Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

ISIS kills 18 collecting truffles in Syria: Monitor

2024-03-09

[Rudaw] At least 14 civilians and four fighters of a pro-regime militia were killed in an attack carried out by Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) forces of Evil while collecting truffles in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province, a war monitor reported.

"18 people were killed, including four National Defense Forces [NDF] members. 16 others were maimed, and more than 50 missing in an attack launched by button men, likely affiliated with the Islamic State" in the desert regions of Deir ez-Zor while they were collecting truffles, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based war monitor.

"Major" injuries to civilians were also inflicted in the ISIS ambush, the monitor said.

The NDF is a pro-government militia that has fought alongside Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.

Hundreds of poverty-stricken Syrians venture into the Badia desert between February and April each year in search of truffles, despite repeated warnings from authorities. The desert is known to be a hideout for jihadists and also contains landmines, making it a high-risk area to search for the delicacy.

The Syrian desert is known for producing some of the highest quality truffles in the world, which can fetch up to $25 per kilogram, in a country where the average monthly wage is only around $18.

In late February, an ISIS landmine in the Syrian desert killed at least 14 truffle hunters and injured eight.

Days prior, at least five people were killed in an ISIS ambush while truffle hunting in Syria’s central Homs province.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

ISIS landmine kills 14 Syrian truffle hunters in Raqqa: State media

2024-02-29

[Rudaw] At least 14 truffle hunters were killed by a land mine allegedly left behind by Islamic State

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

ISIS kills seven pro-regime fighters in Syria: Monitor

2023-12-10

[Rudaw] At least seven pro-regime fighters were killed in Syria on Friday when Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) button men launched an attack on their positions near the Iraqi border, a war monitor reported.

ISIS "launched a ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful attack targeting positions of regime forces and their proxy militias ... in al-Bukamal countryside in Deir ez-Zor," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britannia-based war monitor.

"The attack left seven soldiers and turbans dead," it added.

The holy warrior group has been blamed for a string of attacks against Syrian regime forces throughout the year.

In early November, a deadly ISIS attack in the Syrian desert claimed the lives of 34 pro-regime fighters and army soldiers.

In August, an ISIS attack on Syrian army soldiers in the eastern Deir ez-Zor province killed 33, days after ten Syrian soldiers were killed in another ISIS attack in their former stronghold of Raqqa.

According to SOHR, at least 385 members of pro-regime forces and 165 civilians have been killed in ISIS attacks since January.

Syria’s civil war, that broke out in 2011 after the government’s brutal crackdown on protests, erupted into multiple fronts with the emergence of ISIS, fighting between Kurdish forces and ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
and its proxies, Israeli strikes on pro-Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
factions, and tit-for-tat attacks between the US and Iranian proxies. Russia has backed the Syrian government, while about a thousand US troops are stationed in Syria to train and assist in the fight against ISIS.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

One dead in infighting between regime elements in Hasaka: Monitor

2023-09-22

[Rudaw] At least one soldier of the Syrian army was killed Wednesday when infighting erupted between the army and a regime-affiliated militia, a war monitor reported.

Clashes erupted on Wednesday inside a small pocket in central Hasaka city controlled by Damascus where regime institutions are located, known as the Security Square, between Syrian regime forces and the National Defense Forces (NDF), a pro-regime militia. The rest of the city is under the control of Kurdish forces.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported that a Syrian government soldier was killed and four others were maimed during the festivities, adding that 16 NDF fighters surrendered to regime forces.

At least five civilians were also injured in the festivities.

Footage published on social media showed military vehicles, including tanks, being deployed inside the Security Square as the sound of gunfire echoed in the skies.

In a video, NDF commander Abdul Qadir Hamo declared a rebellion and the separation of his militia from the Syrian government forces, slamming officials including Defense Minister Ali Mamlouk for demanding a $3 million ransom to prevent Hamo’s removal from his position.

"From now on, you are not affiliated to the state, and none of you are considered elements of the state. Look, they hit you with RPG launchers and slaughter you like an enemy. They are your enemies," Hamo told his fighters in a video statement.

Security forces from the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) began receiving civilians fleeing the violence in the Security Square after the infighting broke out.

