From the BBC:
“US did not approve Turkey's
Syria offensive, says Mike Pompeo”
Turkey has launched an offensive
against territory held by Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria The US did not give Turkey a "green
light" for its offensive in northern Syria, US Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo has said. Mr Pompeo defended President Donald Trump's decision to
withdraw US troops from the border area, which has sparked an outcry at home
and abroad. Turkey has now launched an assault on territory held by Kurdish-led
forces. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the aim was to "prevent the
creation of a terror corridor" on the border. Turkish forces plan to make
a "safe zone" cleared of Kurdish militias which will also house
Syrian refugees. Kurdish-led forces vowed to resist the offensive and have
already clashed with Turkish troops. The Kurds - who helped defeat the Islamic
State (IS) group in Syria and were key US allies in that fight - guard
thousands of IS fighters and their relatives in prisons and camps in areas
under their control. It is unclear whether they will continue to do so if
battles break out. The US military says it has taken custody of two British
detainees notorious for their roles in an IS cell that tortured and killed
nearly 30 Western hostages. The two men,
El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, were part of a British cell nicknamed
The Beatles. They have now been removed from a prison run by the Kurdish-led
militia in northern Syria.
What did Mr Pompeo say?
In an interview with US
broadcaster PBS, Mr Pompeo defended Mr Trump's surprise decision to pull back
US forces, adding that Turkey has a "legitimate security concern" and
"a terrorist threat to their south". He said reports the US had
allowed Turkey to launch the offensive were "just false". "The United States didn't give Turkey a
green light," he said. In an earlier statement, Mr Trump - who had
threatened to "obliterate" Turkey's economy if it went "off limits"
- said the US did not "endorse this attack", calling the operation a
"bad idea". The president later told a press conference the Turks and
Kurds "have been fighting each other for centuries", and said that
Kurdish fighters "didn't help us in the Second World War, they didn't help
us with [the D-Day landings in] Normandy". "With all of that being
said, we like the Kurds," Mr Trump added. Republicans and Democrats alike
have condemned the decision to pull back US troops. Senator Lindsey Graham - normally a staunch
ally of Mr Trump's - said the US had "shamefully abandoned" its ally,
and has unveiled a sanctions bill against Turkey with Democratic Senator Chris
Van Hollen. "While the Administration refuses to act against Turkey, I
expect strong bipartisan support," he wrote.
What is the latest in Syria?
Several towns and villages were
hit by air strikes and artillery fire on Wednesday, forcing thousands of
civilians to flee their homes. Kurdish forces said at least five civilians had
so far been killed, and at least 25 more were wounded. Some residents began to
flee as smoke rose over the border town of Ras al-Ain. Turkey's defence ministry later
announced that Turkish troops and Syrian rebel allies had entered the area
"east of the Euphrates". Turkish armed forces tweeted they had struck
181 "terrorist" targets as part of what has been dubbed Operation
Peace Spring, while a pro-Turkish group told AFP news agency the offensive had
begun in Tal Abyad, an area under YPG control. Reports suggested there were
heavy clashes around the town. SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said their forces had
repelled a ground incursion there, and that there was "no advance as of
now". Kurdish authorities have
called for a general mobilisation and urged people to "head to the border
with Turkey... to resist in this sensitive, historic moment". The SDF also
said one the prisons holding IS fighters had been hit by a Turkish airstrike.
And amid growing humanitarian concerns, it asked the US-led coalition against
IS to establish a no-fly zone to stop "attacks on innocent people". Turkey
considers the Kurdish YPG militia - the dominant force in the Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF) - an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has
fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for three decades. The Turkish government
plans to send two million of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees living on its soil
to the "safe zone". The offensive could displace 300,000 people
living the area, the International Rescue Committee said. It was thought the
offensive - Turkey's third military operation in northern Syria in three years
- would initially focus on a 100km (62-mile) stretch between Tal Abyad and Ras
al-Ain, a sparsely populated, mainly Arab area. Mr Bali said the towns of
Kobane, to the west, and Qamishli, to the east, had been hit by Turkish
shelling. If Turkish troops advance towards those towns they would have to move
into densely populated, mainly Kurdish areas.
What has the international
reaction been?
The EU said it was "unlikely
that a so-called 'safe zone'... would satisfy international criteria for
refugee return", while Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and the UK all
requested a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the move. All 15
members of the body will meet on Thursday. The Arab League also announced an
emergency meeting to discuss the offensive on 12 October in Cairo. Nato
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Turkey, a Nato member, had
"legitimate security concerns" but that he expected the country to
"act with restraint and to ensure that any action... is proportionate and
measured".
Why the battle for northern Syria
matters
In his statement, Mr Trump also
said Turkey would be responsible for ensuring that suspected IS fighters being
held captive remained in prison and that IS did not regroup.
How would an incursion affect the
IS situation?
The SDF says it is detaining more
than 12,000 suspected IS members in seven prisons, and at least 4,000 of them
are foreign nationals. The exact locations have not been revealed, but some are
reportedly close to the Turkish border. Two camps - Roj and Ain Issa - holding
families of suspected IS members are inside the "safe zone".
^ I said it before and I’ll say
it again. This is the worst thing the US and Turkey can do right now (ie the US
withdrawing and abandoning the Kurds in Syria and Turkey invaded Syria to fight
the Kurds.) The Kurds have done the most of any Middle Eastern people to fight (and
defeat) ISIS and now we are repaying them by letting someone else attack them. I
don’t care about the ISIS fighters and their families in the camps. They picked
their side when they turned against the international world and became
terrorists and so deserve whatever happens to them now. I do think the Turks
invading Syria and attacking the Kurds will allow ISIS or a similar group to
re-establish/establish themselves and commit even more terrorist attacks across
the world. Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria and abandon the Kurds will
most likely end up being a horrible decision the same way Obama’s horrible decision
to withdraw from Iraq led to ISIS taking over parts of Iraq and Syria. ^
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