IS loss of border area with Turkey sharply harms group

[webfact]

IS loss of border area with Turkey sharply harms group

By BASSEM MROUE

 

BEIRUT (AP) — Expelling the Islamic State group from the last territory it controlled along the Syrian-Turkish border has effectively cut the militants' supply lines from the outside world. That could affect their ability to protect their last bastions — the cities of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.

 

The area under IS control has been shrinking for months, under assault from forces determined to wipe out the self-declared "caliphate." The fight for Mosul appears to be imminent, with U.S.-backed Iraqi forces closing in, and Raqqa will probably be in the crosshairs for an attack possibly led by Kurdish militias in the near future.

 

If removed from power in the territory it controls, many fear it will turn even more decisively toward terrorist attacks against civilians in the region and in the West, operating from the shadows. It that way, it will be more like the group it developed from: al-Qaida.

A look at the current battle against Islamic State:

 

HOW DID THE SUPPLY LINES FROM TURKEY WORK?

 

After the Syrian conflict began in March 2011, people could evade Turkish troops on the border and sneak into or out of Syria. Many of those crossing into Syria were jihadis from around the world joining al-Qaida's branch. Others, mostly Syrians, could use border checkpoints. Smugglers also were active, helping people cross over.

 

WHY DID TURKEY ALLOW THIS, AND WHAT CHANGED?

 

For years, Turkey turned a blind eye to the crossings. Neighboring countries also had been buying oil from IS at rates cheaper than those on international markets. But Europe put pressure on Turkey after the Charlie Hebdo attack in France in 2015, and Ankara began to tighten its border security. Turkey's gradual shift was followed by attacks blamed on the group inside Turkey itself, including one at Istanbul's airport. Once relations improved between Turkey and Russia, and following a July coup attempt failed to remove President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power, he sent his forces into Syria to battle the extremists, as well as Kurdish fighters who had crossed to the west bank of the Euphrates River against Turkey's will. The Turkish acquiescence to IS finally seemed to be over. On Sunday, Turkish troops and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels captured all Syrian areas along the border that had been held by IS.

 

HOW DO MOSUL AND RAQQA STILL GET SUPPLIES?

 

Since Turkey tightened its border, IS has been relying on products brought from Turkey into the rebel-held Syrian border town of Azaz. Syrian merchants go to Azaz, buy what they need, and ship it by truck to Raqqa. Once inside IS-controlled areas, products would be sent to other IS-held territory.

 

WHO IS FIGHTING THE ISLAMIC STATE GROUP?

 

Many forces are fighting IS in Syria and Iraq, some backed by the U.S., and others by powers including Russia, Iran, and Turkey. The most effective group has been the Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces, which captured wide areas in northern Syria from the extremists in the past year under the cover of intense airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition. Also fighting the extremists are members of Lebanon's Hezbollah group and Syrian government troops, mostly in central Syria. Turkey-backed rebel factions such as the Sultan Murad, Mountain Hawks, Shamiya Front and Liberation Army have been part of Ankara's offensive that began Aug. 24 and captured all IS-held border area from the Syrian side.

 

In Iraq, the IS militants are under attack from government troops, regional police forces, Sunni tribesmen, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen. Iranians have been active as well, and there have been reports that Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's elite Quds Force, led some operations of the Popular Mobilization Forces — Iraq's government-sanctioned, mainly Shiite militias.

 

HOW IS THE BATTLE GOING?

 

In Syria, IS has lost the border town of Jarablus, a major crossing point, to Turkish-backed Syrian rebels. In March, IS was driven out of the historic town of Palmyra by Syrian troops backed by Russian airstrikes. The U.S.-led coalition has killed some of the group's founding members, including spokesman and chief strategist Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, and its war minister, Omar al-Shishani.

 

IS has lost major cities and towns in the past year in Iraq, including Fallujah, Ramadi and Tikrit. Iraqi government troops recently captured the town of Qayara, near Mosul.

 

HOW MUCH DAMAGE HAS THE ISLAMIC STATE GROUP DONE?

 

IS has ruled its "caliphate" with an epic level of cruelty: Thousands have been killed and displaced, minority groups like Iraq's Yazidis have been massacred and enslaved, Christians have been displaced, gay men have been thrown to their death from tall buildings, and captives have been slain on video. Among the deadliest incidents was the 2014 killing of 1,700 Iraqi soldiers at Camp Speicher. In Syria, up to 1,000 members of the Shueitat tribe were believed to have been massacred. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says IS killed 4,401 people since June 2014, including 2,369 civilians. No specific statistics are available in Iraq, where extremists have killed thousands.

