Thread: US closes Syrian embassy as diplomacy collapses

‘International Community is Failing’ Iraq and Syria
By Barbara Boland | 10 hours ago

“We are being tested here as an international community, and so far, for all the immense efforts and good intentions, the international community is failing," actress and director Angelina Jolie said yesterday at a camp for displaced persons in Dohuk, Iraq. ”The people I met today need to know that we will be with them.”

"Nothing can prepare you for the horrific stories of these survivors of kidnap, abuse and exploitation and to see how they cannot all get the urgent help they need and deserve," Jolie said.

While most of Hollywood was attending the SAG awards, Jolie took a 2 day visit to Iraq. The camp she visited holds over 20,000 displaced Yazidis who fled ISIS’ assault on Mount Sinjar in early August. Women recounted their dramatic ordeals to the Hollywood actress, telling tales of kidnappings, detentions, escape and release. There were some people who escaped ISIS by “walking through the night and hiding by day…. listened to the stories of extreme hardship and loss, including from people who still have sons, husbands and daughters detained, and others who had heard their daughters were moved to Syria. Others had lost all contact with their loved ones and had no idea of their fate.”

"The needs so dramatically outstrip the resources available in this vast crisis. Much more international assistance is needed," said Jolie. In her role as special envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR,) Jolie warned that last year they’d received only 53% of the $337 million needed to care for over three million displaced Syrians and Iraqis. Without the needed funds, a humanitarian crisis in northern Iraq is sure to continue.

“It is shocking to see how the humanitarian situation in Iraq has deteriorated since my last visit,” Jolie said. It is her fifth trip to Iraq as UNHCR ambassador.

The Syrian civil war has entered its fifth year, and over 3.8 million Syrians have fled, while 7.6 million Syrians are internally displaced. At least 3.1 million Iraqis are also displaced due to ISIS’ savage onslaught last year.

In a strong statement, Jolie added: "Too many innocent people are paying the price of the conflict in Syria and spread of extremism. I express my deepest sympathy to the family of Haruna Yukawa the Japanese hostage reportedly murdered in Syria on Saturday, and to all the families and victims of these vile and extreme acts."

Video Link : http://www.mrctv.org/blog/angelina-j...ria#ZEyo1B:xx2

Turkey's government took a stand against Islamic extremists Friday, sending its warplanes to pound ISIS targets across the border in Syria, and detaining nearly 300 suspected militants across the country.

A government statement said three Turkish F-16 jets took off from Diyarbakir airbase in southeast Turkey early on Friday and used smart bombs to hit three ISIS targets. A government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of government rules requiring authorization for comment, told the Associated Press the targets were two command centers and a gathering point of ISIS supporters.

The official statement said the decision for the operation was made at a security meeting held on Thursday after ISIS militants fired from Syrian territory at a Turkish military outpost, killing a soldier.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the airstrikes Friday had "removed potential threats" to Turkey, hitting their targets with "100 percent accuracy." He did not rule out further airstrikes, saying Turkey was determined to stave off all terror threats against it.

Turkish media said Friday’s targets were the Syrian village of Havar, near the border, but officials would not confirm the location. The private Dogan news agency said as many as 35 ISIS militants were killed in the airstrike that targeted the gathering point. The agency did not cite a source for the report and there was no official confirmation.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said several ISIS fighters were killed in the airstrikes but much less than the 35 reported by Turkish media.


"(ISIS) is imposing a blackout on its losses, although there aren't large losses," Abdurrahman told The Associated Press by telephone.

Abdurrahman told Reuters the goal of the strikes could also be "to help rebels on the ground control areas near the border instead of Kurdish forces."

The bombing is a strong tactical shift for Turkey-- which spans the intersection of Europe and Asia and borders the Middle East—after a long reluctance to join the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS.

"We can't say this is the beginning of a military campaign, but certainly the policy will be more involved, active and more engaged," a Turkish government official told Reuters Friday. "But action won't likely be taken unprompted."

