Bloomberg: Erdogan Vows to Extend Offensive to East Syria, North Iraq
* President says may target Kurdish militants in Syria, Iraq
* Erdogan says Manbij, Kobani, Tal Abyad, Sinjar among targets
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, buoyed by his army’s capture of a Kurdish stronghold in northwest Syria, threatened to extend the offensive against separatist Kurdish militants to eastern Syria and northern Iraq.
Turkey’s military will shift their campaign to several towns under the control of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, including Manbij, Kobani, Tal Abyad, Rasulayn and Qamishli, “until this terror corridor is fully eliminated,” Erdogan said Monday. Turkey’s threat to attack Manbij, where U.S. troops are based, has put Ankara at loggerheads with Washington, and talks between the NATO allies have so far yielded no agreement. The U.S. also has a diplomatic presence in Kobani.
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Update #1: Turkey vows to widen offensive to eastern Syria, Iraq (AP)
Update #2: Erdogan says Turkey may extend Afrin campaign along whole Syrian border (Reuters)
WNU Editor: The U.S. is warning Turkey .... US 'deeply concerned' with situation in Syrian city taken by Turkey (The Hill). and the EU has condemned Turkey .... European Union criticizes Turkey's offensive in Syrian town of Afrin (PBS NewsHour). But I do not think Erdogan is listening.
5 comments:
Kurds are not that strong without intense air and artillery support from the coalition. IS would still be in Raqqa and Mosul without U.S presence, that is clear.
US Turkey war would win black swan event award for Q1 2018.
The US is not going to war over the Kurds. "Kurdistan" has always been a dead end for America. Propping it up was always going to cost us 10s of billions a year to prop up and the upside is non existent. Furthermore could we actually prop it up is qestionable at best.
Why would someone invest in Kurdistan? Only an ideologue or complete idiot would do so. Fortunately for the Kurds the US government has plenty of those. As such, they have had no trouble finding people they can manipulate to get US support.
A turkish US war would indeed be a "black swan" that would result in a very decisive Turkish victory. The US should do all it can to avoid this.
The project of Rojava (Kurdistan in Syria) is to create an autonomous region socialist and democratic.
When the situation was fluid and chaotic, this seem possible, but now the clash is more and more polarized.
If Kurds side with Assad and Russia, they may conserve socialist part of project, but forget democracy, because Assad have reunited many confession and people on his own allegiance pact, and sure want Kurds to be in that for Syrian/Russian Army help.
If Kurds choice USA to oust Turkey and Assad from Rojava, sure they are forced to abandon socialism forever, and at the best become a surrounded enclave Israel-like see as traitors from others.
By the way, if Turkey launch an offensive on Kurds of Iraq (and Erdogan is so arrogant to try), against Peshmerga, who are capitalist and ally of USA from before, I want to see how uncle Sam react, how cynicism without ideals or vision of peace push lies, betrayal, hate and deception into a ongoing violent quagmire.
A US Turkey war woild win the black swan of Q1 award.
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