Levant crisis - III

habal · Post by **habal** » 21 Oct 2016 11:31

properly trained in Turkey eh .. but Turkish military itself is a bunch of wimps who couldn't overrun a few civilian protestors, and rest of the military didn't turn up to secure their comrades. What kind of self-respect and morale this force now retains is a question.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 Oct 2016 11:37

not a surprise.

CNN

(CNN)Dozens of Yazidi women captured and enslaved by ISIS in 2014 have been moved from the Iraqi city of Mosul to Syria, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The monitoring group and US military officials have said ISIS militants are fleeing Mosul and heading for Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of ISIS, as Iraqi-led forces push to free the key Iraqi city from the terror group.
Dozens of ISIS families have already arrived in Raqqa, the observatory said.
Ethnic cleansing by ISIS has displaced, killed and enslaved hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Yazidis, members of an ancient ethnic and religious minority. Modern-day Iraq is the traditional homeland of the Yazidis.
Islamic militants captured thousands of Yazidi women and children, and killed the men. ISIS claims the Quran justifies taking non-Muslim women and girls captive and permits them to be raped -- an assertion denied by Islamic scholars.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 Oct 2016 12:50

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 Oct 2016 13:18

Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity 2h
Reports that Da'ish suicide bombers attacked Dibis power plant near #Iraq's Kirkuk, sparking clashes with security.

Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity 2h2 hours ago
At least 1 Da'ish suicide bomber has been killed and another 3 detonated themselves in the former police HQ building in #Iraq's Kirkuk.

Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity 2h2 hours ago
A curfew has been imposed in #Iraq's Kirkuk as local security forces pursue the Da'ish sleeper cells who were activated in the early hours.

Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity 2h2 hours ago
Serious situation in #Iraq's Kirkuk. Da'ish sleeper cells attacked government + security HQs in the city. Terrorists wearing suicide vests.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 Oct 2016 14:13

video of turks bombing alleged YPG targets in north aleppo

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/vi ... ern-syria/

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 21 Oct 2016 14:39

“Any attempt to once again breach Syrian airspace by Turkish war planes will be dealt with and they will be brought down by all means available,” warned Damascus, whose planes, which have flown in concert with a Russian expeditionary force, have been avoiding direct confrontation with unauthorized NATO jets.

https://www.rt.com/news/363579-syria-wa ... ing-kurds/

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 21 Oct 2016 14:53

We will not wait until the blade is against our skin,” he said. “We will not wait for terrorist organizations to come and attack us.” Turdogan

It will be interesting to see how Iraq deals with 500 Turk troops placed in Mosul who are there to fight Kurds http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast ... story.html

habal · Post by **habal** » 21 Oct 2016 15:09

https://twitter.com/Snap_Politics/statu ... 9813561344

""US reporters on the ground who tried to get the truth out about ISIS were systematically murdered by the CIA/Mossad/Mi6."""

habal · Post by **habal** » 21 Oct 2016 15:15

Russia cuts U.S. out, negotiating pull-out of Jihadi fighters from eastern Aleppo

"One month after the collapse in circumstances of great acrimony of the Kerry-Lavrov agreement, the Russians are working to enact unilaterally its key provision. This is the withdrawal of Jihadi fighters from eastern Aleppo by way of the Castello road, to be followed by eastern Aleppo’s reoccupation by the Syrian army."

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 21 Oct 2016 15:36

How the Russian Military Reestablished Itself in the Middle East

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/poli ... ddle+East+(PolicyWatch+2709

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 21 Oct 2016 16:38

People gathered around Dover coast as Russian war ship passed few miles away floating towards English Channel. Several pics posted on line:

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 21 Oct 2016 16:41

Which cuckoo world these leaders live in! Theresa May asks world to punish Russia as U.K. warships shadow Syria-bound Russian carrier battle group in English Channel http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/1 ... h-channel/

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 21 Oct 2016 16:43

A destroyer class vessel from Royal navy Britain shadows Russian war ship which can be seen in the backdrop

LokeshC · Post by **LokeshC** » 21 Oct 2016 19:01

I guess the britshit admirals must have become "brickshit" admirals for a while,
"Lemme shadow them just to get a closer look" Just in case they decide to invade the qyooon.

