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Christianity grows in Syrian town once besieged by Islamic State

April 16, 2019

Children play near damaged houses in Kobani
Children play near damaged houses in Kobani, Syria April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho

April 16, 2019

By John Davison

KOBANI, Syria (Reuters) – A community of Syrians who converted to Christianity from Islam is growing in Kobani, a town besieged by Islamic State for months, and where the tide turned against the militants four years ago.

The converts say the experience of war and the onslaught of a group claiming to fight for Islam pushed them towards their new faith. After a number of families converted, the Syrian-Turkish border town’s first evangelical church opened last year.

Islamic State militants were beaten back by U.S. air strikes and Kurdish fighters at Kobani in early 2015, in a reversal of fortune after taking over swaths of Iraq and Syria. After years of fighting, U.S.-backed forces fully ended the group’s control over populated territory last month.

Though Islamic State’s ultra radical interpretation of Sunni Islam has been repudiated by the Islamic mainstream, the legacy of its violence has affected perceptions of faith.

Many in the mostly Kurdish areas of northern Syria, whose urban centers are often secular, say agnosticism has strengthened and in the case of Kobani, Christianity.

Christianity is one of the region’s minority faiths that was persecuted by Islamic State.

Critics view the new converts with suspicion, accusing them of seeking personal gain such as financial help from Christian organizations working in the region, jobs and enhanced prospects of emigration to European countries.

The newly-converted Christians of Kobani deny those accusations. They say their conversion was a matter of faith.

“After the war with Islamic State people were looking for the right path, and distancing themselves from Islam,” said Omar Firas, the founder of Kobani’s evangelical church. “People were scared and felt lost.”

Firas works for a Christian aid group at a nearby camp for displaced people that helped set up the church.

He said around 20 families, or around 80 to 100 people, in Kobani now worship there. They have not changed their names.

“We meet on Tuesdays and hold a service on Fridays. It is open to anyone who wants to join,” he said.

The church’s current pastor, Zani Bakr, 34, arrived last year from Afrin, a town in northern Syria. He converted in 2007.

“This was painted by IS as a religious conflict, using religious slogans. Because of this a lot of Kurds lost trust in religion generally, not just Islam,” he said.

Many became atheist or agnostic. “But many others became Christian. Scores here and more in Afrin.”

MISSIONARIES AND CRITICS

One man, who lost an arm in an explosion in Kobani and fled to Turkey for medical treatment, said he met Kurdish and Turkish converts there and eventually decided to join them.

“They seemed happy and all talked about love. That’s when I decided to follow Jesus’s teachings,” Maxim Ahmed, 22, said, adding that several friends and family were now interested in coming to the new church.

Some in Kobani reject the growing Christian presence. They say Western Christian aid groups and missionaries have exploited the chaos and trauma of war to convert people and that local newcomers to the religion see an opportunity for personal gain.

“Many people think that they are somehow benefitting from this, maybe for material gain or because of the perception that Christians who seek asylum abroad get preferential treatment,” said Salih Naasan, a real estate worker and former Arabic teacher.

Thousands of Christians have fled the region over decades of sectarian strife. From Syria they have often headed for Lebanon and European countries.

U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to help minorities fleeing the region when he imposed a travel ban on Muslims in 2016, but many Christians were denied asylum.

“It might be a reaction to Daesh (Islamic State) but I don’t see the positives. It just adds another religious and sectarian dimension which in a community like this will lead to tension,” said Naasan, a practicing Muslim.

Naasan like the vast majority of Muslims rejects Islamic State’s narrow and brutal interpretation of Islam. The group enslaved and killed thousands of people from all faiths, reserving particular brutality for minorities such as the Yazidis of northern Iraq.

Most Christians preferred not to give their names or be interviewed, saying they fear reaction from conservative sectors of society.

The population of Kobani and its surroundings has neared its original 200,000 after people returned, although only 40,000 live in the town itself, much of which lies in ruins.

