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Rayzur

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Everything posted by Rayzur

  1. Thanks Fly, looks interesting... I'll have to check it out more later...... If it goes where I think it will... I've no doubts that the (what I genuinely hope are) unintended consequences of past decisions made by those representing the US, led to fueling the fire and perhaps even creating ISIL for a specific purpose, with the intention they were under the control of whoever propagated that purpose.... It almost seemed in the initial creation of the US led coalition, that many countries were basically saying in their absence, "you guys created this Frankenstein... you guys fix it... And thus the coalition of Arab countries led by the US was born.... However, it seems that early on, it occurred to many that Frankie is no longer under the control of anyone of the creators.. and has spun off into its own morphed purpose... of utter unmitigated brutality that shocked even the creators... (well maybe the western ones... not so sure about some of the other players)... The coalition started to grow in support almost the same time, world leaders noticed that every sick whacko from their country as well as many impoverished countries, started showing up by the hundreds, absent any vetting, any process, any thing other than welcome here is a gun go forth and massacre because you can. Whatever illusion of control "they" had or conspiracy peeps thought "they" had.... they no longer have... it has morphed as it would as anyone understanding the nature of what was created should have known... I think several other surprises landed in the laps of the "creators" of ISIS... The world did not shrink in fear and instead stood up by the hundreds of thousands demanding that IF the agenda were to eliminate ISIS, then we should be targeting the thousands of them showing up in Kobane and Sinjar... The demand was so exceptional, that the once deemed not important or strategically significant city of Kobane has become now the showcase for US strikes of incredible symbolic significance.. as many of us knew it would... The one thing I can not explain... or at least is very disappointing in implication..... is why the media is broadcasting critically significant information about the battle with ISIS all over the world EXCEPT in the US?!?!? Why?!?! Beyond conspiracy theories... what is the actual reason mainstream media... ANY media does not cover what is happening over there.... Why is there no mention of Turkey in US news? Is the US really under that much control?? Cause if it is, we'd better be willing to accept that and then figure out what we want to do about that...and start standing up against whatever agenda it is that wants to control what we see or hear about the world such that we can be manipulated so easily.... Our entire news system is hostage to someone or something? Is the vast majority of those elected on both sides of the aisle paid off, or just stupid... I think it would be an interesting experiment for us to write out Senators and ask a very simple question: What is your position about Turkey's participation in Inherent Resolve.... and just see what kind of answers come back... Therein we could probably answer the question of bribe or stupid..... In the meantime it might be interesting to start digging as to ownership of the major news broadcasters and see if that shines any light on what's going on.... .
  2. Quote from TG: The Democrats blocked Cruz’s bill on Thursday, a bill that would revoke citizenship from Americans who join ISIS. I'm at a complete loss to understand why any one from any party would block this?!?!?! This is not even remotely a partisan issue (it would seem)!!! I just don't get it... Wow... Thanks TG!!...
  3. For those following Sinjar: Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga commanders on the Zumar – Sinjar front line have said that zero hour in the battle to liberate the Yazidi majority town of Sinjar in northern Iraq is nearing. A Peshmerga commander who spoke on condition of anonymity, told BasNews that their forces have been planning an operation to free the town. Sinjar has been under the control of Islamic State militants for the last three months. The commander also said that the have received new heavy artillery for the assault. “The three main Peshmerga battalions have just arrived in the area to liberate Sinjar and clear it of IS insurgents,” said the Peshmerga commander. He said that Peshmerga forces are currently on the outskirts of Snuny, a town about 25 km north of Sinjar. The commander said that since the liberation of the strategic town of Zumar last week, Kurdish forces have been getting themselves ready to attack Sinjar, coordinating with the United States-led coalition, which will attack IS militants from the air. The Peshmerga commander also revealed that on Saturday night, US warplanes targeted IS positions in Tel Afar, a town north east of Sinjar.
  4. Info from within Kobane over the pat few days has been limited. Likely an aspect of re-org or realign in execution of new strategies available with the heavy armor now at their disposal. The following article is a fairly good overview of what is coming out about Kobane and Iraq in general.... In Iraq its now been confirmed that ISIS killed 600 prisoners from the prison near Mousel and over 322 men women and children of Albu Nimr tribe that opposed them in Iraq. Apparently the executions of the are continuing..... For those following the Yazidis on Sinjar, there are reports of a massive attack against IS in that area by the Peshmerga and YPG working together to free those refugees... Meantime, there have been numerous videos of the IS men talking about going to the slave auction of Yazidi girls and women, (over 7000 kidnapped and to be sold)... These videos are taken down by YouTube as soon as they find them. I though about posting some of them, but you'd have to look at them almost as soon as I post as they go down pretty quick.. and I would post them for no other reason than to highlight the reality of what is happening and underscoring just how brutal and despicable are these men of IS. The sick magnet of IS continues to draw every lost insecure whacko from the world and hundreds pour into various outlets (Turkey) to join the beardos in their fight. I would love to see the US lead the world in legislation that revokes the citizenship of any US person who joins the fight of IS, which is genuinely fighting with an enemy against this country... As it stands anyone joining IS can return here to the US with little consequence except spending our tax dollars to follow them... If not that, at the very least I would suggest if they return, they be regarded as an enemy of the state and treated as such in some confined facility that keeps them all together and deprograms (or something like that). By Mariam Karouny and Omer Berberoglu BEIRUT/MURSITPINAR, Turkey, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish fighters have joined the fight against Islamic State militants in Kobani, hoping their support for fellow Kurds backed by U.S.-led air strikes will keep the ultra-hardline group from seizing the Syrian border town. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the civil war, said heavy clashes erupted in Kobani and that both sides had suffered casualties, while the U.S. military said it had launched more air raids on Islamic State over the weekend. Idriss Nassan, deputy minister for foreign affairs in Kobani district, said Iraqi Kurds using long-range artillery had joined the battle on Saturday night against Islamic State, which holds parts of Syria and Iraq as part of an ambition to redraw the map of the Middle East. "The peshmerga joined the battle late yesterday and it made a big difference with their artillery. It is proper artillery," he told Reuters. "We didn't have artillery we were using mortars and other locally made weapons. So this is a good thing." Nassan did not elaborate and it was not immediately possible to verify that progress against Islamic State had been made. The arrival of the 150 Iraqi fighters -- known as peshmerga or "those who confront death" -- marks the first time Turkey has allowed troops from outside Syria to reinforce Syrian Kurds, who have been defending Kobani for more than 40 days. ALL EYES ON KOBANI "They are supporting the YPG. They have a range of semi-heavy weapons," said Jabbar Yawar, secretary general of the peshmerga ministry in the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, referring to the main Syrian Kurdish armed group. Eyewitnesses in the Mursitpinar area on the Turkish side of the border from Kobani said two rockets were fired on Saturday night. A Reuters witness said fighting on Sunday was heavier than in the last two days, noting a strike in the late morning and the sound of three explosions. Attention has focused on Kobani, seen as key test of the effectiveness of American air strikes, and of whether combined Kurdish forces can fend off Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot made up of Arabs and foreign fighters. Air strikes have helped to foil several attempts by Islamic State, notorious for its beheading of hostages and opponents, to take over Kobani. But they have done little to stop its advances, in particular in Sunni areas of western Iraq, where it has been executing hundreds of members of a tribe that resisted its territorial gains. In their latest air strikes, U.S. military forces staged seven attacks on Islamic State targets in Syria on Saturday and Sunday and were joined by allies in two more attacks in Iraq, the U.S. Central Command said. In the Kobani area, five strikes hit five small Islamic State units, while two strikes near Dayr Az Zawr 150 miles (240 km) to the southeast in Syria destroyed an Islamic State tank and vehicle shelters. U.S. and partner nations hit small Islamic State units near the Iraqi cities of Baiji, north of Baghdad, and Falluja, in Anbar province to the west of the capital. The ultra-hardline Islamic State regards Iraq's majoriy Shi'ites as infidels who deserve to be killed. The group is expected to try and deploy suicide bombers to inflict mass casualties as Shi'ites prepare for the religious festival of Ashura, an event that has been marred by sectarian bloodshed in the past. Two car bombs killed a total of 20 Shi'ite pilgrims in different parts of Baghdad on Sunday, police and medics said. Shi'ite militias and Kurdish peshmerga fighters stepped in to try and fill a security vacuum after U.S,-funded Iraqi military forces crumbled in the face of an Islamic State onslaught in the north in June. Islamic State inflicted humiliating defeats on the Kurds. While the Kurds have retaken some territory with the support of U.S. air strikes in the north, Islamic State faces limited resistance in Iraq's western Anbar province, where its militants last week executed over 300 hundred members of the Albu Nimr tribe because it had defied the group for weeks. In the first official confirmation of the scale of the massacre, the Iraqi government said Islamic State had killed 322 members of the tribe, including dozens of women and children whose bodies were dumped in a well. The systematic killings, which one tribal leader said were continuing on Sunday, marked some of the worst bloodshed in Iraq since the Sunni militants swept through the north in June. The Albu Nimr, also Sunni, had put up fierce resistance against Islamic State for weeks but finally ran low on ammunition, food and fuel last week as Islamic State fighters closed in on their village at Zauiyat Albu Nimr. "The number of people killed by Islamic State from Albu Nimr tribe is 322. The bodies of 50 women and children have also been discovered dumped in a well," Iraq's Human Rights Ministry said. Since Islamic State declared a "caliphate" in large areas of Syria and Iraq in June, the militants have lost hundreds if not thousands of fighters in battles against other Sunni rebels, Islamist groups, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and in U.S.-led air strikes. Fighters inside the group say that it receives hundreds of volunteers every month, which helps it carry our more attacks. It also received pledges of allegiances from Islamist groups in places such as Pakistan, Africa and some Arab states. (Writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Giles Elgood and Philippa Fletcher)
  5. Published on Saturday, 01 November 2014 11:29 | 109200 + 26 + 7 Speaking on the sidelines of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, the Russian president Vladimir Putin accused the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of supporting foreign Islamist rebel fighters in Syria and providing them with medical care and turning turkey to an international hub for global terrorism. “The Turkish regime became a serious threat to international security and is jeopardizing the regional stability; hence the Russian Federation won’t hesitate to ignore this grave menace and will do the necessary steps to prevent Erdoğan from committing a suicide adventure in the Middle-East,” state news agency Itar-Tass cited Putin as saying on Friday in Russian resort town of Sochi. The Russian strongman mentioned the ISIS vicious phenomenon, adding that beneath the Saudi-backed terrorist group’s barbaric and brutal façade lies the Turkish and Qatari intelligence agencies that ignited a sectarian war in Iraq and neighboring Syria, claiming tens of thousands of innocent civilians. Previously having blamed Ankara for deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Syrian Kurdish besieged border-town of Kobani, Putin further criticized the Turkish deceitful Prime Minster, Ahmet Davutoğlu, who recently stated that Ankara would take part in the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in only if it ultimately leads to Syrian government’s overthrow. “If Mr. Erdoğan intends to intervene in Syria only and only to unseat the Syrian president, Moscow will certainly increase the pace of sending missiles and weaponry consignments to its Arab ally,” warned Putin in a stentorian language reminiscent to the Cold War rhetoric. Meanwhile the Chairman of the Russian State Duma, Sergey Naryshkin blasted Turkey for plotting to replace the Syrian government with a puppet regime since early 2011 and trying to intervene under the pretext of creating a buffer-zone inside the Syrian territory, describing Erdoğan’s latest move to obtain Turkish parliament’s authorization for a possible military action against Damascus as ‘a pathetic charade’. I regret to see that Turkey’s Prime Minister’s famous doctrine of “zero problems with neighbors” is turned to be “zero friends policy” in the Middle-East, added Naryshkin.
  6. The forward team for Pesh went in with FSA to Kobani the other day with trucks. "Today" its reported there have have been so many air strikes near Kobane they they lost count. Its covering for the larger group of Pesh to go into Kobane on the west side with heavy weapons.