Karthik S · Post by **Karthik S** » 21 Oct 2016 19:08

Hope they don't pi$$ off captain Ramius.

Bhurishravas · Post by **Bhurishravas** » 21 Oct 2016 19:22

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9155 ... -land-grab
A nice summary of Turkeys land grab tricks and how and why Erdogan is following the policy that he is.

Turkey's (non-Islamist) "National Contract," Misak-i Milli syndrome has found new spirit with the rise of Islamists under a new Ottoman flag. That is not good news either for the region, for Turkey's western friends or for Turkey itself.

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 21 Oct 2016 21:08

Winds of change in ME
Iran 'wanted Egypt at Syria talks' as Middle Eastern alliances shift

The lobbying for Egyptian officials to attend the talks began a few days before Egypt shocked its financial backer Saudi Arabia by voting with the Russians to block a draft French UN security council resolution on Syria, which had demanded an end to airstrikes on Aleppo and military overflights.

At the UN, the Saudi envoy described Egypt’s decision as “painful”, adding that “stances by Senegal and Malaysia were much closer to the agreed Arab decision” than that adopted by the Arab League member Egypt. The next day Riyadh suspended its oil aid to Egypt – estimated at 700,000 tonnes of petroleum products every month.

It was the first public dispute between Egypt and Saudi Arabia since Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, ousted the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Since then, Saudi Arabia has sent billions of dollars to Egypt, which have helped keep its faltering economy afloat.

The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, in which both compete for the hearts and minds of the Arab street, sees them regularly seek to curb each other’s influence and standing in the Middle East.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/ ... nces-shift

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 Oct 2016 21:14

The 500 turks in bashiqa are not to fight kurds. They are guests of barzani peshmerga who is turk pasand. They train the turkmen militia called hashd al watani who has barzani blesings to enter mosul while peshmerga will not

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 Oct 2016 21:15

Its the pkk ypg and puk who are anti turk

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 Oct 2016 21:15

Kurds have around 15 political and armed formations

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 Oct 2016 21:16

Barzani is a american munna due to huge oil in kirkuk anf erbil

They in turn control him by routing his arms and $$ via baghdad

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 Oct 2016 21:19

Day of mayhem in kirkuk

Iraqi PMU English ‏@pmu_english
#BREAKING - #Iraqi #PMU moving even more units to support brothers in #Peshmerga after #ISIS breaks open #Kirkuk prison and frees terrorists

#BREAKING - #Iraqi #PMU, #Police and #Peshmerga have killed 70 #ISIS fighters and have 35 #ISIS fighters surrounded in #Kirkuk city.

Gyan · Post by **Gyan** » 21 Oct 2016 23:22

Why is Egypt suddenly taking on Saudis and by extension USA? They will suffer loss of Billions of dollars worth of aid.

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 21 Oct 2016 23:24

Cos China has assured them of financial wealth and already signed agreement of New Cairo worth $ 50 billion, also more agreements re infrastructure on card.

Y. Kanan · Post by **Y. Kanan** » 22 Oct 2016 00:13

Major shifts occurring; Egypt was already shifting from US orbit and now abandoning the Wahhabi/GCC bloc as well. Iraq also ready to dump US for good as soon as possible. Philippines now dumping US for Russia/China. Some EU States now refusing to go along with Russia sanctions. Cracks beginning to appear all over this edifice of US/globalist domination.

Meanwhile India is drifting into the US orbit and dumping Russia? And why, exactly?

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 22 Oct 2016 00:14

Y. Kanan wrote: Meanwhile India is drifting into the US orbit and dumping Russia? And why, exactly?

How did you reach that conclusion? We just signed several large defence deals with them.