(Editing by Tom Perry and Alexandra Hudson)

Source: OANN

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Iraq unearths mass grave of Kurds killed by Saddam

April 14, 2019

Iraqi members of the Civil Defense and officials cover the bones from an unearthed mass grave of Kurds in west of the city of Samawa
Iraqi members of the Civil Defense and officials cover the bones from an unearthed mass grave of Kurds in west of the city of Samawa, Iraq April 14, 2019. REUTERS/Essam al-Sudani

April 14, 2019

SAMAWA, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraq must never forget Saddam Hussein’s crimes or allow his party to return, President Barham Salih said on Sunday after attending the unearthing of a mass grave of Kurds killed by the former leader’s forces three decades ago.

The grave, found in the desert about 170 km (106 miles) west of the city of Samawa, contained the remains of dozens of Kurds made to “disappear” by Saddam’s forces, Salih’s office said.

They were among up to 180,000 people who may have been killed during Saddam’s “Anfal” campaign that targeted Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s when chemical gas was used, villages were razed and thousands of Kurds were forced into camps.

“He killed them because they did not accept the continuation of this regime, because they wanted to live a free and dignified life,” Salih, a Kurd, told a news conference at the grave site.

“He brought them to Samawa to bury them but our people in Samawa embraced them,” Salih added. Iraq’s southern provinces are predominantly inhabited by Shi’ite Arabs, who also suffered oppression and mass killings under Saddam, a Sunni Arab.

“The new Iraq must never forget these crimes that were committed against Iraqi people from all groups,” he said.

(Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source: OANN

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Teenage brides trapped between Islamic State and its victors

April 12, 2019

Women sell underwear at al-Hol displacement camp in Hasaka governorate
Women sell underwear at al-Hol displacement camp in Hasaka governorate, Syria, April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho

April 12, 2019

By John Davison

AL-HOL CAMP, Syria (Reuters) – Rawan Aboud tried to escape Islamic State after the death of her abusive first husband, a militant killed fighting for the group. She was jailed and forced to marry another fighter. When he died, she finally fled.

Now she is interned with fanatic supporters of the violent jihadist group she has sought refuge from since the age of 13.

“I married age 12,” said the Syrian girl, now 18. “My husband then brought me to Raqqa. He beat me and said I was an apostate for trying to leave.”

Thousands of women, especially foreigners who flocked from Europe and North African countries, willingly joined Islamic State, subscribing to its brutal interpretation of Islam and marrying militants.

Some remain ardent supporters of its ideology and live in camps they fled to in eastern Syria which are under the control of the U.S.-backed forces that drove IS from its final piece of territory last month.

But many like Aboud, married off by conservative Muslim families in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, had no choice.

Aboud, several Syrians and a Lebanese woman also wed as a child to a man who joined IS are now detained alongside its die-hard adherents in a guarded section of al-Hol camp.

Regarded as suspect by Kurdish-led forces that helped defeat the jihadists and persecuted by women they are locked up with, they fear they will rot in detention or face death at the hands of their extreme fellow detainees.

Aboud has spent three months at al-Hol along with more than 60,000 people who fled the battle for Baghouz, the final shred of populated territory that Islamic State had held until its defeat there last month.

In an interview with Reuters this month, she wore a green coat, fingerless gloves and eye make-up behind her veil, which she only wears to avoid drawing the attention of IS supporters.

She used the pejorative acronym Daesh for IS, rather than “dawla”, Arabic for state, which many in the camp still use. She said her husbands were dead, not martyred, as slain militants are usually described by supporters.

“My first husband was killed fighting three years ago, thank God.”

Aboud tried to flee IS territory and was jailed in its Raqqa stronghold. When the U.S. coalition began bombing the city, her nine-month-old daughter was killed. Militants moved her and other women from town to town as they retreated, and married her to another fighter who also killed several months ago.

She then escaped with her other daughter, now four.

They face an uncertain future.