  7. Well this is interesting. Another news source also uploading same bombing today, 30 Oct dated..... says there were 75 people who died... Which seems more realistic when you look at the footage... In any case, Assad's Army bombed a refugee camp killing a bunch of refugees.... The narrative accompanying this extended footage of same area says: A harrowing video has emerged showing the charred and dismembered bodies of up to 75 people killed when a Syrian regime helicopter dropped two barrel bombs on a refugee camp yesterday. The graphic footage - filmed at a displaced persons camp in the northern province of Idlib - shows the bloodied corpses of women and children, while passers-by scramble to save the wounded. 'It's a massacre of refugees,' a voice off camera can be heard saying, while tents that act as makeshift homes burn all around him and dazed children wander the camp looking for relatives. Barrel bombs, which are banned by international law, are crudely made containers filled with nails, metal shrapnel and explosive material that are dropped from low altitude. The video begins with the cameraman racing up to the bombed camp on a motorcycle and finding a scene of total devastation. 'Let the whole world see this, they are displaced people. Look at them, they are civilians, displaced civilians. They fled the bombardment,' he said. A man in another video of the Abedin camp, which houses people who had escaped fighting in neighbouring Hama province, said as many as 75 people had died. Syrian state media did not mention the bombing. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence in the civil war, said it heard reports that 10 civilians had been killed. Details of the attack could not be independently confirmed. Human rights groups say the Assad regime has previously dropped barrel bombs on densely populated neighbourhoods in defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution banning their use. The United States said it was 'horrified' by the reports of the bombing while adding it could not confirm details. 'The attack on the Abedin camp was nothing short of barbaric,' State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement. 'Unfortunately, if it is confirmed to be the work of the (Assad) regime, it is only the latest act of brutality by the regime against its own people,' she added. Nearly 10 million people have been displaced by Syria's civil war, which started with pro-democracy protests but grew into an armed revolt when security forces cracked down on the demonstrations. More than 3 million refugees have fled the country, and the conflict has killed close to 200,000 people, according to the United Nations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ5vSy0_j1Q
  8. One of my road dogs sent me this info as FYI, along with the Youtube video shot by a civilian journalist living in the refugee camp. You can hear the shock and disbelief in his voice as he goes around the camp area filming. Not idea yet why these people were targeted. Regime helicopters targeted the Abadin camp in the rebel-controlled southern outskirts of Idlib with two barrel bombs Wednesday, resulting in 25 dead and 40 wounded, Abd Qintar, a citizen journalist in southern Idlib, told Syria Direct Thursday. The camp, built two months ago to house 100 Syrian families displaced by fighting in the northern outskirts of Hama, “was entirely destroyed” in the bombing, Qintar said. “Anyone who survived left for neighboring towns in rural Idlib.” The Syrian official media did not comment on the attack. The attack on Abadin is not the first time regime aircraft have targeted camps sheltering displaced Syrians. In November 2012, warplanes struck Bab al-Hawa camp along the Turkish border in Idlib province, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens, reported pro-opposition daily Zaman al-Wasl. Similarly, the Syrian air force launched a missile at a makeshift school in Qah camp in Idlib province in April, which killed a child and injured dozens more, Syria Direct reported. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFo8Kq27VCY
  9. RE: FSA peeps in Kobane: They are led by Col. Abdul-Jabbar Mohammed al-Aqidi, is an old timer and been around for years commanding FSA troops against Assad. He is a former Colonel of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) having defected in early 2012. He was the top commander of FSA meeting with a Top commander of the YPG, Sipah Hamo, in the city of Afrin (north of Aleppo, in order to formalize their agreement to fight against a common enemy ISIS. On 27 Aug 2014, both parties have agreed to create a common front to fight against ISIS which is preparing for new offensive in north of Aleppo to seize the border crossing with Turkey (Kobane).... It is noted that In some videos circulated on the internet last year, Aqidi was appearing with extremists with speaking anti-Kurdish remarks..... however a year later in Au he went to the YPG asking for their cooperation in fighting ISIS... The rise of ISIS generated one hck of a game of musical chairs in terms of alliances... Here is a photo of the group at that meeting.... : If nothing else those with concern about FSA in Kobane, may find some relief knowing they have been there all along and the new ones entering are likewise troops from this Colonels command and who were part of the agreement with YPG to fight together.... BTW, YPG General Afrin, remains top commander of all troops in Kobane, with all new arrivals from FSA and Pesh, including the Colonel, coming under her command........
  10. Foreign jihadists flocking to Iraq and Syria on 'unprecedented scale' – UN 30 Oct 2014 UN report suggests decline of al-Qaida has yielded an explosion of jihadist enthusiasm for its even mightier successor organisations, chiefly Isis An image grab taken from a video released by Islamic State group's official Al-Raqqa site via YouTube. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Spencer Ackerman in New York Thursday 30 October 2014 17.13 EDT Share via Email Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Shares1,914 Comments823 The United Nations has warned that foreign jihadists are swarming into the twin conflicts in Iraq and Syria on “an unprecedented scale” and from countries that had not previously contributed combatants to global terrorism. A report by the UN security council, obtained by the Guardian, finds that 15,000 people have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside the Islamic State (Isis) and similar extremist groups. They come from more than 80 countries, the report states, “including a tail of countries that have not previously faced challenges relating to al-Qaida”. The UN said it was uncertain whether al-Qaida would benefit from the surge. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaida who booted Isis out of his organisation, “appears to be maneuvering for relevance”, the report says. The UN’s numbers bolster recent estimates from US intelligence about the scope of the foreign fighter problem, which the UN report finds to have spread despite the Obama administration’s aggressive counter-terrorism strikes and global surveillance dragnets. “Numbers since 2010 are now many times the size of the cumulative numbers of foreign terrorist fighters between 1990 and 2010 – and are growing,” says the report, produced by a security council committee that monitors al-Qaida. The UN report did not list the 80-plus countries that it said were the source of fighters flowing fighters into Iraq and Syria. But in recent months, Isis supporters have appeared in places as unlikely as the Maldives, and its videos proudly display jihadists with Chilean-Norwegian and other diverse backgrounds. “There are instances of foreign terrorist fighters from France, the Russian Federation and and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland operating together,” it states. More than 500 British citizens are believed to have travelled to the region since 2011. The UN report, an update on the spread of transnational terrorism and efforts to staunch it, validates the Obama administration’s claim that “core al-Qaida remains weak”. But it suggests that the decline of al-Qaida has yielded an explosion of jihadist enthusiasm for its even mightier successor organizations, chiefly Isis. Those organisations are less interested in assaults outside their frontiers: “Truly cross-border attacks – or attacks against international targets – remain a minority,” the report assesses. But the report indicates that more nations than ever will face the challenge of experienced fighters returning home from the Syria-Iraq conflict. Wading into a debate with legal implications for Barack Obama’s new war against Isis, the UN considers Isis “a splinter group” from al-Qaida. It considers an ideological congruence between the two groups sufficient to categorise them as part a broader movement, notwithstanding al-Qaida’s formal excommunication of Isis last February. “Al-Qaida core and Isil pursue similar strategic goals, albeit with tactical differences regarding sequencing and substantive differences about personal leadership,” the UN writes, using a different acronym for Isis. Leadership disputes between the organisations are reflected in the shape of their propaganda, the UN finds. A “cosmopolitan” embrace of social media platforms andinternet culture by Isis (“as when extremists post kitten photographs”) has displaced the “long and turgid messaging” from al-Qaida. Zawahiri’s most recent video lasted 55 minutes, while Isis members incessantly use Twitter, Snapchat, Kik, Ask.fm, a communications apparatus “unhindered by organisational structures”. A “lack of social media message discipline” in Isis points to a leadership “that recognizes the terror and recruitment value of multichannel, multi-language social and other media messaging,” reflecting a younger and “more international” membership than al-Qaida’s various affiliates. With revenues just from its oil smuggling operations now estimated at $1m daily, Isis controls territory in Iraq and Syria home to between five and six million people, a population the size of Finland’s. Bolstering Isis’s treasury is up to $45m in money from kidnapping for ransom, the UN report finds. Family members of Isis victim James Foley, an American journalist, have questioned the policy of refusing to pay ransoms, which US officials argue would encourage more kidnappings. Two months of outright US-led war against Isis has suffered from a lack of proxy ground forces to take territory from Isis, as Obama has formally ruled out direct US ground combat. On Thursday at the Pentagon, General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the US has yet to even begin vetting Syrian rebels for potential inclusion in an anti-Isis army it seeks to muster in Syria. Dempsey encouraged the Iraqi government to directly arm Sunni tribes to withstand Isis’s advances through the western Anbar Province.