 

The group has caused widespread destruction in areas it controls. It has damaged or destroyed archaeological sites and antiquities such as Palmyra's Temple of Bel, which dated to A.D. 32, and the Temple of Baalshamin, which was fronted by six towering columns. In Iraq, IS members razed the 3,000-year-old city of Nimrod and bulldozed 2,000-year-old Hatra — both UNESCO world heritage sites.

 

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE ISLAMIC STATE GROUP?

 

Hilal Khashan, political science professor at the American University of Beirut, believes the Islamic State group "is doomed in its current format," unable to create a viable state. He and other experts see it becoming a decentralized organization, melting into the communities it has ruled like salt in water. "The danger is that what comes after Daesh might be worse," said Iraqi journalist Dana Jalal, who closely follows jihadi groups, using an Arabic acronym for IS. "They will shave their beards, change their clothes and join other organizations that are not considered terrorist groups." That could make it more vicious, he said, carrying out deadly attacks like those in in France, Belgium, Turkey, Iraq and elsewhere. Jalal noted that many members of Saddam Hussein's army and Baath Party went underground and carried out guerrilla warfare against U.S. forces.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE: Bassem Mroue, based in Beirut, has covered the Middle East since 1992.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-09-07

[bangkapi]

Turkey is a member of NATO.

It invaded a sovereign nation with ground troops and tanks

without permission of that nation.

We used to call that an act of war.

And if the situation was in reverse...

Turkey would be screaming for a NATO military response.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-06/what-mess-pentagon-war-cia-syria

 

[Galactus]

2 hours ago, bangkapi said:

Turkey is a member of NATO.

It invaded a sovereign nation with ground troops and tanks

without permission of that nation.

We used to call that an act of war.

And if the situation was in reverse...

Turkey would be screaming for a NATO military response.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-06/what-mess-pentagon-war-cia-syria

 

 

usa, uk, france...they are also nato countries and they also invaded syria then? will they need nato military response as well?

and russia, iran too as a non nato member. even most of the kurds there, they come from other parts of the geography and they are not locals too and they displaced many other minorities. invaders basically.

without permission of syrian people. and those countries, they dont even have borders with syria.

 

turks need to do this operation to tighten their borders long time ago. instead they have chosen to keep the border relaxed. it is usa,  arabs and turks supported isis until isis turned to a frankenstein.

 

still it is good that turks are killing all isis cockroaches and other terrorists there. it doesnt matter who kills them, it is good for this world.

 

[JemJem]

The so-called moderate Islamic groups are far from being moderate. Yes, there is such a thing as 'moderate Islam' but such labelled groups in Syria are far from being like that. When they capture a place, most of the time, they declare sharia there. Just recently, on CNN, I have seen that the foreign correspondent had to wear the full veil in going around the rebel-held (yes, those so called moderates) areas of Aleppo. And, they are also a violent, barbarian bunch. Of course, when one compares them to ISIS, they might not seem so barbarian; but they are nevertheless a violent bunch, and have committed many war crimes.

When this war is over, Syria will possibly be a divided country, and other than the regime-held areas and the Kurdish areas, it will sadly not be a secular place. By the way, I am sure that almost everyone knows that in the end, the ISIS people will melt into the populace and in the future some of them will be soldiers and policemen in the new Syria (at least, in the Islamic rebel areas).

If Turkey has been fighting ISIS up until now (AKP claims that they had been fighting them even before this recent incursion), why has ISIS never attacked AKP targets within Turkey ? There is a variety of AKP targets they could strike in Turkey, but instead, ISIS, so far, in Turkey, has attacked tourists (in the Istanbul airport and in a major central touristy part of Istanbul); Kurdish and leftist activists; the opposition Kurdish party HDP's meetings; and a mainly Kurdish wedding party. Hmmmm, so, I guess we can draw some conclusions from all this.

AKP is NOT to be trusted. It is an Islamofascist entity.

[Stargeezr]

I am glad to see that the ISIL dogs are getting eliminated.   I just wished that some of the forces fighting them would send them packets of all the diseases  that would put them in the hospitals and medical areas, so they could not fight, except to try

stay alive and get rid of the measles, chicken pox, powerful flues, and other ailments that would make them too sick to fight.    Destroy them from within!  Treat all of them like they are rabid dogs, same treatment, same result.

Geezer