“I want to go to my family in Idlib. But right now I’d settle for just another part of the camp, away from the foreigners. Somewhere I can use a phone,” she said.

The security forces that guard al-Hol have denied her requests to move, she said. “They keep saying tomorrow and asking, why did you marry an IS fighter.”

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that run the camp did not immediately respond to a request for comment on her detention.

“SWINE AND INFIDELS”

“Because I fled and how I dress, the other women call me an infidel. They throw stones at me. When I queue for water, they say this isn’t a line for Syrians.”

Amal Susi, the Lebanese woman in the same section of the camp, complained of similar treatment and feared never returning home.

The 20-year-old surrendered herself and her two children in 2017 to the SDF after her husband was killed in Raqqa. Months later she was returned to IS territory in a prisoner swap, she said. “It was back to zero,” she said.

Her husband took her as a teenager to Syria to live in Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate.

Susi is also waiting to be transferred to another section of the camp. “Those of us forced to come should get to leave. IS supporters call us swine and infidels, say we’re spies for the Kurds, and assault us.”

The SDF is struggling to cope with the number of suspected militants and supporters languishing in detention centers and camps while some Western countries refuse to allow their citizens to return.

Most Syrians and Iraqis roam al-Hol camp separately from foreign women who are guarded by the SDF. Many foreigners use derogatory jihadist terms against non-extremists and blame their plight solely on Islamic State’s enemies.

Aboud, Susi and many others hope to get as far away from them as possible.

“We’re not rid of Daesh. They’ve basically moved the Islamic State here, that’s what they believe. They say we’ll build it again right here. The camp is under their control,” Susi said.

(Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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Czech Prez Calls Turkey a “De Facto Ally of ISIS”

March 20, 2019

The Czech president’s remarks come a few days after Turkey announced a joint operation with Iran against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist organization.

During a trip to the Karlovy Vary region on Tuesday, Czech President Milos Zeman claimed he considered Turkey a “de facto ally” of ISIS, the CTK news agency reported.

“Why [do the Turks] attack the Kurds? Because they are de facto allies of the Islamic State”, the president said, answering a question from one of the meeting’s participants. “This means that it’s Turkey – despite the fact that it is a NATO member and seeks to join the European Union, which it is unlikely to be accepted – that has served as a mediator in logistics operations for the Islamic State supplies when [this terrorist organisation] occupied a significant part of Syria and Iraq. This, for example, included oil exports [from the territory seized by terrorists] and the like.”

The Czech president has accused his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan of pursuing a policy of Islamising his country.

“This is no longer the secular state of [Kemal] Ataturk, but a state that professes Islamic ideology, and as follows logically, that it [the state] stands close to the Islamic radicals”, Zeman alleged.

President Trump has announced America will be withdrawing from Syria. Owen Shroyer breaks down how the MSM pushes for more war and death even suggesting the troops ignore President Trump’s orders.

Erdogan has yet to comment on the accusations, but Ankara has repeatedly accused the West of backing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara views as a terrorist organization, and sponsoring ISIS.

Last month, Erdogan announced that Turkey was ready to launch an operation against the US-backed Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) that it considers to be affiliated with the PKK, in Syria’s Manbij if the United States did not remove the militia from there.

(Photo by Pixabay)

However, after talks with US President Donald Trump, who informed the Turkish counterpart of the US troop withdrawal from Syria, Erdogan postponed his plans, saying that the offensive would be launched only after the complete pullout of US forces.
In January 2018, Turkey carried out an operation, dubbed Olive Branch, against the YPG in Syria’s Afrin following the US announcement of its decision to start training a 30,000-strong border security force on Syria’s northern borders that would include the US-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

At the time, Erdogan slammed US intentions, having accused Washington of building a “terrorist army” near Turkey’s borders and vowed to “strangle” it “before it is born.”

Tensions between Turkey and the Kurds took a new turn in July 2015 when a two-year ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK collapsed over a series of attacks allegedly perpetrated by the Kurdistan Workers Party.