  11. Seems that much of the news is lining up, for the most part... When I reported Pesh was in.... it was their Wednesday, not sure what NBC meant by enroute (or why the spell check always hits on the word "enroute") but they were there. The numbers aren't exactly right.... And FSA has been fighting alongside YPG for over a month... (though I would not trust the crew Erdogan wants to send in and somewhere in some briefing or something I saw where his FSA would go to another front... though that's not confirmed... no idea who would vet FSA members going in... from his country.... that's a sketchy issue) In any event, for more info on YPG/FSA joint mission you will most times see it referred to as "Volcano of the Euphrates". On September 10th, a number of Free Syrian Army (FSA) units and members of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia announced the formation of a joint operations room, Burkan al-Furat (Volcano of the Euphrates) to unite groups fighting ISIS across northern Aleppo and Raqqa provinces. (where they are now) An umbrella coalition of FSA-affiliated outfits called the Dawn of Freedom Brigades and the Raqqa Revolutionaries Brigade — a moderate group driven from Raqqa Province during ISIS advances — stood alongside the YPG fighters in clashes... They are inside Kobani now. And since the US Congress has already voted to support and arm the Syrian opposition, one could argue the authorization already exists to provide technical assistance, covertly and overtly, to the blended forces under the Burkan al-Furat umbrella, composed of Syrian Kurdish militias and elements of the Free Syria Army. With the establishment of the "Euphrates Volcano" operations center, disparate groups of non-Islamist fighters have declared their intention to liberate Raqqa and Aleppo and cooperate closely at the tactical level....... As a final thought I was arguing against FSA in Kobane and one of the guys on conference call in Kurdistan said that it is very important for the Kurds and FSA to stay united supporting each other, as Turkey is trying to divide them and that Kurds should not fall into Turkey's trap... as it was very important in his words, for "Arabs and Kurds to work together" Yet once again a lesson about the incredible nuances of the cultures in that region that don't always fit into western frameworks.... . . I think Erdogan likes FSA if for no other reason than they are not YPG who he thinks of as PKK..... However his country is so frickin full of ISIS everywhere, any FSA coming from him would be the human version of a Trojan Horse... I haven't been able to get real exacting info as to which FSA went in... been very focused on a separate piece.... And there is also a very coordinated effort to scrub any info (totally including MSM) with much of it dark right now, or at least divergent, because IS is very tech savvy in monitoring what sometimes seems to be the entire Internet... but definitely news channels...and numbers of troops, types of weapons, capability, who came in where and when etc etc could compromise the potential success of re-taking all of Kobane.... And I'm with ya'll in saying Turkey is not a country I ever trusted... at all... And its interesting that the conflict in Kobane is bringing to a head all those past transgressions that we've stepped over or ignored in our 60 year relationship... and revealing our differences to be essentially irreconcilable..... And thanks so much you guys for joining in and bringing more great stuff as we all watch this amazing event of history in the making.
