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U.S.-Turkey Deal Paves Way to Set Up Buffer Zone in Northern Syria

The deal allowing U.S. planes to use Turkish bases to strike Islamic State militants is paving the way for establishment of a de facto no-fly zone in northern Syria, Turkish and American officials said. The broad sketches of the understanding include eventually relying on moderate Syrian rebels to help take control of a buffer zone along the Turkish border, according to a Turkish official who spoke on Sunday. Turkey has pledged to use its F-16 fighter jets to help clear the extremist group’s forces from a safe zone about 55 miles wide and 25 miles deep, the Turkish official added. If rebels can take control, the area would be protected by coalition airstrikes so Syrian refugees, including some of the nearly two million living in Turkey, can return to their country, the Turkish official said. The evolving plans open a risky new front for the U.S. in its fight […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Syria’s Assad Admits War Is Taking Toll on Government Forces

President Bashar al-Assad acknowledged in an unusually frank public admission on Sunday that the Syrian military is unable to hold on to some parts of the country because his forces have been depleted by desertions and defections. Mr. Assad attributed the regime’s recent battlefield setbacks to this shortage of manpower and the need to defend areas deemed more strategic and vital than others. “The idea that we were going to win all battles everywhere at the same time is unrealistic, impossible and not doable,” said Mr. Assad in a televised speech delivered at the presidential palace in Damascus to members of trade and professional unions. “This is why priorities were set.” He said the decision on where to mobilize forces was based on the military, political, economic and strategic importance of the area, among other factors. “When we want to concentrate our forces in an important area, what happens […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Strikes on Kurd Militias Elevate Tensions in Turkey

Photo Sympathizers with the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party tried to protect themselves as Turkish riot police officers fired a water cannon at an antigovernment demonstration Sunday in Istanbul. Credit Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images ISTANBUL — As Turkish fighter jets pounded Kurdish militia targets in northern Iraq late Friday, the implications of the attack weighed heavily on Turks and Kurds across the border in Turkey , as they faced the prospect of being drawn back into a bloody civil conflict after years of relative peace. In 2013, Turkey brokered a historic settlement with the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., vowing to grant the long-suppressed Kurdish minority greater rights and autonomy in exchange for a cease-fire after a three-decade insurgency that had claimed more than 40,000 lives. The cease-fire brought calm and stability to Turkey’s volatile, predominately Kurdish southeast region. But the peace process sputtered last month, prompting […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Turkey and U.S. Agree on Plan to Clear ISIS From Strip of Syria’s North

Photo The Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey. Turkey and the United States agreed on a plan that would create what officials are calling an Islamic State-free zone, which the Turks say could also be a “safe zone” for displaced Syrians. Credit Murad Sezer/Reuters BAGHDAD — Turkey and the United States have agreed in general terms on a plan that envisions American warplanes, Syrian insurgents and Turkish forces working together to sweep Islamic State militants from a 60-mile-long strip of northern Syria along the Turkish border, American and Turkish officials say. The plan would create what officials from both countries are calling an Islamic State-free zone, which the Turks say could also be a “safe zone” for displaced Syrians. While many details have yet to be determined, including how deep the strip would extend into Syria, the plan would significantly intensify American and Turkish military action against Islamic State […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S.-Turkey deal aims to create de facto ‘safe zone’ in northwest Syria

Turkey and the United States have agreed on the outlines of a de facto “safe zone” along the Turkey-Syria border under the terms of a deal that is expected to significantly increase the scope and pace of the U.S.-led air war against the Islamic State in northern Syria, according to U.S. and Turkish officials. The agreement includes a plan to drive the Islamic State out of a 68-mile-long area west of the Euphrates River and reaching into the province of Aleppo that would then come under the control of the Syrian opposition. If fully implemented, it would also bring American planes in regular, close proximity to bases, aircraft and air defenses operated by the Syrian government, and directly benefit opposition rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Operations in the targeted area would stop short of meeting long-standing Turkish demands for a full-scale, declared no-fly zone, but the area could […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Turkey arrests dozens more in sweep against Islamic State, Kurdish militants

