Turkey incursion into Syria Archives - Iran News Daily

Turkish forces assault on Raqqah

reporter 1222 — Sun, 24 Nov 2019 08:30:49 +0000

Turkish military forces and allied militants have launched a fierce assault on a key town in Syria’s northern province of Raqqah, more than a month after they mounted a cross-border offensive to clear the region of YPG Kurdish militants.

Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that Turkish troops and their proxies attacked residential neighborhoods in Ayn Issa, located around 45 kilometers north of the provincial capital city of Raqqah, with artillery rounds, rockets and mortar shells on Saturday, causing heavy damage to citizens’ properties, public facilities as well as urban infrastructure. There were no immediate reports of possible casualties. Iran News quotes the news.

The report added that local residents fled the town fearing for their lives.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, meanwhile, reported that the Kurdish-led SDF militants, whose ranks mainly include YPG fighters, “are trying to prevent Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies from advancing towards the town.”

Elsewhere in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah, local sources, requesting anonymity, have told SANA that Turkish military forces are apparently establishing a new base on the outskirts of Ra’s al-Ayn city.

The sources noted that Turkish military engineering vehicles are flattening the terrain, and setting up bulwarks.

Local sources also said tens of families, dressed in outfits similar to members of the Daesh terrorist group, have settled in the southern sector of Ra’s al-Ayn.

On October 9, Turkish military forces and Ankara-backed militants launched a long-threatened cross-border invasion of northeastern Syria in a declared attempt to push YPG militants away from border areas

Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.

On October 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a memorandum of understanding that asserted YPG militants had to withdraw from the Turkish-controlled “safe zone” in northeastern Syria within 150 hours, after which Ankara and Moscow would run joint patrols around the area.

In the wake of the flare-up, Syria deployed unit of its army to areas in the northeast following a deal with Kurds to hand over control of key cities in the region to government forces in exchange for support against Turkish strikes.

Ankara wants to see a 32-kilometer “safe zone” established in northeastern Syria which is clear from Kurdish militants and where it can relocate a great percentage of the more than three million Syrian refugees living in Turkey.

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Turkey starts returning ISIS terrorists by deporting an American

reporter 1222 — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 06:33:04 +0000

Turkey on Monday deported a US citizen who fought for the ISIS terror group as the government began a new push to returning ISIS terrorists to their home countries, a Turkish official said.

A German and a Danish national would also be repatriated, while seven other German nationals would be returned on Nov. 14, Interior Ministry spokesman Ismail Catakli said as returning ISIS terrorists to their homes. Iran News quotes what AP reported.

The US and Denmark did not comment on Ankara’s announcement. Germany said it will not refuse entry to its own citizens.

The move comes just over a week after the Turkish interior minister said Turkey was not a “hotel” for ISIS terrorists and criticized Western nations for their reluctance to take back citizens who had joined the ranks of the terror group as it sought to establish a “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria.

In Denmark, the weekly newspaper Weekendavisen said the name of the Danish citizen being extradited was Ahmad Salem al-Haj, who faces terror charges in Denmark.

While Turkey has quietly deported ISIS sympathizers for years, it raised the issue more forcefully after Western nations refused to back its offensive in northeastern Syria against Syrian Kurdish militiamen, whom Ankara considers terrorists linked to Kurdish insurgents fighting inside Turkey. Many countries have voiced concerns that the Turkish incursion would lead to a resurgence of Daesh.

Catakli did not provide further information on the Daesh terrorists being sent home but said they were held in Turkish deportation centers.

“This morning, a foreign terrorist from the United States was deported from Turkey after the procedures at the deportation center were completed,” Catakli said.

Two Irish nationals, two German nationals and 11 French nationals who were captured in Syria would also be transferred to their countries of origin soon, he added.

Turkey has been accused of enabling the influx of thousands of foreign Daesh sympathizers into Syria over the years and at the height of the terror group’s power, the Turkish border crossings were the main route for those hoping to join Daesh in Syria.

Turkey denies that it enabled foreigners to cross into Syria. It later stepped up security at its borders, including profiling possible ISIS terrorists at airports and building a wall along with parts of its porous border.

Turkey was hit by a wave of ISIS attacks in 2015 and 2016, including one by a gunman who opened fire at an Istanbul nightclub during New Year celebrations in the early hours of 2017 and killed 39 people.

In Berlin, German Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger said Turkey told Germany about its plan to deport one person on Monday, seven on Thursday and two more German nationals on Friday. The group comprises three men, five women, and two children.

So far, Burger said, German authorities cannot confirm that the 10 were involved with Daesh. There are indications that two of the women were in Syria, but neither of the children is believed to have been in Syria.

There was no dispute about these people’s German citizenship, he said, and therefore no doubt about them being let back into the country — Germany can’t and doesn’t refuse entry to its own citizens.

Turkey has over the past few weeks criticized Western nations, including Britain and the Netherlands, for refusing to take back their nationals who had joined the terror group and vowed to send back ISIS terrorists — even if their citizenship has been revoked.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said last week that about 1,200 foreign ISIS terrorists were in Turkish prisons and 287 members, including women and children, were recaptured during Turkey’s offensive in Syria.

Several European countries, including Britain, have stripped Daesh terrorists of their nationalities, to prevent their return.

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US Senators Want Quick Visa for Syrian Kurdish General

reporter 1222 — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 09:17:58 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Republican and Democratic US senators asked the State Department Wednesday to quickly provide a visa so that the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces could visit the United States to discuss the situation in the Arab country.

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Marsha Blackburn and Democrats Chris Van Hollen, Jeanne Shaheen and Richard Blumenthal wrote to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking him to expedite a visa for the commander, General Mazloum Kobani, the Syrian Kurdish General.

“To say we are extremely concerned with the situation unfolding in northern Syria is an understatement,” they said in their letter, adding that it would benefit both Congress and President Donald Trump’s administration to hear from Kobani, Reuters reported.

Their request came hours after Trump announced that a ceasefire in northern Syria was now permanent and he lifted sanctions on Turkey as a result, rejecting criticism of his decision to pull out US troops that allowed Kurdish allies to come under attack from Turkey.

The lawmakers who sent the letter have been among the loudest voices in the US Congress lamenting Trump’s decision, which many see as abandoning Kurdish forces who fought for years alongside US troops in Syria.

For this reason US senator are worried about well being of Syrian Kurdish general.

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France Says Turkey Must Stop Incursion into Syria

reporter 1222 — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 09:55:33 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – France’s president discussed the Turkish incursion into Syria with US President Donald Trump and warned about a possible resurgence of Daesh activity as a result of the military action.

Emannuel Macron’s office said in a statement Saturday that in the call, the French leader “reiterated the need to make the Turkish Incursion into Syria stop immediately”, AP reported.

Macron stressed “above all else the need to avoid any resurgence of Daesh in the region”.

France has suffered multiple deadly attacks by Daesh.

The statement said France and the US “share common concerns” and will coordinate closely on the issue in the coming days.

Anadolu news agency said Saturday the Turkish forces had arrived at the M-4 highway that connects the Syrian towns of Manbij and Qamishli. The road is about 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the Turkish border.

Erdogan said Friday Turkey won’t stop until the YPG fighters withdraw below a 32 kilometer (20 miles) deep line.

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