  12. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference in Riga October 23, 2014. Divergences over how to confront the Islamic State have strained the durability of a six-decade alliance. (Ints Kalnins/Reuters) By Liz Sly October 29 at 6:46 PM Follow @LizSly ANKARA, Turkey — The increasingly hostile divergence of views between Turkey and the United States over Syria is testing the durability of their 60-year alliance, to the point where some are starting to question whether the two countries still can be considered allies at all. Turkey’s refusal to allow the United States to use its bases to launch attacks against the Islamic State, quarrels over how to manage the battle raging in the Syrian border town of Kobane and the harsh tone of the anti-American rhetoric used by top Turkish officials to denounce U.S. policy have served to illuminate the vast gulf that divides the two nations as they scramble to address the menace posed by the extremists. Whether the Islamic State even is the chief threat confronting the region is disputed, with Washington and Ankara publicly airing their differences through a fog of sniping, insults and recrimination over who is to blame for the mess the Middle East has become. At stake is a six-decade-old relationship forged during the Cold War and now endowed with a different but equally vital strategic dimension. Turkey is positioned on the front line of the war against the Islamic State, controlling a 780-mile border with Iraq and Syria. Without Turkey’s cooperation, no U.S. policy to bring stability to the region can succeed, analysts and officials on both sides say. “If Turkey is not an ally, then we and Turkey are in trouble,” said Francis Ricciardone, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Turkey until the summer. “It is probably the most important ally.” The airdrop by U.S. warplanes last week of weapons to a Kurdish group Turkey regards as a terrorist organization crystallized the apparent parting of ways. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not disguised his anger at the way President Obama ordered the airdrop. The U.S. president informed him of the decision in a telephone call barely an hour after Erdogan had declared to journalists that Turkey would never allow such assistance to take place. On a tour of the Baltic states last week, Erdogan blasted Obama at every stop. “Mr. Obama ordering three C-130s to airdrop weapons and supplies to Kobane right after our conversation cannot be approved of,” he said during a news conference in Latvia. “The U.S. did that despite Turkey,” he fumed on another leg of the journey. U.S. officials have sought to reassure Turkey that the airdrop was a one-time action, and the two countries have agreed on a plan to reinforce the beleaguered Syrian Kurds with Iraqi peshmerga fighters, which Turkey does not object to, because it has friendly relations with Iraqi Kurds. But the Kobane dispute masked more fundamental differences over a range of issues, some of which have been brewing for years and others that have been brought to light by the urgency of the U.S.-led air campaign, analysts say. “The Syria crisis is exposing long-unspoken, unpleasant truths about the relationship that were put to one side,” said Bulent Aliriza, a Turkish analyst with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We have this kabuki dance where Washington and Ankara say they agree, but they don’t.” The tensions are not unprecedented, nor are the doubts about an alliance born in a different era, when fears of Soviet expansionism brought Muslim Turkey under NATO’S umbrella and extended the Western bloc’s reach into Asia. The United State imposed an arms embargo on Turkey after Turkish troops invaded Cyprus in 1974. In 2003, there was fury in Washington when Turkey’s parliament refused to allow American troops to use Turkish soil as a staging ground for the invasion of Iraq, triggering a deep chill that took years to overcome. The United States has stepped up airstrikes against Islamic State fighters massed around the embattled Syrian town. Oct. 28, 2014 A picture taken from the Turkish border near the southeastern village of Mursitpinar, in the province of Sanliurfa, shows smoke billowing after a fighter jet hit Kobane in Syria. The 2003 rupture may, however, have foreshadowed the beginning of a more fundamental shift in the relationship, with Erdogan embarking on a decade of transformation in Turkey that has perhaps forever changed his country, analysts say. Turkey has grown and prospered under his rule, but it has also begun to tilt toward a more authoritarian, Islamist brand of politics that is increasingly at odds with the model of secularism and pluralism that the United States has held up as a key component of Turkey’s importance to the alliance. In 2003, as now, Turkey made it plain it did not want to be used as a launching pad for attacks against fellow Muslims in the Middle East, a sentiment Erdogan has repeatedly expressed in his many recent comments critical of U.S. policy. He has accused the United States of being more interested in oil than in helping the people of the region and has made it clear that he does not regard the Islamic State as a greater threat than the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, the organization affiliated with the Kurdish Syrians the United States has been helping in Kobane. “There are growing doubts over whether the U.S. and Turkey share the same priorities and even whether they share the same goals,” Aliriza said. “Even when it comes to defining the enemy — there is no common enemy.” Turkish officials bristle at suggestions that Turkey is in any way sympathetic to the Islamic State. It is Turkey that has to live with the jihadist group on its borders, not the United States, and Turkey that is most at risk of being targeted by the Islamic State in retaliation for waging war against it, the officials say. Turks also do not mask their irritation with what they regard as a shortsighted and potentially dangerous U.S. strategy that they believe will not work and could backfire. Turkey believes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is the root cause of the instability that gave rise to the Islamic State and that leaving him in place will serve only to prolong the war, a senior Turkish official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss policy on the record. Turkey is hosting more than 1.5 million refugees, a huge social and financial burden that will continue to grow if the conflict in Syria is not resolved, the official said. “They are across the Atlantic,” he said, referring to the United States. “We are a neighbor of Syria’s. We know that if Assad stays, the problem will continue for decades. The Americans have the luxury of cherry-picking the problems, but we need to see them as an entirety.” Obama and other top U.S. officials have repeatedly said that Assad cannot be part of any long-term solution to the Syria problem. But, another Turkish official said, “saying it is one thing, and doing it is another.” “Much, much more needs to be done,” the second official said, also speaking on the condition of anonymity. “To fix this region, we have to think big. We have to think long-term and have a holistic strategy underpinned by values that don’t change according to the season.” U.S. officials acknowledge that Washington policymakers do not always sufficiently take into account the concerns of allies. They also point to areas where Turkey is expanding its cooperation, including restricting the flow of foreign fighters across its borders and identifying the networks in Turkey that support them. “We’ve seen some steps recently where they are more engaged on both of those issues,” said a senior administration official in Washington, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy. “We’re definitely encouraged there.” And in some ways, the Syria crisis has brought Turkey and the United States closer after a year of building tensions, officials on both sides say. Obama and Erdogan had not spoken since January until they met in Wales in September to discuss the formation of the anti-Islamic State coalition. Lower-level officials have since been talking multiple times a day, Turkish and U.S. officials say. Vice President Biden has announced plans to visit Turkey in November in an effort to smooth over the ruckus over comments he made suggesting that Turkey is responsible for the rise of the Islamic State. It is hard, however, to avoid the impression that Turkey and the United States are moving on separate tracks — “parallel tracks that don’t converge,” said Gokhan Bacik, a dean at Ipek University in Ankara. “From now on, this is only a relationship of necessity,” he said. “There is nothing ideologically that the United States and Turkey share. Turkey has changed.” Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
  13. It about 2340 PDT 28 Oct US time.... 5 Trucks, 6 Buses of Peshmerga and one ambulance crossed over into Kobane approximately 5 hours ago...
  14. Thanks Eagle..... Check out Former Iraqi MP Ayad Jamal Al-Din saying a civil state (versus religious) is the only solution to Combat ISIS.. This guy seems heated in making some very interesting points, regarding ISIS....