Big Tech claims immunity from prosecution for censorship under section 230 since they are not a “publisher.” Alex reveals this is nothing more than a tactic to cover-up their dark deeds.

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After defeating Islamic State, Syrian Kurds eye political battle

March 12, 2019

Senior Kurdish official Badran Jia Kurd is pictured during an interview with Reuters, in Qamishli
FILE PHOTO: Senior Kurdish official Badran Jia Kurd is pictured during an interview with Reuters, in Qamishli, Syria January 3, 2019. REUTERS/Rodi Said

March 12, 2019

By Ellen Francis

QAMISHLI, Syria (Reuters) – Syrian Kurdish authorities that led the fight against Islamic State are prepping for their next battle: a political struggle to win international recognition for their autonomous region and aid to help it recover from the war.

Islamic State’s territorial defeat in Syria marks a critical moment for Kurdish forces who partnered with Washington to fight the jihadists. They now hope Western military allies will lend them political support.

Victory over Islamic State at Baghouz, a shred of land at the Iraqi border, will herald “a new phase”, said Badran Jia Kurd, advisor to the Kurdish-led administration running north and east Syria.

“There will be efforts and a struggle to gain political legitimacy for this administration … and towards finding a peaceful solution” to the Syrian conflict, he told Reuters during an interview in Qamishli.

The main Kurdish parties and their allies hold nearly a quarter of the country – the biggest chunk outside the hands of President Bashar al-Assad’s government. Their control is underpinned by a large military force, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which the Kurdish YPG militia spearheads.

But while the SDF has developed close ties with the United States, Washington has balked at extending political recognition to the authorities seeking autonomous rule. The West has trodden carefully largely because of the concerns of Turkey, which sees the YPG as part of the outlawed Kurdish PKK movement that has waged an insurgency on Turkish soil for decades.

Just three months ago, Kurdish authorities were thrown into crisis when President Donald Trump abruptly announced his decision to withdraw U.S. forces. Washington has since partially reversed course, and now plans to leave 200 troops in northeast Syria along with about 800 to 1,500 troops from European allies.

Trump’s move drove the Kurdish-led administration to seek fresh talks with Assad via his key ally Russia. They hope for a political deal that would safeguard their autonomy and shield their region from Turkish attack.

LEFT OUT

Millions of Kurds live in territory straddling Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. In Iraq, they govern an autonomous region.

Kurdish leaders have consistently been left out of U.N. efforts toward ending Syria’s eight-year war. They have always insisted their aim is regional autonomy within a federal Syria, not independence. The West’s reluctance to engage politically with them remains a deep source of frustration.

“Honestly, until now, no clear, positive stance has taken shape … even from the actual partners that we fought side by side with,” Jia Kurd said.

Diplomatic efforts would focus on deepening relations with European allies, the United States and other countries in the coalition that has been fighting Islamic State, he said.

He added that foreign states need to help rebuild infrastructure and revive the economy to prevent an Islamic State resurgence or invasion by hostile forces – an apparent reference to Turkey.

Jia Kurd said nascent contacts with Damascus had stalled and accused the Syrian government of a refusal to negotiate.

In a speech last month, Assad warned Kurdish fighters not to rely on Washington and said only the state could protect them.

Assad, now controlling most of the country with Russia and Iran’s help, has pledged to recover every inch.

Jia Kurd said the rhetoric had killed hopes for dialogue and could lead to “a dangerous and catastrophic direction” toward conflict that the administration in the north does not want.

(Editing by Tom Perry)

Source: OANN

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Swedish ‘Islamophobia Expert’ Turned ISIS Fighter Arrested in Syria

March 11, 2019

Swedish-Norwegian “Islamophobia” expert turned Islamic State jihadist Michael Skråmos has been arrested by Kurdish forces in Syria, with sources claiming Norway wants to prosecute the extremist.

The 33-year-old, born in Sweden to Norwegian parents, was captured this week in the village of Baghouz in one of the very few remaining areas under any form of Islamic State control, Swedish newspaper Expressen reports.

