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The Grand Turk
U.S.-Backed Syria Forces Spokesman 'Held by Turkish Intelligence'
2017-11-18
[AnNahar] A front man for the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting 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 Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
snuffies is "in the hands of" the Ottoman Turkish intelligence after handing himself over to pro-Ankara forces, a Ottoman Turkish daily reported Friday.

Talal Sello "gave himself up" to Syrian opposition fighters -- which The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
calls the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
(FSA) -- on Wednesday, according to Ottoman Turkish reports.

Sello was then taken to the southern Ottoman Turkish province of Gaziantep bordering Syria, the Hurriyet newspaper said, adding that he was "giving answers to questions" from the Ottoman Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) about the activities of the Syrian Kurdish militia.

The fate of the burly Sello -- who became a prominent face due to his media updates during the SDF's fight with jihadists for Raqa -- has been shrouded in mystery since it emerged this week that he had left the force.

Mohammad al-Abdallah, of the Syrian rebel group Forqat al-Hamz, speaking to AFP in Beirut, described Sello's move as a "defection."

But the SDF denied he had defected, saying it believed Sello was taken "as a result of a special operation by Ottoman Turkish intelligence."

The SDF added that Sello "received threats against his children who are in Turkey."

The SDF includes Arab forces but is dominated by Syrian Kurdish fighters from the Peoples' Protection Units (YPG). Sello is of Turkmen origin.

Ankara views the YPG as a terror group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has been waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984. It has dismissed the SDF has merely a front for the YPG.

The PKK is blacklisted as a "terrorist" organization by Ankara, the United States and the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
While Washington views the YPG as the most effective fighting force on the ground against Islamic State jihadists in Syria, Ankara has railed against the American support.

The Kurdish-led force expelled IS from its de facto capital Raqa in northern Syria last month, one of a series of defeats against the group.

Turkey has cautioned against the creation of a "terror corridor" in northern Syria and had repeatedly warned it could launch an operation against the militia in the YPG-controlled town of Afrin.

Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
said on Friday that Afrin "needs to be cleared of the YPG terror group."

According to Hurriyet, Sello answered questions from Ottoman Turkish officials about the "activities of the YPG, its structure and the situation in Afrin."

Crucially, he was also asked about what kind of preparations the YPG was making in the event of an attack by the Ottoman Turkish military on Afrin, the daily added.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) confirmed that Sello was in the hands of Ottoman Turkish intelligence and said he had been "brought to Turkey by trickery."
Posted by:trailing wife

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