Hotel terrorist and Turkey invading Syria

[727Sky]

I had hoped that Trump would pull is back from the mid-east.. We are now arming approximately 30,000 Kurds ( I like the Kurds so don't get me wrong) but Turkey got pissed and is now attacking the Kurds in a place called Afrin in Northern Syria. I wonder how many CIA or special forces will be killed by USA supplied F-16s with Turkish pilots ?https://newsletter.thaivisa.com/l/jzQgFp...j9OcHj2zRg

AZAZ, Syria (Reuters) - Turkey's army and rebel allies battled U.S.-backed Kurdish militia in Syria's Afrin province on Sunday, stepping up a two-day-old campaign against YPG fighters that has opened a new front in Syria's civil war.
 
Amid U.S. calls for restraint, Turkish artillery pounded YPG positions, while rockets fired from inside Syria slammed into two Turkish border towns, wounding dozens, according to the local governor's office and a witness.
 
Turkey began its push to clear YPG fighters from a northwestern enclave of Syria on Saturday when it launched artillery and air strikes against their positions in Afrin in what it called "Operation Olive Branch".
 
Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organisation and has been infuriated by U.S. support for the fighters. Washington, which is backing the YPG in the battle against Islamic State in Syria, on Sunday said it was concerned about the situation.
 
"Our jets took off and started bombing. And now the ground operation is underway. Now we see how the YPG ... are fleeing in Afrin," President Tayyip Erdogan said. "We will chase them. God willing, we will complete this operation very quickly."
 
Intense Turkish artillery fire and air strikes continued to hit some villages, the YPG said, while fierce battles raged to the north and west of Afrin against Turkish forces and their rebel allies, said Birusk Hasaka, a YPG spokesman in Afrin.
 
Turkey, which is backing the Free Syrian Army rebel factions in northern Syria, wants to create a 30-km (19 mile) "safe zone" in the region, broadcaster HaberTurk quoted the prime minister, Binali Yildirim, as saying.
 
But it is targeting the U.S.-supported YPG at a time Turkey's ties with NATO ally Washington are deeply strained.
 
"We urge Turkey to exercise restraint and ensure that its military operations remain limited in scope and duration and scrupulous to avoid civilian casualties," U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
 
Turkey did advise the United States before taking action, the U.S. Defense Secretary, Jim Mattis, said on Sunday, adding "We'll work this out".
 
BORDER TOWNS HIT
 
The attacks follow weeks of warnings against the YPG in Syria from Erdogan and his ministers. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Kommersant newspaper that Turkey had been infuriated by "unilateral" U.S. actions in Syria.
 
Turkey has been particularly outraged by an announcement that the U.S. planned to train 30,000 personnel in parts of northeast Syria under the control of the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
 
Rockets fired across the border from Syria hit the Turkish town of Reyhanli, killing a Syrian national and wounding 46 people, the local governor's office said. Another five were wounded when rockets hit the border town of Kilis, a Reuters witness said.
 
Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army rebel factions had captured a Kurdish village with no resistance and were clearing landmines, a Turkish official said.
 
The YPG said it had repelled the Turkish forces.
 
"All the Turkish military's ground attacks against Afrin have been repelled so far and they have been forced to retreat," Nouri Mahmoudi, a YPG official, said. Since the morning, the combatants have exchanged shelling and clashed along several frontlines around Afrin, he said.
 
Thousands rallied against the attacks in the border town of Amuda in northwest Syria. In Turkey, police used pepper spray against pro-Kurdish protesters in Istanbul and Ankara.
 
Turkey said it had hit targets including hideouts used by Kurdish militants. The YPG said Turkey's strikes killed some civilians and accused Turkey of striking civilian districts and a camp for displaced people in Afrin.
 
Erdogan said some of Turkey's allies had provided the YPG with 2,000 plane shipments and 5,000 truckloads of ammunition, comments that appeared to be aimed at the United States.
 
France called for restraint and an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council which will hold talks about the situation in Syria on Monday, foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
 
Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war, will demand in the United Nations that Turkey halt it's operation in Afrin, RIA news quoted a member of the Russian parliament's security committee as saying on Saturday.
 
TRAINING CAMP
 
Around 25,000 Free Syrian Army rebels are taking part in the operation with the goal of recapturing Arab towns and villages seized by the YPG almost two years ago, a rebel commander said.
 