Turkish police detained dozens more suspected Islamic State and Kurdish militants in early morning raids on Monday, local media said, amid a crackdown on the armed groups and air strikes in Syria and Iraq. Long a reluctant member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, Turkey last week made a dramatic turnaround by granting the alliance access to its air bases and bombarding targets in Syria linked to the jihadist movement as well as detaining suspected members in Turkish cities. Turkish jets also attacked Kurdish insurgent camps in Iraq for a second night on Sunday, in a campaign that could end Ankara’s peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Broadcaster CNN Turk said more than 800 suspected Islamic State and PKK members had been arrested in the past week in a domestic crackdown carried out alongside the air strikes. Some 500 police swept through the Haci Bayram district […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Assad, in Rare Admission, Says Syria’s Army Lacks Manpower

Photo In a speech on Sunday, President Bashar al-Assad said that the army had ceded some areas to insurgents to hold onto others. Credit SANA, via European Pressphoto Agency BEIRUT, Lebanon — In a striking admission, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria said on Sunday that the country’s army faced a manpower shortage and had ceded some areas to insurgents in order to hold onto other regions deemed more important. Mr. Assad also acknowledged in a speech televised from Damascus, the Syrian capital, that many Syrians could not watch the address because of the lack of electricity in many areas and noted the economic hardships that people are facing after more than four years of an increasingly complex civil war. What was unusual was not the fact of the struggles that Mr. Assad mentioned, which have been obvious for some time, but his mentioning them at all. It was his […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Turkey Attacks Kurdish Militant Camps in Northern Iraq

ISTANBUL — Turkish fighter jets, which on Friday attacked Islamic State targets in Syria , have launched a wave of airstrikes in northern Iraq , targeting camps of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party for the first time in four years, the prime minister’s office said Saturday. The Iraq incursion, which began late Friday and continued into Saturday, effectively ended an unstable two-year cease-fire between the Turkish government and the Kurdish militants, known by the initials P.K.K. After 30 years of conflict that claimed at least 40,000 lives, the two sides reached a fragile peace in 2013, though there have been a few minor clashes since then. Fighter jets also struck Islamic State targets in Syria for a second night, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s office said in the statement Saturday. The jets entered Syrian airspace to do so, the statement said, unlike during the previous strikes , which the government […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Turkish jets hit Islamic State positions in Syria: PM’s office

A Turkish Air Force F16 jet fighter prepares to take off from an air base during the Anatolian Eagle military exercise in the central Anatolian city of Konya April 28, 2010. Turkish fighter jets pounded Islamic State targets in Syria early on Friday, the prime minister’s office said, after Turkey said it would take any "necessary measures" to protect itself from Islamist and Kurdish militant attacks. Police, backed by helicopters and special forces, also launched overnight raids on more than 100 suspected Islamic State and Kurdish militant locations in Istanbul, according to media reports. Some 5,000 officers were deployed in the operation. Three F-16 fighter jets took off from a base in Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey, in the early morning and hit two Islamic State headquarters and one "assembly point" before returning, the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement. "Turkish fighter jets didn’t cross the Syrian border during the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Turkey to Allow Use of Key Air Bases for U.S. Warplanes to Bomb ISIS

AMMAN, Jordan — The United States and Turkey have reached an agreement for manned and unmanned American warplanes to carry out aerial attacks on the Islamic State from two Turkish air bases, Obama administration officials said Thursday. The agreement on the bases, Incirlik and Diyarbakir, was described by one senior administration official as a “game changer” that would significantly strengthen the American military’s ability to strike at ISIS targets in Syria and carry out extended aerial surveillance. It came after months of negotiations that culminated on Wednesday with a phone call between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, and President Obama, another administration official said. The development came as Turkish forces were reported to have engaged in the first direct combat with Islamic State forces on the Syrian side of the border. Both developments vaulted Turkey squarely into the broader battle with the Islamic State, also known as ISIS […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple