A reminder that there are other things than the corona virus outbreak going on in the world.
Conflict in Syria’s embattled Idlib Province, the last stronghold of the ISIS uprising which once threatened to overrun both Syria and Iraq and establish a new Islamic Caliphate in the region once known as the Levant, has escalated substantially during the past week, with Turkish government forces attacking the Syrian army and claiming to have killed over 50 soldiers loyal to President Assad. Russia, the main Syrian ally in the conflict which is basically a showdown between Alawite (Shia) and Salafist (Sunni) muslim sects, took the pressure off Assad and sent a clear message to Turkey’s President Erdogan by sending in warplanes to halt to Turkish assault, and warning the regime in Ankara away from continued action.
Turkish officials tried to justify the incursion into Syrian territiry by claiming Syrioan forces had killed two Turkish soldiers who were in Idlib to “establish peace” and that the attack was only retaliation for that act of war. President Erdogan has threatened strikes anywhere in response to attacks on and injuries to Turkish soldiers. That he can make such a threat when Turkish military forces have no right to be in Syrian territory demonstrates the shambolic state of politics in the eastern Mediterranean region.
Turkish-backed rebels supported by Turkish heavy artillery launched the attacks on Syrian forces trying to oust ISIS rebels from Idlib, an area close to Syria’s border with Turkey. Syria responded but with their military weakened by the years of conflict with the ISIS rebels were ultimately forced to request Russian help, and airstrikes were launched by Russian Su-24 fighter jets against attacking forces. Russia also contacted Turkey and told them to stop shelling.
While this particular flare-up appears to be over, fighting looks set to intensify as Erdogan, a leader whose sanity is at best questionable, seems determined to pick a fight with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Putin called the situation a “worst case scenario,” and has demanded that Turkey stop backing terrorist groups in Idlib. Turkey has vowed they will not leave Idlib to Syria, and reiterated demands that Syria unconditionally cede the province to the mostly al-Qaeda-led rebels therein. Erdogan also has stated his intention to seize and annexe territory in Kurdistan currently under Syrian and Iraqui rule but designated an autonomous region by United Nations treaty.
RELATED POSTS:
Syria index [ … ] Middle east catalogue
‘Islamic State’ kidnaps dozens of women and children from another Syrian minority
The war in Syria is not quite over yet. While forces loyal to Bashar al Assad are now in control of most regions, the Sunni Muslim fanatics of ISIS fight on in remote areas. Dozens of Druze women and children in Southern Syria were abducted earlier this month when their villages were attacked by IS…
Minority Report on Douma attack exposes ‘compromised reporting & analysis’ by OPCW – MIT professor
The OPCW failed to include evidence on the Douma in its final report, so the resulting document is inherently compromised, an MIT professor said. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) claimed that gas was dropped from the sky on the Damascus suburb. It did not directly blame on the Syrian government, however.
Germany Rejects Yazidi Asylum Seekers Fleeing Persecution By Islamic Extremists
The EU’s largest nation and most powerful economy, which righteously lecturs other EU member states on the need to take refugees and asylum seekers, is taking in fewer Yazidi refugees, according to a German newspaper report. The religious minority was terrorized by the “Islamic State” during the militant group’s campaign in Iraq and Syria and hundreds, possibly thousands of Yazidi women were raped and used as sex slaves by IsIS terrorists.
Trump Threatens Putin, Assad Over Alleged Syrian “Chemical Attack”; Russia Warns Of “Grave” Response If US Launches Strike
It’s looks like deja vu all over again. Remember when the US Defence Secretary admitted the Syrian “Rebels” funded and armed by the USA have used chemical weapons
against government forces in Syria?
Or when earlier this year, now former Secretary of State Tillerson blamed Russia for an Alleged Syrian chemical attack despite admitting he doesn’t know who actually did it?
Or when the US finally admitted there was “no evidence” Assad used sarin gas?
Or just last week, when Trump said that the US is finally pulling out of Syria as a result of the defeat of ISIS (much to the Pantagon’s fury and open-ended timetable for extracting Syrian resources)?
Pro-war trolls resort to smears as their ‘rebels’ lose miserably in Syria
Bureaucrats, Politicians and media talking heads who have consistently supported military intervention in Syria, and championed Obama’s stated aim, that the priority was not to defeat ISIS terrorists but to remove the Assad rgime have gone apeshit following the collapse of the rebels final strongholds. The war loving ‘liberals’ are throwing everything they have at the level headed people who counselled against intervention …
Reports Of USA Preparing Military Attack On Syria To Depose Assad.
Last April the US fired 59 Tomahawk missiles on Syria, in ostensibly in retaliation for an alleged chemical attack by the Assad regime on its own people. It was later confirmed by United Nations officials in Syria that there was no evidence to suggest the Assad regime was responsible, in fact such evidence as existed pointed to terrorist groups funded, armed and trained by the USA were responsible.
OPCW Investigators – “No Evidence” Of Chemical Weapons At Syrian Facilities Bombed By US
The independent inspectors commissioned by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will probably take several months to publish their final report on the alleged gas attack in Douma (an attack for which journalists and other independent parties have failed to find evidence),
Don’t Believe Mainstream Media: Russia Didn’t Attack US Troops in Syria
On February 16 Bloomberg published an article headlined: “Don’t Be Fooled: Russia Attacked U.S. Troops in Syria.” It was the start of the latest Russophobic shitstorm unleashed by the ‘liberals’ of mainstrteam media and social media in the USA against Russia. To give this story a little context, although under international law U.S. troops are …
‘US aid ends up with extremists’: Analysts alarmed over Pentagon’s 60,000-strong Syrian rebel force
Free – thinkers and people who have a healthy disrespect for authority have known this kind of thing has been going on for decades, in fact we UK taxpayers have stuffed the Swisss bank accounts of extremists for decades with shitloads of our cash. Now it seems US citizens, usually more trusting than we Europeans, are waking up to the fact that Washington has been buying influence in the third world with their cash.
Mainstream Media Reports Truth: West No Match For Russian Military Hardware
Jamal Khashoggi
Russian S400 air defence system (picture: RT )
The Original Boggart Blog 