Skråmo had been one of the hundreds of Islamic State terrorists still fighting Kurdish forces and attempting to defend the village. He was also not the only foreign fighter, with most of the last surviving holdouts being foreigners.

Though the Swedish citizen had told relatives that he would rather die than surrender, he was allegedly captured by the Kurds after surrendering to them following the previous capture of his seven children.

Swedish YPG soldier Jesper Söder described the capture of the infamous jihadist, saying, “He was arrested with a cluster of people. I think he was found in a cluster of people in a tunnel where he had dug himself in.”

Söder added that around 50 Islamic State members were arrested at once, including women and children.

Read more

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Anger and apprehension haunt ruined Sinjar, years after Islamic State ousted

February 26, 2019

Destroyed houses after clashes are seen in Sinjar
Destroyed houses after clashes are seen in Sinjar, Iraq February 6, 2019. Picture taken February 6, 2019. REUTERS/Khalid al-Mousily

February 26, 2019

By Ayat Basma

SINJAR, Iraq (Reuters) – It’s dawn in Sinjar and the only sounds are the footsteps of guards patrolling a golden-domed shrine on a hill overlooking a vista of collapsed rooftops.

More than three years after Islamic State was driven out of this city in northern Iraq, all that remains in the once bustling market are the bomb-scarred facades of shops. Dozens of streets are blocked by metal barrels – a sign of unexploded ordnance that has yet to be cleared.

In a city whose former occupiers slaughtered thousands of minority Yazidis, water is scarce and power intermittent. The closest hospital to reopen is a 45-minute drive away. There are only two schools.

The physical devastation is extreme, but it is not the city’s only challenge. Caught in a power tussle between Iraq’s central government and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, the city also struggles with a political impasse.

“It is in ruins. There has been no progress at all,” said Ibrahim Mahmoud Ezzo, 55, the Yazidi owner of about a dozen shops, all of which are damaged.

“There is no mayor and no local council. People are losing billions of dinars in lost business and property every year, they don’t know who to turn to,” he said.

“How long are we supposed to wait?”

Overrun by Islamic State in 2014 and liberated by an array of forces the following year, little has been rebuilt and only a fraction of the population has returned. Residents say both the KRG regional government and the central government have made no effort at construction.

Before August 2014 when the jihadists overran it, Sinjar had a population of about 100,000. They included Yazidis, a religious minority whose beliefs combine elements of several ancient Middle Eastern religions and who considered the city the capital of their heartland, as well as Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims, Christians and ethnic Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and others.

LACK OF RECONCILIATION

Today only a quarter have returned, all of them Yazidi. The Norwegian Refugee Council says none of the members of the other communities have returned because of a lack of reconciliation.

The Yazidis, 3,000 of whom where killed in an onslaught described by the United Nations as genocidal, say nearby Sunni Arab villages and townspeople aided the jihadists.

In the meantime, people are put off returning by tensions arising from the presence of rival armed groups.

Sinjar lies in a sensitive area straddling the borders of Iraq’s Kurdistan region and neighboring Syria, Iran and Turkey.

“The PKK are here, the police are here, the Popular Mobilization Units are here, the army is here,” Ezzo said, listing the names of various units of the Iraqi government forces and militias that are in the city and around it.

“We don’t understand what the situation is,” Ezzo said.

The KRG had controlled the region without much objection from Baghdad since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 until 2017 when, in retaliation for an independence bid, the central government pushed out the KRG, its Peshmerga forces and allies, and brought in their own.

These included a Shi’ite paramilitary force, the Popular Mobilization Units known as PMU, as well as the national army and the police.

At their hilltop post, the PMU guard a shrine with a golden dome that can be seen from many parts of the city. Islamic State had destroyed it along with all other religious landmarks.

The shrine, believed to be the burial site of a daughter of Imam Hussein who died in 680 AD, has been rebuilt entirely, a shining contrast to the devastation around.