Major Yasser Abdul Rahim said the rebels did not seek to enter the mainly Kurdish city of Afrin but encircle it and expel the YPG, which controls it.
 
A main goal of the military operation was to recapture Tel Rifaat, a town southeast of Afrin, and a string of Arab villages the YPG captured from rebels in February 2016, driving out tens of thousands of inhabitants, Abdul Rahim told Reuters.
 
A Reuters reporter on the outskirts of the northern Syrian town of Azaz, under the control of Free Syrian Army factions, heard several blasts and saw smoke rising from a hill to the west, where a fighter said the YPG were.
 
There were no signs of conflict in the town itself, where life appeared to continue as normal with uniformed rebel police at the main roundabouts. At a car repair workshop on the outskirts of the town some men were fixing a gun-loaded vehicle.
 
(Additional reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun in Istanbul; Orhan Coskun, Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Ellen Francis in Beirut, Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman; Geert De Clercq in Paris; Phil Stewart and Warren Strobel in Washington; Writing by David Dolan and Daren Butler; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Elaine Hardcastle)
 

And now this in Kabul Afghanistan
https://newsletter.thaivisa.com/l/jzQgFp...MVmyf1cjnA

osted 6 hours ago  
Heavy casualties after overnight battle at Kabul hotel
By Akram Walizada and Mirwais Harooni
 

Smoke rises from the Intercontinental Hotel during an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan January 21, 2018.REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail
 
KABUL (Reuters) - Gunmen in army uniforms who stormed Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel late on Saturday and battled Afghan Special Forces through the night killed more than 30 people and wounded many more, although the final toll of dead and wounded may still be higher.
 
Wahid Majroh, a spokesman for the ministry of public health, said that 19 bodies had been brought into city hospitals, with six identified as foreigners.
 
However a senior Afghan security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the death toll was over 30 and might climb higher. The dead included hotel staff and guests as well as members of the security forces who fought the attackers.
 
All five attackers were also killed, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danesh said.
 
In Kiev, Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Twitter that six Ukrainians were killed in the attack.
 
The raid was the latest in a series of attacks that have underlined the city's vulnerability and the ability of militants to mount high-profile operations aimed at undermining confidence in the Western-backed government.
 
More than 150 guests were able to flee as parts of the building caught fire, with some shimmying down sheets tied together and dropped from upper-floor windows and others rescued by Afghan forces.
 
Local airline Kam Air said around 40 of its pilots and air crew, many of whom are foreigners, were staying in the hotel and as many as 10 had been killed. Local media reports said the dead included Venezuelans and Ukrainians.
 
Zamari Kamgar, the airline's deputy director, said it was still trying to locate staff.
 
The Taliban, which attacked the same hotel in 2011, claimed responsibility for the attack, its spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.
 
A statement from the interior ministry put the blame on the Haqqani network, a group affiliated with the Taliban that is notorious for its attacks on urban targets.
 
Abdul Rahman Naseri, a guest who was at the hotel for a conference, was in the hall of the hotel when he saw four gunmen dressed in army uniforms.
 
"They were shouting in Pashto (language), 'Don't leave any of them alive, good or bad'. 'Shoot and kill them all,’ one of them shouted," Naseri said.
 
"I ran to my room on the second floor. I opened the window and tried to get out using a tree but the branch broke and I fell to the ground. I hurt my back and broke a leg."
 
Even after officials said the attack was over, sporadic gunshots and explosions could be heard from the site.
 
THICK SMOKE
 
As day broke on Sunday, thick clouds of black smoke poured from the building, an imposing 1960s structure set on a hilltop and heavily protected like most public buildings in Kabul.
 
The Intercontinental is one of two main luxury hotels in the city and had been due to host an information technology conference on Sunday. More than 100 IT managers and engineers were on site when the attack took place, said Ahmad Waheed, an official at the telecommunications ministry.
 
Danesh said a private company had taken over responsibility for security at the hotel three weeks ago and there would be an investigation into possible failings, just days after a U.S. embassy warning of possible attacks on hotels in Kabul.
 
Several armoured U.S. military vehicles with heavy machine guns could be seen close to the hotel along with Afghan police units as Special Forces manoeuvred around the site.
 