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that Turkey had agreed to let the U.S. use a key base in southern Turkey for military operations against the militants "within a certain framework." He did not elaborate on the agreement, which a U.S. official said was reached during a phone call this week with President Obama.

Citing operational security, the White House declined to confirm the agreement, but noted that President Barack Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had agreed to "deepen our cooperation" against ISIS in their phone call Wednesday.

The agreement follows months of U.S. appeals to Turkey and delicate negotiations over the use of Incirlik and other bases by the U.S.-led coalition -- a sensitive topic in Turkey.

American officials said access to the base in southern Turkey would allow the U.S. to move more swiftly and nimbly to attack ISIS targets.

Davutoglu said Turkish planes did not violate Syrian airspace on Friday, but he did not rule out incursions in the future. He denied news reports claiming that Turkey had told the Syrian regime about the airstrikes, but said it had contacted NATO allies before the operation.

"This was not a point operation, this is a process," Davutoglu said. "It is not limited to one day or to one region ... the slightest movement threatening Turkey will be retaliated against in the strongest way possible."

On Friday, Turkish police launched a major operation against terror groups including ISIS, carrying out simultaneous raids in Istanbul and 12 provinces and detaining more than 290 people, a government statement said. The state-run Anadolu Agency said helicopters and as many as 5,000 special forces were involved in the operation which was also targeting the PKK Kurdish rebel group and the outlawed far-left group, DHKP-C.

The agency said 98 people were detained in Istanbul -- 36 of them foreign nationals. It did not give details on their home countries.

One DHKP-C suspect, a woman, was killed in a gunfight with police in Istanbul, Anadolu reported.

Turkey's moves came as the country finds itself drawn further into the conflict by a series of deadly attacks and signs of increased ISIS activity inside the country.

Earlier in the week, a suicide bombing blamed on ISIS militants killed 32 people in Suruc, near the Syrian border.

Turkish officials have raised concerns that the bombing was part of a campaign of retaliation for Turkey's recent crackdown on ISIS operations in the country. In the last six months, Turkish officials say, more than 500 people suspected of working with ISIS have been detained.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/07...ions-in-syria/

Obama Gives Turkey Green Light to Bomb Former US Soldiers Fighting ISIS

Forty to fifty Americans are fighting with Kurdish forces against ISIS

by Jim Hoft | Gateway Pundit | July 27, 2015

Retired US Marine Jordan Matson joined the YPG Kurdish fighters to fight ISIS in September 2014.

Jordan told Greta Van Susteren in February that there are 40-50 Americans fighting with Kurdish forcesagainst ISIS.

He also said the Kurds are very hospitable to Christians and Yazidis.



Turkish jets struck camps belonging to Kurdish militants in northern Iraq this weekend. This was Turkey’s first strike on the Kurds since a 2013 peace deal.

Americans and British soldiers are fighting with Kurds against ISIS.

http://twitter.com/KURDISTAN_ARMY/st...349760/photo/1

http://www.infowars.com/stunning-oba...fighting-isis/

does the US government know who the bad guys are? O has an agreement with iran who says they will continue to supply and support terrorists, O at one time said he would support the kurds because they were willing to fight isis even though he did not give any arms to fight isis,..........and o applauds his own foreign policy which i do not know if anyone can describe or understand..............and o still thinks that global warming is our worse enemy............claims israel is a friend and ally but is giving permission to iran to create and obtain weapons to wipe them off the face of the earth...iran is the #1 human rights violator and o jumps into bed with them........cuba's stand on human rights is deplorable but o now embraces them....o tells kenya to accept gays while iran kills them....o's (and H) want women to be treated equally while iran stones them............

screwed up?

Folks, here’s what the media WON’T tell you about Russia bombing Syria
Written by Allen West on October 1, 2015

Remember back three years ago, almost to the day, during the final 2012 presidential debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida when moderator Bob Schieffer asked the question about the greatest geopolitical threat. Gov. Mitt Romney replied it was Russia and carefully explained why. Barack Obama in true Saul Alinsky fashion ridiculed Romney by stating, “Governor, the 80s are calling they want their foreign policy back.” Romney was further assaulted and ridiculed by the liberal progressive media the following day.