  15. The Technical Military Term KMA comes to mind.... I'm really not sure why this stuff is not getting more press.... or any press in the US in any MSM... and I think its important for we Americans to know exactly who we are in bed with as a NATO partner, lest there be any confusion down the road when something goes totally sideways.... And BTW Jim1Cor...you are absolutely correct... watch Syria in the coming months as the big guy goes bye bye...... The Brits do have boots on the ground... SAS were the ones to call in the surgical air strikes, and while they may have been an estimated 30K members in IS originally, there are now estimated to be 50K.... as it continues to be the magnet attracting every whacko, insecure, violent guy on the planet. . Turkey sets conditions for helping West in Kobane crisis in Syria Prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu says he wants to train Free Syrian Army, not Kurdish PKK militants, as peshmerga fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan began their journey towards Kobane Smoke billowing after a jet fighter hit Kobane on Tuesday Photo: AFP By Colin Freeman 7:24PM GMT 28 Oct 2014 Turkey has named its price for co-operation in the West's fight to end the Islamic State's stranglehold on the Syrian border town of Kobane, saying the fight must be led by the Free Syrian Army rather than Kurdish "terrorists". The country's prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said that any military operation to free Kobane must involve arming regular Syrian rebel groups rather than the Kurdish militants who have so far defended the town. Turkey has refused to help the Kurdish fighters so far, claiming that many of them belong to the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a separatist insurgency against the Turkish state. "Equip and train the Free Syrian Army so that if the Islamic State leaves, PKK terrorists should not come," Mr Davutoglu said, aiming his comments at the US. Mr Davutoglu's remarks, made in an interview with the BBC, follow mounting international criticism of Turkey for refusing to intervene in the seige of Kobane, where a small force of lightly-armed Kurdish fighters have spent the last month holding out against heavily-armed Islamic State militants. US air strikes have slowed the Islamic State's advance, but failed to significantly loosen their grip, fuelling calls for Turkey to join the fray. So far, forces from the Turkish army - the second largest in Nato - have simply observed the seige of Kobane from just across the border. On Tuesday, Mr Davutoglu said that Turkish troops would only be sent into battle if the West committed ground forces into Syria as well, a prospect that Washington and Britain have already ruled out. "If they don't want to send their ground troops, how can they expect Turkey to send Turkish ground troops with the same risks on our border," he told the BBC. He hinted, though, that Turkish air bases might be used for US-led airstrikes if American jets targeted the forces of the Syria's President Bashar al-Assad as well hitting Islamic State fighters. The US has already asked to use Turkey's air base at Incirlik for the strikes, which would be easier than carrying them out from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, but Turkey has so far refused. Mr Davutoglu, a noted opponent of Mr Assad, said: "We will help any forces, any coalition, through air bases (within Turkey) or through other means if we have a common understanding to have a new pluralistic, democratic Syria." A convoy of Kurdish peshmerga directed towards Kobane on Tuesday (Reuters) As Mr Davutoglu spoke, a column of peshmerga fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan began their journey towards Kobane, where they will act as back-up forces. Bowing to Western pressure, Ankara has reluctantly agreed to let the peshmerga forces go through after receiving assurances that they would seek only to fend off the Islamic State rather than seek any future cause with the PKK. The 40-vehicle column, carrying 80 fighters and armed with machineguns and artillery, was expected to cross into Turkey last night, Kurdish officials told the AFP news agency. A further 72 fighters were due to fly into Turkey early on Wednesday, also bound for Kobane, where yesterday palls of smoke rose over the town as Islamic State fighters set fire to tyres in a bid to prevent air strikes. Turkey and the West have become progressively more at loggerheads over how end the Syrian crisis, despite both sides being keen to see the back of President Assad. One of the most powerful countries in the Middle East, Turkey was quick to call for President Assad's overthrow, a move initially hailed by the West as a welcome lead from an Islamic country. But Ankara has since been accused of helping more radical rebel groups to cross the borders into Syria, paving the way for the creation of extremist outfits like the Islamic State. Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (AFP) Mr Davutoglu continued to paint a disdainful picture of Western nations either dithering or lacking the military appetite for a long-term solution to the Syrian crisis. Turkey, he said, "did not want to be part of the game for a few weeks or months just to satisfy American or European public opinion". He also repeated his call for an internationally-backed no-fly zone over northern Syria, from where moderate rebel groups could operate free from President Assad's jets. America has ruled out such a no-fly zone on the basis that enforcing it would force US jets to directly challenge President Assad's air defence system. Reported to be the youngest kid fighting in Kobane.... Not from the ME but goes by Abu Osama Salafi
  16. In the interest of surgically precise targeting, know who the target is and why.... In case you're interested, a cleric speaks out very publicly against the Islamic State ..
  17. 4 Hours ago: Peshmerga forces landed in Ruha airport, in Turkey at 1:00 am local time and are enroute to Kobane... that's the latest public report... .
  18. This was written 28 Oct by the Commander of the troops in Kobane. She is actually there and sends out briefings so that people can get a accurate rendition of what is actually happening there.... Since Sept. 15, we, the people of the Syrian town of Kobani, have been fighting, outnumbered and outgunned, against an all-out assault by the army of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Yet despite a campaign that has intensified in the past month, including the deployment of United States-made tanks and armored vehicles, the Islamic State has not been able to break the resistance of Kobani’s fighters. We are defending a democratic, secular society of Kurds, Arabs, Muslims and Christians who all face an imminent massacre. Kobani’s resistance has mobilized our entire society, and many of its leaders, including myself, are women. Those of us on the front lines are well aware of the Islamic State’s treatment of women. We are fighting for women everywhere. We are thankful to the coalition for its intensified airstrikes against Islamic State positions, which have been instrumental in limiting the ability of our enemies to use tanks and heavy artillery. But we had been fighting without any logistical assistance from the outside world until the limited coalition airdrops of weapons and supplies on Oct. 20. Airdrops of supplies should continue, so that we do not run out of ammunition. None of that changes the reality that our weapons still cannot match those of the Islamic State. We will never give up. But we need more than merely rifles and grenades to carry out our own responsibilities and aid the coalition in its war against the jihadist forces. Currently, even when fighters from other Kurdish regions in Northern Syria try to supply us with some of their armored vehicles and antitank missiles, Turkey has not allowed them to do so. Turkey, a NATO member, should have been an ally in this conflict. It could easily have helped us by allowing access between different Syrian Kurdish areas, so as to let fighters and supplies move back and forth through Turkish territory. Instead, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has several times publicly equated our fighters, who are defending a diverse and democratic society, with the murderous Islamic State, evidently because of the controversy surrounding Turkey’s Kurdish minority. Last week, following domestic and international criticism, Turkish leaders at last said they would open a corridor for a small group of Iraqi pesh merga fighters, and some Free Syrian Army brigades, to cross into Kobani. But they still will not allow other Syrian Kurds to cross Turkish territory to reach us. This has been decided without consulting us. As a result, the Islamic State can bring in endless amounts of new supplies and ammunition, but we are still effectively blockaded on all sides — on three by the Islamic State’s forces, and on the fourth by Turkish tanks. There is evidence that Turkish forces have allowed the Islamic State’s men and equipment to move back and forth across the border. But Syrian Kurdish fighters cannot do the same. The Turkish government is pursuing an anti-Kurdish policy against the Syrian Kurds, and their priority is to suppress the Kurdish freedom movement in Northern Syria. They want Kobani to fall. We have never been hostile to Turkey. We want to see it as a partner, not an enemy, and we believe that it is in the Turkish government’s interest to have a border with the democratic administration of a western Kurdistan rather than one with the Islamic State. Western governments should increase their pressure on Turkey to open a corridor for Syrian Kurdish forces and their heavy weapons to reach the defenders of Kobani through the border. We believe that such a corridor, and not only the limited transport of other fighters that Turkey has proposed, should be opened under the supervision of the United Nations. We have proved ourselves to be one of the only effective forces battling the Islamic State in Syria. Whenever we meet them on equal terms, they are always defeated. If we had more weapons and could be joined by more of our fighters from elsewhere in Syria, we would be in a position to strike a deadly blow against the Islamic State, one that we believe would ultimately lead to its dissolution across the region as a whole. The people of Kobani need the attention and help of the world. Narin Afrin, is a commander of the resistance in Kobani.