Last month, four people were maimed during festivities between the NDF and the prominent Arab Jubour tribe after the former attacked a leader from the tribe.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Turkish bombardment kills two Syrian soldiers in Manbij: Monitor

2023-08-21

[Rudaw] At least two Syrian soldiers were killed and four maimed in a suspected ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish bombardment near the city of Manbij in northern Syria, a war monitor reported.

A bombardment targeted a military checkpoint belonging to Syrian regime forces in Tukhar village in the eastern countryside of Manbij, killing two soldiers and injuring four, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.

The monitor added that the number of casualties is expected to increase as some of the injured soldiers are at death's door.

The Syrian government has not commented on the incident yet.

Manbij is a strategically located town at a crossroads connecting Aleppo, Raqqa, and the Kurdish-administered northeast. It is under the control of the Manbij Military Council, a local force affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
’s President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First

His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First

...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
has several times threatened a military operation against the town that was liberated from the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) in 2016.

Turkey accuses the Syrian Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF, of being the Syrian wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an gang struggling for Kurdish rights in Turkey and named a terror group by Ankara. The YPG denies the charge.

The SDF is the main ally of the US-led global coalition against ISIS in Rojava.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Blasts rock pro-Iran missile stocks in Syria

2023-08-14

[An Nahar] Violent explosions were heard from missile stockpiles of pro-Iran
Iran

...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
militias east of Syria's capital Damascus before dawn on Sunday, a war monitor said.

Residents of the Damascus region heard the blasts which came from "the warehouses of pro-Iran militias" in a mountainous area east of the capital, said the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria.

"We don't know if it was from an air strike or ground operation," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Inshallah. God wills it — who are you to question his choice of the instrument executing his will, O observatory head?

During more than a decade of war in Syria, neighboring Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on Syrian territory, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters, as well as Syrian army positions.

Syria's official news agency SANA said during the night that "the sounds of explosions" had been heard on the outskirts of Damascus.

Four Syrian soldiers and two Iran-backed fighters were killed last Monday in pre-dawn Israeli air strikes near Damascus, the Observatory said at the time, in the latest deadly Israeli air raid to hit war-torn Syria's capital.

The air strikes targeted Syrian regime forces, as well as military positions and weapons depots used by gangs supported by Tehran, the monitor said.

With Iranian as well as Russian support, the government of Syria's Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
has clawed back much of the territory it had lost to rebels early in the conflict, which broke out in 2011 and has pulled in foreign powers and global jihadists.

Israel rarely comments on strikes it carries out on targets in Syria, but it has repeatedly said it would not allow its arch foe Iran to expand its footprint there.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

SDF arrests ISIS members, leader in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor

2023-05-01

[Rudaw] Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced early Sunday morning the arrest of an Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) leader and three other members in Deir ez-Zor, according to its Coordination and Military Operations Centre.

The Coordination and Military Operations Centre of the SDF tweeted that a leader was arrested along with three other holy warriors, as well as seizing a number of tech equipment, documents, and weapons.

It added that the raid was carried out in coordination with residents and the internal security forces (Asayish).

The arrests followed a wave of crackdowns on the group by the SDF in northeast Syria, in coordination with the global coalition against ISIS.

On Saturday, the coalition announced that the SDF arrested an ISIS weapon smuggler in an early morning raid on Friday, less than 24 hours after the capturing of another ISIS operative in northeast Syria.

On Thursday, SDF captured an ISIS logistics operative in a raid in Hasaka province and on Monday they arrested four ISIS members in Raqqa.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) stated that ISIS carried out 20 operations in the month of April, claiming to have killed 38 civilians and 46 Syrian regime forces and Iranian backed militia.

ISIS lost six of its commanders and members in security operations by the coalition and regime forces, reported SOHR.

ISIS has been degraded from its so-called caliphate that covered swathes of Iraq and Syria, though it continues to pose a security risk through kidnappings, hit-and-run attacks, and bombings. The Pentagon, in its latest quarterly report covering anti-ISIS operations from October through December 2022, estimated there are 6,000 to 10,000 fighters spread across Syria and Iraq.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

New report sheds light on Turkey’s ‘systematic oppression’ against Kurds in Afrin

2023-02-02

[Rudaw] A report published by two Syrian rights groups on Wednesday reveals a "systematic oppression policy" by ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
<del>The Sick Man of Europe</del> Turkey

<del>The Sick Man of Europe</del> Turkey

...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
and its Syrian mercenaries against the residents of the Kurdish city of Afrin in northwest Syria, based on the testimonies of 40 victims.

