it is the problem of kurds. they need the wiseness while choosing their allies. instead of going with countries they lived together for a millennium at the same region, if they have chosen US as ally and get backstabbed, it is something they deserved then.

dont get me wrong, i totally support the autonomy of kurdish brothers and i am fine if they form a democratic autonomy at kurdish lands. But do you think these terrorist tactics of PKK and land stealing of syrian kurds are helping the future of kurds? or just axing the future of kurds? clearly axing.

what kurds want is occupying the land belong to other minorities and changing the demographics of the region by force and displacing and killing locals in syria. With a dream of creating a belt from Iraq to Mediterranean as they want a sea port and opening to sea. If they dont do such and follow such dreams by killings and land stealing, there should be no problems now.

according to reports, kurds are only 15 percent of the population but occupied and grabbed 30 percent of Syrian land mostly belong to arabs and turkmens.

of course kurds are sad due to the Turkish intervention because their dream is over.