  19. Thanks TD....looks like everyone is drawing lines in the sand...and the lines are looking like a spider web...This one likes that one for this but doesn't like them for that and on and on.... Meantime, Youtube is committed to taking down any IS propaganda as its identified...That's what happened in the above.... And IS puts if up again... I'll try one more time on the link they just put up,....only because its a good representation of how good they are at manipulating media.... Again.... THIS IS NOT TRUE It is IS propaganda...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8XzZy0TVRk&feature=youtu.be Meantime, has anyone seen on US News that Turkish National Party Chairman said :"My God give strength to ISIL ISIS and kill all the Peshmerga"...and if not....why are they not reporting this stuff....amazing. IN other news, US Military vets are going to Kobane to fight with YPG.. AA Last updated: October 28, 2014 Western "comrades" join Kurds, Arabs, secularists, Yezidis, and Syriac Christians against Islamic State War in Syria The Kurdish fight in Syria slowly turns international on the ground as an unprecedented number of foreign volunteers join the pro-Kurdish militias to fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadists. The most widely reported cases include 43-year-old US air force veteran Brian Wilson and 28-year-old ex-US Marine Jordan Matson. According to local sources inside Syria's Kurdish "Rojava" region, however, 10 American citizens as well as hundreds of non-Kurdish volunteers comprising Syrian Arabs, Turkish citizens and Europeans have already joined the People's Protection Units (YPG) fighting against IS jihadists. "I give no figures, but there is a considerable number of Westerners fighting in the ranks of the YPG as well as European women comrades who’ve joined the Women Protection Units (YPJ). There are many Turkish comrades too," said 28-year-old Kristopher Nicholaidis, who left Greece and joined YPG in Syria five months ago. NICHOLAIDIS WAS AN ACTIVE local artist back in Greece where he used his art and politics to defend migrants, including Muslims. "There is a considerable number of Westerners fighting in the ranks of the YPG" "I come from a political family and I am a democratic socialist. I used my art and politics to defend the Muslim community from attacks initiated by fascists of the Golden Dawn party, but I consider IS jihadists as 21st century fascists posing a greater global threat as they barbarically spread Islamofascism on an international level," he said. "I believe that the YPG is therefore leading the greatest anti-fascist struggle of our time by fighting against IS jihadists. I joined this struggle to fight against global fascism in defence of democracy and peace in Kurdish Rojava." Arsalan Celik, 26, studied political science at one of the most prestigious Turkish universities but left and joined the YPG April this year. "I am not Turkish-Kurdish, I am Turkish from the city of Mersin. I came here because the IS jihadists come from all over the world instigating a war against humanity and my government helps them. I wanted to make a practical stance against IS and YPG was the only democratic militia I found in the region fighting back against these jihadists," he said. "I have seen many Syrian Muslim Arabs as well as left-wing Turks fighting against IS in the ranks of the YPG and YPJ militias, but we have not made headlines as much as our American comrades," he said light-heartedly, adding, "We fight against IS jihadists to defend the democratic values of this Kurdish-led revolution because only the Kurds are now able to bring peace to Kurdistan, Syria and Turkey." CELIK IS NO STRANGER for Syria's Kurds as tens of Turkish men and women have joined YPG and YPJ since last year, and some of them have lost their lives. Serkan Tosun was the first Turkish YPG fighter killed when he fought to repel jihadist attacks to defend the predominantly Kurdish city of Serekaniye (Ras Al-Ain) in September 2013. 30-year-old Nejat Ağırnaslı, a Turkish academic, was killed two weeks ago when he fought in the YPG ranks in defence of the city of Kobane. Zuleikha Muhammad of Rojava Martyrs' Mothers Committee, whose only son joined YPG and was killed last year, said: "The international volunteers are not 'foreigners' as some describe them because we do not consider them as 'foreigners', they are our children and Rojava is their homeland." She said: "We love international volunteers as our own children because they are fighting against IS gunmen to defend us and they are martyred like our sons and daughters to defend Rojava revolutionary cause for people's fraternal relations." Azad Hussein, YPG captain in the town of Jaz'a, said: "YPG fighters are majority Kurdish but Syrians from different political, religious and ethnic backgrounds also join. There are few foreigners too, that is right." But he declined to give exact figures of the YPG foreign fighters, adding that that YPG selection of foreign volunteers is a "complicated process". "We welcome international comrades who are qualified fighters and understand our cause too. However, we reject those wanting to join us just because they are disillusioned with their lives and look for some sort of adventure. The latter also include some European Kurds. We reject those people and we have already turned down many of them at our border bases," Hussein said. 19-YEAR-OLD HERISH ALI, a British-Kurd, said he requested to join the YPG along with five other European Kurds in August but YPG border guards rejected them on the Iraq-Syria border. "We met the YPG fighters and stayed with them at their Sihela border crossing to Iraqi Kurdistan. They were nice and we thought it was awesome to join them, but they rejected us when we revealed that we are students and we have dual nationalities," Ali said. "We welcome international comrades who are qualified fighters and understand our cause too" He added: "We told them that we feel degraded because it was like we are not capable men for this fight, but they kept refusing our arguments and said we should go back to Europe and study. Then, they drove us to the nearby Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga checkpoint where the peshmergas too rejected taking us as volunteers." Some left-wing writers in the West have begun to compare YPG and YPJ militias in Syria to the International Brigade and POUM militia that operated during the 1936 Spanish civil war, but this is not how the YPG perceives itself. "We are not communists nor do we call for a separatist Kurdish nation-state. We are democrats advocating the third way in Syria based on the Democratic Con-federalism philosophy of Abdullah Ocalan. The YPG is a people's militia and people are free to advocate any ideology," said Bahoz Berxwedan, one of the YPG commanders who run political education lectures in the Al-Hasakah province. "Any freedom-loving democrat in this world can join us regardless of their religion, ethnicity, and ideology, as long as they accept our main principles of gender equality, peaceful coexistence and self-rule autonomy for all communities,” he explained. “This is why YPG fighters include Kurds and Arab Muslims, secularists, Yezidis, Syriac Christians and some American and European comrades too."