Kurdish forces controlled Afrin after Syrian regime forces withdrew from it in the beginning of an uprising in the country in 2011. However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
Turkey and its Syrian mercenaries invaded the city in 2018, causing the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Kurds as well as committing crimes against those who stayed.

Human Rights Organization-Afrin and Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) on Wednesday published a joint report which is based on interviews with 40 victims of the ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish invasion of the city. The testimonies were taken between 2021 and early 2022.

"Witnesses shared their traumatic experiences of torture and ill-treatment during their visits to detention centres. They described arbitrary arrests, cruel torture, and acts of sexual violence. Most of the arrests were made in March 2018 by the ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish Army and allied Syrian gangs after Turkey’s invasion of Afrin," reads the report. "After their release, most of the victims fled Afrin towards IDP camps and safe areas in Aleppo for fear of being rearrested, as has happened to survivors who remained in Afrin."

All the interviewed victims were Kurds, except for six Arabs. Twenty-five of them were male and the rest were females, including a young child, according to the paper.

One of the victims is a woman who says she was kidnapped by three button men when Afrin was invaded. She was initially taken to a detention centre in the city and then along with six other women and 37 men she was transferred to a prison in the Kilis province inside Turkey. Later, they were all returned to Afrin and kept in a military base of the mercenaries "where they saw dozens of detained women."

The witnesses told both rights organizations that the Turkey-backed gangs converted the homes of people into detention centres.

A female victim recounted that she was put in a communal cell where she was repeatedly interrogated for over five days. "They tortured me brutally by beating me with a four-conductor cable and gave me electric shocks. There were more than 20 women in the room, some of whom had their children with them. The prisoners insulted me and called me an ’infidel’ because I am Yazidi and forced me to convert to Islam."

The United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic said in a report in 2020 that the residents of Afrin and Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain), which was occupied by Turkey and its Syrian proxies in 2019, "witnessed an onslaught of violations perpetrated by members of the Syrian National Army as well as shelling and vehicle-borne improvised bombs," referring to the military alliance of Turkey-backed groups which was previously called Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
(FSA).

"During the period under review, the Commission corroborated repeated patterns of systematic looting and property appropriation as well as widespread arbitrary deprivation of liberty perpetrated by various Syrian National Army brigades in the Afrin and Ra’s alAyn regions. After civilian property was looted, Syrian National Army fighters and their families occupied houses after civilians had fled, 50 or ultimately coerced residents, primarily of Kurdish origin, to flee their homes, through threats, extortion, murder, abduction, torture and detention," reads the report.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

French jihadist killed in Syria clashes, his group says

2023-01-18

Good. More, please.

[AnNahar] A French jihadist has been killed fighting Syrian regime forces in northwestern Syria, his faction announced.

The bully boy used the pseudonym Abu Hamza, but his real name could not be verified.

Firqatul Ghuraba,

…since 2015 the Francophone jihadi group has fought under the Al Qaeda-linked Turkistan Islamic Party’s command structure in Syria…

a group of foreign jihadists in Syria's last main rebel-held region of Idlib, announced "the martyrdom of one of its heroes... from the French Muhajirin, our brother Abu Hamza".

The group is led by Omar Omsen, also known as Omar Diaby, a French national of Senegal
... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees...
ese descent suspected of funneling francophone fighters to Syria. He is wanted on a French arrest warrant.

He comes from the Nice region, as it turns out, and as of a few years ago his parents were willing to lie about his death so he could safely leave Syria for major surgery.

In a statement on WhatsApp, the group said Hamza died in the Jabal al-Zawiya area of Idlib during "a military advance of the Assad regime."

Along with the statement, the group published photos of men carrying what appeared to be a body which they put into the earth.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, Hamza was killed on Sunday during combat with the army of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
's regime, and was buried on Monday in the Jabal al-Zawiya area.

The French jihadists are mostly fighting alongside Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else

Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else

...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
, al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate which, with other rebel groups, controls parts of Idlib.

Over the past decade, thousands of holy warriors from Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
travelled to Syria to fight alongside jihadist groups, but with Russian and Iranian support Damascus has clawed back much of the territory it lost earlier in the conflict.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Turkish shelling kills child, injures several civilians in northern Syria: Asayish

2022-08-17

[Rudaw] ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish forces shelled Syria’s northern towns of Kobane and Tal Tamir over the past 24 hours, killing a 14-year-old child and several other civilians, the Kurdish internal security forces (Asayish) said on Tuesday.