NO MONEY TO BUY

Despite the hardship, farmers and villagers from Sinjar still gather daily for a sheep auction. Trader Khodida Qassem lit a cigarette as he watched villagers argue about price.

“What you see here is a lot of sheep but no one has the money to buy,” Qassem, 40, said.

Nayef Yazdi, 26, who reopened his store six months ago, says he does not expect things to improve soon. “It is all political,” said Yazdi, who lost a brother and two uncles in the fighting in 2014.

Dindar Zebari, the KRG coordinator for international advocacy, said “in Sinjar today, there is no legitimate authority, there are no official and decisive security forces.”

“The KRG is not ignoring the problem in Sinjar,” he said, urging Baghdad to share responsibility for this area with Peshmerga and ensure the removal of militias including the PMU.

A central government spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment. Officials privately attribute the slow pace of rebuilding to security problems in the area and red tape in approving a reconstruction budget for Nineveh province.

Outside the city, armed groups appear entrenched. At a cemetery for fighters of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, which set up an affiliate to fight IS in 2014 and 2015 and then stayed on, one fighter said the job was not done yet.

“For sure, they (Islamic State) are not gone and we will remain in the mountain to offer help and support and we will go wherever needed,” he said, standing beside graves bearing names of the dead from Sinjar and neighboring Syria, Turkey, and Iran.

Not far away, Yazidi commander Qassem Shesho says he is still prepared to fight. Shesho and his men gave up their arms when the KRG lost control to Baghdad, but they are angry at what he called “threats” by some armed groups he declined to name.

“They are strangers to our land and they want to bring back Daesh under a different name,” he said. “God willing they will fail like Daesh.”

(Reporting by Ayat Basma and Kawa Omar, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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Syria Kurds evacuate civilians from Islamic State redoubt, hail Trump troop reversal

February 22, 2019

Trucks loaded with civilians ride near the village of Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province
Trucks loaded with civilians ride near the village of Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province, Syria February 22, 2019. REUTERS/Rodi Said

February 22, 2019

By Rodi Said and Ellen Francis

NEAR BAGHOUZ, Syria/ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – Kurdish-led forces in Syria said they would complete the evacuation of thousands of civilians from Islamic State’s last redoubt in the area on Friday, and welcomed a White House reversal of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out all U.S. troops.

With Washington’s allies poised for victory against Islamic State fighters making a final stand in a pocket near the Iraqi border, the White House announced plans on Thursday to keep “a small peacekeeping force” of 200 troops in Syria.

The announcement partially reversed Trump’s abrupt decision in December to withdraw the entire 2,000-strong U.S. contingent, which had alarmed Washington’s Kurdish allies and prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to quit.

Although the U.S. contingent would now be small, Kurdish leaders suggested it could have a major impact on the fate of the area, preventing a security vacuum. Washington could retain control of the air space and its European allies could complement the force with more troops.

The planned assault on the final Islamic State redoubt in the area, Baghouz, would effectively end the territorial rule of the jihadist group, which ruled around a third of both Iraq and Syria at its self-proclaimed Caliphate’s height four years ago.

Reporters near the front line at Baghouz saw dozens of trucks leaving loaded with civilians, and empty ones driving inside accompanied by fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia.

Mustafa Bali, an SDF spokesman, said the evacuation would be completed on Friday, with thousands of civilians still inside the pocket from an estimated 7,000 at the start of the day.

More than 20,000 civilians have left Baghouz in recent weeks, according to previous SDF estimates.

The U.S.-led coalition which supports the SDF has said Islamic State’s “most hardened fighters” are holed up inside.

“If we succeed in evacuating all the civilians, at any moment we will take the decision to storm Baghouz or force the terrorists to surrender,” said Bali.

Though the fall of Baghouz would mark a milestone in the campaign against Islamic State, the militant group is still seen as a security threat, using guerrilla tactics and still holding some territory in a remote area west of the Euphrates River.