  20. Here is the video everyone is talking about..... released today... featuring kidnapped reporter Jhon Cantile. This is pure propaganda though does give a good example of IS ability to edit film and use the internet. People from Kobane and others familiar with it, along with several analysts say that it was not shot on the day claimed (it was raining that day) and the reporter is not standing where he says he was, and the last part of the video is not even of Kobane.. and etc etc technical contrasts to what is claimed. At one point someone claimed it was the use of green screen, however most agree it was shot somewhere, some time ago (flag shown was blown up long ago) on the edge of Kobane. Again.... THIS IS NOT TRUE and is nothing more than a good example of IS propaganda. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxvfc8fQ_fA&feature=youtube_gdata_player .
  21. Here is the latest video that Syrian people ask be released to the world as evidence that Turkish military and ISIS are openly coordinating against Kobane.... In this video they are robbing the cars left on the Turkish border of Kobani citizens that were not allowed to bring them into Turkey... Not sure if its obvious, but the person posting this video is fairly close to the action . A very clear evidence that the Turkish army is coordinating with ISIS terrorists
  22. Just got back onto DV. Will have to work on summary of past few days. Some of the most intense battling over Kobane has happened in in the last few days. IS is pounding the city and there are reports that they have surface to air missiles... and some have reported seeing one of them fired..... ISIS is being constantly replenished with more troops, last time approximately 200 guys entered, and the time before that, about 400. At the same time ISIS President Erdogan of Turkey who told the world that he would allow Peshmerga to cross over Turkish borders... has lied once again and they sit waiting on the border for the word to go.... I'll sift through the more pithy articles, in the meantime... here is the most current public update I can find: Uncertainty surrounds Peshmerga deployment to Kobane13 hours ago Peshmerga await deployment to Kobane By Jonathon Burch in Istanbul and Alexander Whitcomb in Erbil ISTANBUL/ERBIL - The Kurdistan Region is awaiting word from Turkey to deploy its Peshmerga troops to the besieged city of Kobane, senior officials told Rudaw on Monday. While a small unit of Peshmerga forces is ready to cross to Syria, the presidential office of the Kurdistan Regional Government has said they “don’t yet have an answer from the Turkish side,” but it did not clarify what issues were under discussion. Peshmerga Minister Mustafa Said Qadir confirmed the holdup, telling reporters: "We are awaiting the stance of the state of Turkey, and because of this we have not sent any forces.” A Syrian Kurdish leader, whose forces are battling jihadist militants in the town of Kobane, rebuffed comments by the Turkish president on Monday that he had opposed Peshmerga reinforcements from Iraqi Kurdistan, saying they were ready to deploy but for reasons unknown to him had not yet arrived. Salih Muslim, co-chair of Syria's largest Kurdish faction, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), told Turkey's CNN Turk television channel he did not believe the Peshmerga would try to take over from his fighters defending the town and accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of meddling. Muslim's comments were the latest in a war of words between the PYD and Ankara, following Turkey's announcement last week it would open a corridor through its territory for Peshmerga to enter Kobane. Fighters from the PYD's militant wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), have been resisting an onslaught by Islamic State (ISIS) militants there for more than a month. Since the announcement, there have been conflicting reports on how many Peshmerga fighters would be sent and their arrival has been beset by delays, prompting speculation that the deal may have even been called off. “This is not about us,” Muslim said when asked about allegations the PYD was against the arrival of the Peshmerga. “The Peshmerga have been ready for two or three days but we don't know why they haven't crossed,” he said. “We have no concerns that the Peshmerga will take control in Kobane. They are going to come and help. They have no intention of taking over anyway. This is Kurdish solidarity,” Muslim said. In comments reported on Sunday by Turkish media, Erdogan said the PYD did not want the Peshmerga in Kobane out of fear they would overshadow their own fighters. Last week, the Turkish leader said there had also been resistance from the PYD over the number of Peshmerga to be deployed, saying the figure had now been reduced to 150 fighters. “This is not in the hands of Erdogan. Why is he giving a figure? Our people have already reached an agreement, why is he interfering this much?” CNN Turk reported Muslim as saying. “Is everything going to be ordered by him? The YPG and the Peshmerga command come to an agreement amongst themselves. In the first phase, it is said to be 150-200 [Peshmerga],” he said. Turkey has come under increasing international pressure to act over Kobane. The United States has airdropped weapons and supplies to the YPG in Kobane and together with other allies has been carrying out air strikes on ISIS in and around the town. But apart from taking in some 200,000 refugees from the area and treating wounded fighters, Turkey has been reluctant to do more. The disagreements appear to be born largely out of a relationship of deep mistrust. Turkey views the PYD as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a 30-year war against the Turkish state, and which it classifies as a terrorist organisation. Erdogan has also repeatedly likened the PYD to ISIS, angering Kurds on both sides of the border. Ankara is reluctant to help the PYD out of fear it will strengthen the PKK and is also wary of causing a nationalist backlash within Turkey. Turkey launched a peace process with the PKK two years ago, however, its reaction to Kobane has threatened to derail those negotiations. Tensions escalated over the weekend after PKK militants killed three Turkish soldiers in the southeast in retaliation for the death of some of its own fighters at the hands of the military. Deadly riots in several Kurdish cities earlier this month caused by events in Kobane have also added to the unrest. Meanwhile on Monday the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced that 815 people had died in the fight for Kobane, including 21 civilians and 302 YPG fighters. According to their information, 481 ISIS militants have been killed in the area since mid-September.
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