Asayish said in a statement that ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
shelled Tal Tamir and its vicinity, injuring three civilians. "It also began bombing the city of Kobani which resulted in the death of a 14-year-old child and the injury of five citizens, including a woman and a child."

Key service facilities were also damaged by the attack, Asayish added.

Hawar News Agency (ANHA), a news outlet affiliated to the Kurdish administration, said those injured in Kobane are aged between two and 40 years, identifying the dead child as Abid Muhammed Haji.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) carried out a rocket attack against ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish forces in Kobane, killing one soldier and injuring four others. The SDF has not confirmed it.

~~Ottoman~~ Turkish state media cited Sanliurfa Governor Salih Ayhan as saying ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish forces on the border with Syria were attacked, adding that one soldier was killed and four other were maimed along Sanliurfa borders with Kobane.

The ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish defense ministry said in a tweet on Tuesday that their troops in different parts of northern Syria were attacked by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), backbone of the SDF, adding that they responded to the attacks and killed five YPG fighters.

ANHA claimed that ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish forces also carried out an ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
<del>Arclight</del> airstrike

...KABOOM!...
against Syrian regime forces in Kobane as well, killing 16 and severely injuring three others.

The UK-based SOHR also reported the attack on regime forces, saying 11 people were killed and eight injured but "it has not yet been known whether the dead people are regime soldiers only or civilians too.

The Syrian army has not confirmed the attack on its forces.

The regime forces were stationed in Kobane’s bordering area in recent years following an agreement with the SDF in a bid to stop ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish troops from advancing into the city.

Farhad Shami, head of SDF media center, said late Tuesday that "~~Ottoman~~ Turkish military aircraft have conducted 12 airstrikes against positions of the Syrian army deployed on the border strip west of #Kobane, causing life losses and casualties."

Shami also reported the death of a child and several civilians in the Kobane attack.

Turkey carries out attacks against Kurdish forces in northeast Syria almost every day, sometimes causing civilian casualties. Ankara has repeatedly said that it does not target the civilians but "terrorists," referring to the YPG which it claims is the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish army has carried out two major military operations against the SDF since 2018 and ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish brass hats are threatening to carry out a fresh offensive against the multi-ethnic force "at any moment."

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Why Manbij is a focal point for Turkey's Erdogan

2022-07-18

[Rudaw] The city of Manbij in northern Syria has become a focal point of attention recently since ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than there are in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really most important...
threatened another military incursion.

The multiethnic city lies 40 kilometers from the ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish border in the north and has turned into a competing framework for different local, regional and global actors in pursuit of their own interests. Ankara seeks to include Manbij in its "safe zone" 30km into Syria.

Article Eight of the 10-point Sochi agreement of 2019 specifically mentions Manbij (along with Tal Rifaat) stipulating ''all YPG [People’s Protection Units] and their weapons be removed.''

Strategically important, Manbij lies at the intersection of the M4 highway which strategically connects Aleppo to Raqqa, up to The ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish border in the north.

With an Arab majority, Kurds, Armenians Turkmens, Circassians and Chechens also live in the city and its outskirts.

During the uproar sweeping Syria, the city was first controlled by moderate Syrian groups in July 2012 after expelling Syrian regime forces. In January 2014, it fell to the then expanding Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS).

After grueling battles that lasted for months, Kurdish and Arab fighters of the newly established Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) dislodged the caliphate in August 2016. Since then, it is run by a civil administration and the Manbij Military Council - an affiliate of the SDF.

However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
Manbij is desired by Erdogan as one of the two alleged targets (besides Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo) of the imminent, though temporarily shelved, ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish military operation into northern Syria.

To deter ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish forces from advancing southwards, US troops were sent to Manbij in March 2017.

The ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish rush for Manbij has its foundations in a promise and an understanding with the US.

On the very same day ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
and factions of the Free Syrian Amy (FSA) announced the liberation of Jarablus (August 24, 2017) as part of Operation Euphrates Shield, then US Vice President Joe The Big Guy Biden
Joe <q>The Big Guy</q> Biden

...46th president of the U.S. Being a self-defined foreign policy whiz kid means never having to say you're sorry...
who was visiting Ankara said in a presser that Kurdish forces must leave Manbij to the east of the Euphrates River.