Gyan · Post by **Gyan** » 22 Oct 2016 00:19

How will Egypt economy survive without Saudis and Uncle?

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 22 Oct 2016 00:31

Egypt is friendly with Russia and Saudi , it's either neutral or pro Russia in Syria it voted for Russian resolution in UNSC ,angering Saudi

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 22 Oct 2016 00:53

Singha wrote:Barzani is a american munna due to huge oil in kirkuk anf erbil

They in turn control him by routing his arms and $$ via baghdad

as long as he accepts federalism then we're good. i

f not, then we don't buy kurdish oil. period. end of story.

a huge ship of kurdish oil set off galveston texas for months on end due to no stamp of approval from iraqi government.

It still might be out there waiting, I don't know.

Bhurishravas · Post by **Bhurishravas** » 22 Oct 2016 01:29

Egypt gets aid from US because it signed peace accords with Israel.

Major shifts occurring; Egypt was already shifting from US orbit and now abandoning the Wahhabi/GCC bloc as well. Iraq also ready to dump US for good as soon as possible. Philippines now dumping US for Russia/China. Some EU States now refusing to go along with Russia sanctions. Cracks beginning to appear all over this edifice of US/globalist domination.
Meanwhile India is drifting into the US orbit and dumping Russia? And why, exactly?

Egypt is not going/getting into any orbit. Iraq will not dump US any time soon either but over a prolonged period of time owing to its muslim shia identity. Moreover how long Iraq will exist as Iraq itself is a big question.
Philippines is not dumping US either. Duterte is like filipino Kejriwal. His foreign policy will be overturned when he leaves office. If he has a foreign policy at all.
EU states refusing to go along Russia sanctions does not mean they are going outta US orbit any time soon.
All this is wishful thinking on part of roos pasand fellas on this thread.
And India is not dumping Russia either. It is improving its relations with US for economic benefits that Russia cant give. And strategic benefits against China which also Russia cant give.

Hitesh · Post by **Hitesh** » 22 Oct 2016 02:47

Duterte is not gonna survive very long. He has upset too many apple carts and has galvanized his opposition into an unifying force.

Hitesh · Post by **Hitesh** » 22 Oct 2016 02:52

Y Kannan wrote:Meanwhile India is drifting into the US orbit and dumping Russia? And why, exactly?

Rightfully, I think India is building another nest to keep her eggs, i.e., not keeping all the eggs with Russia. Putin may be a strong smart guy, but for strategic view, he falls pretty short of it. He does not realize that by having an exercise in Pakistan, he just gave the green light to pro US advocates in Delhi to go more along with US on some policies including defense. He just made it easier for India to have a defense relationship with US.

Modi will look out for Indian interest first and only and I think he realizes that Russia under Putin cannot give Modi much what he wants in order to stand up to China and Pakistan together. US under Obama seems to understand that and is making moves to make that happen. Of course there is all that Cold War mentality inertia in State Department to overcome.

I am telling you, these countries will change their tune if Modi strikes hard after those two scumbags, Saeed Hafiz and Masood.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 22 Oct 2016 02:58

Hitesh wrote:
Hitesh wrote:Duterte is not gonna survive very long. He has upset too many apple carts and has galvanized his opposition into an unifying force.

A sure sign of Greatness is that one quotes oneself in posts. Can't get any better than that. A privilege to learn from The Best!

Hitesh · Post by **Hitesh** » 22 Oct 2016 02:59

UlanBatori wrote:
Hitesh wrote:
A sure sign of Greatness is that one quotes oneself in posts. Can't get any better than that. A privilege to learn from The Best!

My mistake. Intended to quote another poster and didn't realize that I quoted myself. Thank you for blithely pointing out my mistake.