Hotel manager Ahmad Haris Nayab, who escaped unhurt, said the attackers had got into the main part of the hotel through a kitchen before going through the hotel, with many guests trapped in their rooms.
 
The senior security official said that the attackers had moved directly from the first floor to the fourth and fifth floors, suggesting the attack had been carefully prepared, possibly with inside help.
 
"When the sixth floor caught fire this morning, my roommate told me, either burn or escape," said Mohammad Musa, who was hiding in his room on the top floor.
 
"I got a bed sheet and tied it to the balcony. I tried to come down but I was heavy and my arms were not strong enough. I fell down and injured my shoulder and leg."
 
U.S. WARNING
 
Although U.S. and Afghan officials say the Taliban has been forced onto the back foot after the United States increased its help to Afghan security forces and stepped up air strikes last year, security remains precarious across the country.
 
In separate incidents on Sunday, eight people were killed by a roadside bomb in the western province of Herat and 18 members of local militia forces were killed at a checkpoint in the northern province of Balkh.
 
As pressure on the battlefield has increased, officials have warned that the danger of attacks on high-profile targets in Kabul and other cities would increase. The insurgents have carried out dozens of such attacks over recent years.
 
After repeated strikes on Kabul, notably last May when a truck bomber killed at least 150 people outside the German embassy, security has been further tightened.
 
Large areas of central Kabul are already closed off behind high concrete blast walls and police checkpoints but the ability of the assailants to get into a well-protected hotel frequented by both government officials and foreigners demonstrated how difficult it remains to stop them.
 
The attack, just days after a U.N. Security Council visit to Kabul to allow senior representatives of member states to assess the situation in Afghanistan, may further weaken confidence in the government.
 
President Ashraf Ghani ordered an investigation and said militant groups were being helped by neighbouring countries.
 
"As long as the terrorist groups have secure protection and safe haven, the region will not find security, stability," he said in a statement.
 
U.S. ambassador John Bass said the embassy was in close contact with Afghan authorities.
 
"Such violence has no place here or anywhere in the world," he said in a statement.
 
(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Jibran Ahmad in PESHAWAR and David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Sonya Hepinstall)

[727Sky]

https://m.yenisafak.com/en/columns/ibrah...ll-2042300

US is the enemy for Turkey. One day, thousands of people will siege İncirlik as well

