18 dead in IS attack on Kurd-held Syria town: monitor

In 2003, during the invasion of Iraq, Turkey refused to allow U.S. troops to use Turkey as a transit to set up a northern access route against the forces of Saddam Hussein.

The zone being proposed would reach into Syria toward the province of Aleppo. Turkey had enough violent chaos on its borders with millions of Syrian refugees pouring across, without asking for more.

What if Assad attacks the ISIS-free zone?

The PYD Co-President said that Rojava’s YPG and YPJ are not now present in that region, but that some forces fighting ISIS were already there and he said, “The local people, Kurds and Arabs living there, have long waged a war against ISIS and they cannot be ignored”.

“There is no place [for the Islamic State] on Turkey’s borders”, Davutoglu said.

Saleh Moslem argued that Turkey has started a war against Kurds under the pretext of fighting against ISIS due to global pressure and he strongly criticized the recent airstrikes Turkey has launched against the guerrilla-held Medya Defense Zones.

Obama hasn’t detailed who the “relatively moderate” fighters are that will control the safe zone, but it’s easy to guess.

The PYD leader also stressed that Turkey’s policies are clearly seen by the entire world now, no matter how hard it tries to cover them up, and added that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member countries which met today also know very well against whom Turkey is actually waging a war.

In contrast, the U.S. has rejected cooperation with Ahrar al-Sham and other extremist rebel groups, instead preferring to work with so-called “moderate rebels”.

Turkey, however, has been strongly criticized for the past two years for not taking steps to halt the flow of Sunni foreign fighters through the country to reach ISIS positions in Syria.

The ISIS-free zone is a good illustration of this problem.

“We’re holding ongoing consultations with the Turks”, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, but now “we have no plans for imposition of a no-fly zone”.

Thus, direct military confrontation with the Syrian government is inevitable. “The direct motive was this concrete attack and because Turkey felt threatened on its own territory that the jihadists may be looking for a way to shift the conflict in South Turkey”. It has been facing difficulties finding partners on the ground.

The answer seems obvious: U.S. and Turkish fighter jets will engage with Syrian aircraft, broadening and deepening the war until the intended aim of regime change has been accomplished. Turkey would then deal with the upstart IS threat, if necessary, when the “real” dual threats of the Kurds and the al-Assad regime were severely weakened or eliminated. On a conference call with reporters this week, Fred Hof, former U.S. special advisor for Syria, said that Ankara could be aiming “to water down or mitigate Washington’s current dependence on the Kurdish PYD”. Turkey reciprocated by sending thousands of troops to fight alongside our GIs in Korea. War over. Both want to oust Assad, but not if Iran and its proxies can help it.

Turkey remains the biggest obstacle to defeating ISIS, since it’s been helping it for years. The Turkish government blamed Islamic State for the attack. ISIS is so welcomed inside Turkey that ISIS promotes Turkey on social media as the global transit hub for jihadis wanting to join ISIS. The quiet town of cement brick homes is just a half-mile from Islamic State-held Jarabulus in Syria, on the other side of the border.

In discussing the “safe zone”, the U.S. media always ignore the concept of national sovereignty – the basis for global law. The only just war is a defensive one.

For months, U.S. and Turkish officials had been negotiating a joint strategy to battle Islamic State militants from Turkish soil.