REVERSAL WELCOMED

The battle against Islamic State in the area has taken place since December in the shadow of Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw all U.S. troops, which raised doubt about the future of the fighters that had served as U.S. allies on the ground.

The Kurdish-led authorities in the north welcomed the White House reversal. They had feared that a total U.S. withdrawal would leave their area exposed to attack by Turkey, which sees the main Kurdish militia as a national security threat.

“We evaluate the White House decision … positively,” Abdulkarim Omar, co-chair of foreign relations in the region held by the U.S.-backed SDF told Reuters.

“This decision may encourage other European states, particularly our partners in the international coalition against terrorism, to keep forces in the region,” Omar added. “I believe that keeping a number of American troops and a larger number of (other) coalition troops, with air protection, will play a role in securing stability and protecting the region too.”

The SDF’s top commander earlier this week called for 1,000 to 1,500 international troops to remain in Syria to help fight Islamic State and expressed hope Washington would halt Trump’s plans for a total pullout.

A Western diplomat said it remained to be seen whether European allies would contribute troops, or whether the force would be able to secure the area.

“Even if 200 troops remain and the U.S. decides to continue claiming the airspace, it’s not clear whether that would convince Britain, France and other partners to stay — and whether that could keep the Syrian regime out of the northeast for now, or Turkey, or an IS resurgence.”

The Kurds, who want to preserve the autonomy they have carved out, have made overtures to President Bashar al-Assad, urging government forces to deploy at the borders as Washington withdraws. The U.S. decision may strengthen the Kurds’ hand.

“I believe that these forces in this region … will be a motivation, an incentive and also a means of pressure on Damascus to try seriously to have a dialogue to resolve the Syrian crisis,” Omar said.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: OANN

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Erdogan Slams NATO Arming Syria’s Kurds

February 19, 2019


Earlier, Turkish media reported on deliveries of US arms, generators and construction equipment to Kurdish militias in northern Syria via Iraq amid Washington’s imminent plans to withdraw from the war-torn country.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blasted Turkey’s NATO allies over their ongoing support for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria.

“What kind of NATO alliance is this?” Erdogan asked, speaking during an election campaign rally in southwestern Turkey. “You give terrorists around 23,000 truckloads of weapons and tools through Iraq but when we asked, you won’t even sell them to us,” he said, according to al-Jazeera.

“We have a 911-kilometers border [with Syria]. We’re under threat at any moment,” Erdogan added. The leader did not specify which NATO allies was referring to.

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The Turkish government considers the YPG militia to be a terrorist group affiliated with Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its People’s Defence Forces (HPG). Both groups are outlawed on Turkish territory, and Ankara launched a military campaign along its border with Syria to try to prevent the groups from operating in the area or coordinating.

The US coalition against Daesh (ISIS)* is a major ally of the YPG in Syria, and has provided the group with weaponry, training and military support. However, last December, President Donald Trump announced that the US would be withdrawing its estimated 2,000 troops stationed in Syria and bringing them home. The YPG criticized the decision and urged US forces to stay.

The Syrian government slammed both US and Turkish meddling in the country’s internal affairs. On Sunday, Syrian President Bashar Assad urged groups “betting on the Americans” to realize that “no one will defend you but the Syrian Army.”

(Photo by Kremlin.ru)

Earlier this month, Turkey’s Anadolu news agency reported that dozens of armored vehicles and trucks with mobile generators and other equipment were spotted being delivered to Kurdish-controlled areas in northeast Syria via Iraq under the cover of night.

Turkish-US relations remain strained over multiple issues, including the sale of Russian S-400 air defence systems to Turkey, the US sheltering of a Turkish preacher whom Turkish authorities blame for the July 2016 coup attempt, and US threats to renege on the delivery of F-35 stealth fighter jets to Turkey if it moves forward with the purchase of the S-400s.

Andrew McCabe told 60 Minutes that he and Rod Rosenstein discussed the 25th Amendment in regards to removing President Trump.

Source: InfoWars

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