The U.S. is no longer a trustworthy country for Turkey. It is no partner, nor ally – it cannot be and will not be. Nothing it says, no guarantee it makes, no offer it presents has any response in this country – it cannot and will not.
What’s more, the U.S. is now the closest, greatest and most open threat for Turkey. It is an enemy country. It is a serious threat to our country’s existence, its unity, integrity, present and the future. It is carrying out an open attack, and an undeclared war against Turkey.
The U.S. is fighting us through the PKK and Daesh
The U.S. administration is implementing a plan camouflaged by NATO and outcries of “strategic partnership.” The plan is to divide and destroy Turkey, just like in Iraq and Syria. It is a map operation. It is carrying out a project to close off all of our country’s southern gates from the Mediterranean to the Iranian border, siege us and confine us into Anatolia, suffocate us there and shrink Turkey.
The U.S. is the one that released the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Daesh on us. The U.S. is the one that pit Daesh against us in the Euphrates Shield. The U.S. is the one that had the clashes applied in our country’s cities using trench wars as a sort of rehearsal for “invasion.” This is the reason why the U.S. caused the Syria war to break out and first divided Syria through the organizations in question and now, it is settling into the areas held by those organizations.
These are preparations for the “Turkey front”
The Syria war was sparked to open the “Turkey front.” That map operation surrounding our southern border is being built as the “Turkey front.” The thousands of truckloads of weapons provided to the PKK and the unknown military buildups have nothing to do with Daesh and are entirely part of preparations to be used against Turkey.
This plan is identical to the map operations the Crusaders applied in our region. The entire region spanning the Mediterranean and the Iranian border are being dehumanized, and cleared of Arabs and Turkmens; demographic deportation is being applied. This zone that is being vacated is going to be turned into a foreign garrison and filled with U.S.-Israeli military bases. All attacks on Turkey and the region will be made from this zone.
New national struggle: Alliance relations no longer have significance
Turkey is showing and is required to show the same resistance that was shown toward the invasion of Anatolia after World War I. Now, the national struggle, a new war of independence, and homeland defense are all being carried out against the U.S. and its close allies.
The threat has now been identified. The danger is now clear. A big front was established to stop Turkey, which is back on its feet after a century, to make it kneel, to make it shrink. Open attacks on Turkey, which they couldn’t take under tutelage, which they couldn’t discipline with terrorism, have started. They have now understood that they are not going to be able to stop Turkey, which they can’t control, whose rise they cannot stop, through wars.
Therefore, NATO alliance relations have no significance left for us. Friendship ties with the U.S. have no meaning left. For a country they could sacrifice to a terrorist organization, the U.S. and its close allies have become the primary threat.
This land has a very strong resistance gene
But they should remember, this country has a deep political gene starting from the Seljuks, to the Ottomans and to the Republic of Turkey. Just as it has been host to the great rise after the Mongolian invasion following the Crusades, Turkey will lead the great rise after World War I for the third time. These attacks are being conducted because it started this great march and rise.
This is the reason behind the July 15, 2016 coup attempt. They were going to strike from within with the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) and start attacking from the south using the PKK and Daesh. They were stopped in one night. This time, the second wave of attacks are being carried out. Again, from the south, but this time not only through organizations - the U.S. is also deploying its soldiers on our borders.
İncirlik must be shut down, other bases must be brought to the table
Therefore, all the U.S. bases on this land, all the U.S. military units, all intelligence structures must be laid on the table.
The İncirlik Base must be shut down immediately, because since the Syria war started, terrorist organizations are being controlled from this base, and discussions and meetings with these organizations are being held at this base.
Both the PKK and Daesh are controlled from there. The July 15 attacks were also controlled from there. After this stage, all U.S. military presence in our country, on our land is a threat to Turkey.
Thousands of people will march to İncirlik Base
The threat is not only in Syrian territory; there is a domestic threat and the danger must be eliminated immediately. If this is not done, cannot be done, there will come a time when thousands of people surround and siege the İncirlik Base. When that time comes, nobody can stop this nation from intervening in foreign military units, because that anger cannot be stopped or controlled.
Our entire southern border, from the Mediterranean to the Iranian border, will be cleared of threats. This is a defense of Anatolia. This land is witness to a defense, a resistance that has no other example in any other region. Those that liken Turkey to Syria and Iraq and make plans accordingly will be greatly disappointed. History has turned and even the U.S. cannot prevent this turn anymore.
No force should dare try to test our nation
Our people are displaying an example of great solidarity, like in the War of Independence. As soon as the operation in Afrin started, as soon as U.S. threats became revealed, this solidarity became activated. Nobody should dare test how much our people can sacrifice, because they will be mistaken.
As the U.S. continues to struggle with the power wars within, it is not in a position to put us in our place. With its power structure divided into a thousand pieces, it is not in a position to make adjustments to this region. That era is over, it lost in Iraq and Syria. The era of dividing countries with two terrorist organizations and frightening Turkey is long over.
This is not war, it is a fight to protect our house
Turkey is determined. It is going to make all decisions, evaluations, take all measures, make all future plans not with the U.S.’s prompting, but with its own identity, its historic stance, and its millennium-old political experience in the region. The operation that started in Afrin is going to expand to Manbij; once the Mediterranean gate of the terror corridor is closed, the necessary fight will be fought in the east of the Euphrates.
This is not war, it is a defense. This is not a foreign intervention, it is the fight to protect our borders, our home. If we do not fight this now, they are going to carry the war inside Anatolia and hunt us down in our home.
As a nation, as a state tradition, we have activated the same codes and example of solidarity as that which has kept us alive and standing in this region for centuries with the same identity and foresight. This is fate, it is a historic responsibility, a way out for the region.
This is “relentless resistance.” Afrin is only the beginning
Turkey must never hesitate, never question its decisions through others’ deceitful suggestions and should never be anxious. Turkey should build islands of resistance not only along its border, but within the depths of the region, everywhere it can reach. It should remember what it experienced in the entire region a century ago, it should see well who is in which front, use memories today and determine its defense line accordingly.
That defense line is in no way the zero point of our border. That defense line is the entire region.
This is “relentless resistance.” It is a resistance that will tear up their draft maps.
You will see, this is what will happen. Afrin is only the beginning. There is nowhere else we can set foot outside the “Turkey axis.”