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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| US carries out strikes near Syria’s al-Bab after Turkish criticism |
| 2017-01-19 |
| [Hurriyet Daily News] The U.S. military said on Jan. 17 that it had carried out air strikes in Syria against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) targets of interest to both Washington and Ankara near the town of al-Bab, following Turkish criticism of insufficient U.S. support for its ground offensive. U.S. Air Force Col. John Dorrian, a Baghdad-based front man for the U.S.-led military coalition battling ISIS, counted four strikes in recent days against the jihadists’ targets that he said were in both countries’ "mutual interest." "We saw a window of opportunity where it was in our mutual interest to get those targets destroyed," Rooters quoted Dorrian as saying, adding that the targets were identified by working with ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... They included an armored personnel carrier and ISIS tactical units, he said. "This is something we expect to continue doing. We strike [ISIS] targets anywhere in Syria or Iraq that they can be found," Dorrian told news hounds at the Pentagon. Dorrian added the targets were "mutually developed" by the United States and Turkey. But the extent of U.S. support for Turkey’s actions on the ground around al-Bab remained unclear as part of the ongoing Euphrates Shield operation. Turkey has been angered by U.S. policy in Syria, particularly Washington’s support for Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and fighters from its military wing, the People’s Protection Unit (YPG), which it sees as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighting within Turkey. Both Washington and Ankara classify the PKK as a terrorist organization. Turkey has also accused Washington of failing to do enough to support its push to take al-Bab from ISIS even as the country provides the U.S.-led coalition with access to the Incirlik Air Base to stage operations in Syria. |
| Posted by:Fred |