Rudradev · Post by **Rudradev** » 22 Oct 2016 03:10

If Hillary Clinton becomes POTUS, the US-India relationship is dead. Period. There will be no sale of Predator Guardian drones (or anything of actual military value) to India. The Pivot to Asia, already creaking and falling apart with the Philippines' desertion of the US bloc, will crumble utterly. This will leave China in full domination of the western Pacific, and free to concentrate on CPEC and Gwadar. Hillary's State Dept will embrace the enhancement of Paki-Chinese cooperation because it will bring the peace and order of a Taliban regime (as originally envisioned and blessed by her husband 20 years ago) to Afghanistan.

In the Levant, there will be US airstrikes with much sound and fury and civilian bloodshed, making things even worse than they did in post-Gaddafi Libya but accomplishing nothing otherwise. ISIS and Al-Nusra will thrive, and the Kurds will be left to the tender mercies of these groups and of Turkish proxies. In the peninsula/Gulf, there will be every effort made to restore Washington's cosy relationship with the Saudis, at the expense of Houthi lives. All these maneuvers, in addition to additional American saber-rattling in Ukraine and the Baltics, will bring Russia, Iran and China into an ever-closer embrace. The terms of that embrace will be dictated by China, and immensely favourable to Pakistan.

Besides completely wrecking our neighbourhood, Clinton will also bring the Berkeley Haas crew out to testify before the USCIRF regarding abominable intolerance, religious/caste persecution, and human-rights violations in Hindu Nationalist India. She is not at war with Islam, remember. Islamophobia is a different matter.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 22 Oct 2016 05:07

Worst thing is that the US Armed Forces will be ordered to do the wrecking on behalf of the Saudis. Airstrikes on Syria for starters. You can extrapolate to what happens when India surrounds Muzzafarabad or Lahore after the next Big One. Clear case of

Not though the soldier knew, someone had ~~blundered~~sold out

Wonder what US Generals are made of, to keep taking these orders. Given the hoohah about the last guy to blow the whistle on illegal spying on the citizens and now election fraud, I don't hold out much hope. Question the POTUS? Shot at dawn. Or maybe given a sex-change operation in jail.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan heads for Pakiban conquest AGAIN - and there is not a peep in the US media. If that is not a BO-inspired catastrophe, what is?
This must be how the Roman Empire died.
**********
BTW, NSG gates get broken down this November, or they will slam shut for the next 4 years, and I think India should ally with Iran and follow the Nike advice: Just Do it. There won't be any US fuel or US nuke plants in India anyway.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 22 Oct 2016 05:21

BTW, u see that in Mosul, the US media / UN flunkies report that ISIS has taken civilians hostage as human shields. But in Aleppo, the Moderate Islamic Terrorists are just covering the civilians to protect them from Russian airstrikes. No human shield business. They are shelling the exits that the Syrians/Russians have opened up, of course, to 'protect' the civilians and save them the trouble of leaving Aleppo.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 22 Oct 2016 08:04

Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity
Unclear at this point if #US-led coalition or Iraqi jets behind this accident. https://twitter.com/iraqisecurity/status/7895287819502

Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity
Horrible news from Daquq in #Iraq's Kirkuk. Airstrikes have reportedly mistakenly hit a funeral. Dozens killed/hurt

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 22 Oct 2016 08:55

Cnn

CNN)ISIS executed 284 men and boys as coalition forces closed in on Mosul, an Iraqi intelligence source told CNN.

Those killed on Thursday and Friday had been rounded up near and in the city for use as human shields against attacks that are forcing ISIS out of the southern sections of Mosul, the source explained.
ISIS used a bulldozer to dump the corpses in a mass grave at the scene of the executions -- Mosul's defunct College of Agriculture in the north of the city, the intelligence source said.

The victims were all shot and some were children, said the source, who wanted anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. CNN could not independently confirm the claim.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 22 Oct 2016 08:58

Unfortunately iraqis do not have the airborne brigades needed to move this faster and drive directly into the heart of mosul like capturing the airport in a air assault.

So more massacres are sure to occur.

They could try pushing fwd with armour columns and bypass villages leaving it to pmu units to contain and mop up