Though Biden’s remarks were aimed at reconciling Washington and Ankara, they were still perceived as a US promise.

~~Ottoman~~ Turkish armed forces along with Syrian proxies have already launched military incursions into northern Syria. These were Operation Euphrates Shield (2016), covering Jarablus and its surroundings, Operation Olive Branch (2018) in Afrin, and Operation Peace Spring (2019) in Gire Spi (Tal Abyad) and Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain).

Through Operation Euphrates Shield, Turkey succeeded in bisecting the Kurdish enclaves in western Euphrates (Afrin and Manbij) which the Kurdish forces were seeking to connect to the area under their control. Now, Turkey wants Kurdish-led forces be removed to the east of River Euphrates.

The other version of the story tells that any loss of the city of Manbij will disrupt the political landscape of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

Manbij continues to be one of the disputed and simmering points that contributed to deteriorating US-Turkey relations.

In June 2018 an understanding was reached between then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusolgu on a roadmap to a solution.

accordingly, independent U.S. and ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish patrols were carried out. However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
~~Ottoman~~ Turkish troops remained restricted to areas held by ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish forces north of the Sajur River at the outskirts of the city.

The Sajur River is the de facto frontline between ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish-controlled and the SDF-held areas.

Time and again Ankara accused Washington of being slow in implementing the agreement. The city has now turned into a bargaining chip for the U.S. to ease relations with Turkey.

In January 2019, four Americans who were on a foot patrol were killed in a suicide kaboom in Manbij.

Later in the year, the U.S. troops withdrew from Manbij following an abrupt announcement made by President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
To pre-empt a potential ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish invasion of the city, Syrian regime forces were deployed to a number of villages in the north.

Since then the fate of the city remains uncertain, arousing fears of a possible return of the Syrian regime to the city.

Economically, Manbij is Rojava's primary gateway for trade to areas held by the regime forces and those of the Euphrates Shied.

For the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES),

...the Kurds...

Manbij is vital as an indispensable economic artery that feeds the area with all basic day—to-day life needs.

Without Manbij, trade with the Syrian regime would be done through other means, but options are few and may deny Rojava financial resources.

From a ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish point of view, controlling Manbij would pave the way for thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) currently in northern Aleppo and refugees living in Turkey to resettle.

Politically, any ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish takeover of the city would not bring about any immediate damages to Rojava, however, it would weaken the position of the AANES in any future talks with Russia and the regime for securing a solution.

In the territorial sense of the word, the loss of further swathes of lands would be disruptive and divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled...
and could erode belief in the Autonomous Administration as a viable one.

In the current context, it is unlikely that Erdogan would move troops to the south without the approval of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
. This would make Manbij part of a territorial swap deal more likely in return for a territorial concession in Idlib.

With the Syrian crisis since 2011 been a simmering sticking point in the US-~~Ottoman~~ Turkish relations, the fate of Manbij will either fix or further damage them.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Turkish drone attack injures one SDF fighter near Tal Tamir: monitor

2022-06-28

[Rudaw] A ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish drone on Monday targeted a military point of Kurdish forces in the vicinity of Tal Tamir, northern Syria, leading to the injury of a fighter, a war monitor reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish drone hit a US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) military point in Tal Laben village in Tal Tamir, northwest Hasaka. "It led to the injury of a fighter from the Council," added the UK-based monitor, referring to the SDF’s local military council.

SOHR also said that Ankara has carried out 32 air strikes against Kurdish forces in northeast Syria (Rojava) since the beginning of this year, killing 20 fighters, children and women as well as injuring 62 others.

The Rojava Information Centre, a local monitor group affiliated to the Kurdish administration, also reported the drone attack by ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
<del>The Sick Man of Europe</del> Turkey

...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund...
, saying it led to the injury of "one person."

Turkey has recently renewed threats to carry out a new military operation against the Kurdish-led SDF in northern Syria’s Manbij and Tal Rifaat towns in a bid to complete the 30 kilometer "safe zone" it began creating along its southern borders in recent years.

Ankara claims that the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF, is the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which is an gang fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. Ankara considers both the PKK and YPG as terrorist organziations and a threat to its national security.

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