Well, now that Vladimir Putin has taken over the Crimea, attacked a sovereign state (Ukraine), and is reestablishing its military presence in the Arctic — who should be ridiculed? Actually, who now looks completely incompetent and weak?

To think a Russian three-star general delivered a message to the U.S. Ambassador in Baghdad Iraq — yep, a senior Russian general is in Iraq — to cease flight operations in Syria. One hour later the Russians began bombing in Syria — but not ISIS positions. They bombed the city of Homs where Syrian rebels fighting against Bashar Assad are based. And here was the response from the Obama administration. White House spokesperson Josh “Not So” Earnest said the Russians were operating from a position of weakness.

Dude, when a general tells our ambassador to “bug off,” that’s not what I call a weak statement…and how did that Russian general get to Baghdad in he first place? U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter held a press conference and spent more time talking about the defense budget and women in combat units. Now what message does that send to Vladimir Putin when our own SecDef does everything to evade the issue?

As reported by Fox News,

“Russian warplanes began bombarding Syrian opposition targets in the war-torn nation’s north Wednesday, following a terse meeting at which a Russian general asked Pentagon officials to clear out of Syrian air space and was rebuffed. A U.S. official said Russian airstrikes targeted fighters in the vicinity of Homs, located roughly 60 miles east of a Russian naval facility in Tartus, and were carried out by a “couple” of Russian bombers.

The strikes hit targets in Homs and Hama, but there is no presence of ISIS in those areas, a senior U.S. defense official said. These planes are hitting areas where Free Syrian Army and other anti-Assad groups are located, the official said. Activists and a rebel commander on the ground said the Russian airstrikes have mostly hit moderate rebel positions and civilians. In a video released by the U.S.-backed rebel group Tajamu Alezzah, jets are seen hitting a building claimed to be a location of the group in the town of Latamna in the central Hama province.

The group commander Jameel al-Saleh told a local Syrian news website that the group’s location was hit by Russian jets but didn’t specify the damage. According to a U.S. senior official, Presidents Obama and Putin agreed on a process to “deconflict” military operations. The Russians on Wednesday “bypassed that process,” the official said.”

I want you all to consider what “deconflict” military operations means. What we are talking about is control of airspace, and perhaps in the future ground battlespace. Right now all over Syria, you have Russian, American, Turkish, and on occasion, Israeli aircraft flying. Who are the entities responsible for coordinating the airspace control measures – the routes and altitude — as well as areas of operation and strike zones? As a former artilleryman and fire support officer, coordinating air and ground battlespace is not a joke.

Having to do it between four different nations is inviting something very bad to happen — which the Russian Foreign Minister termed “unintended incidents.” Russian President Putin ran the ruse of a coalition to defeat ISIS but his true intent is to support Bashar Assad. And this is where Putin differs so very much from Obama. He knows he can utilize “boots on the ground” comprised of Syrian Army, Hezbollah, and Iranian Quds Force formations.

Of course the liberal progressive left will drink the kool-aid of the “Obama has Putin right where he wants him” mentality. But here is Putin’s power play: he has allied with the Iranians who will now become a regional economic, military, and soon nuclear power in the Middle East. Russia has decided it will side with the Shiite hegemony which will force the Sunni hand – they’re not just going to sit back and watch this Greek tragedy unfold.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are seriously concerned with these developments. Turkey and Qatar will continue to provide their covert support to Sunni Islamists groups, namely ISIS. However, the dominant non-Middle Eastern entity is now becoming Russia. Folks, say what you will, but there is a global conflagration forming — yes, a World War. That is not fear mongering. That is the truth. Evil looks for voids to fill, Obama has given it a very big one. And that is his legacy, and will be the main exhibit in his presidential library.

The dismissive ridicule of three years ago has given rise to the enemy. When someone as skilled in the art of psychological warfare as Vladimir Putin knows his global opponent is indecisive and bases his existence on soaring rhetoric, he knows he has the high ground. The question now becomes, are our troops in Iraq capable enough to protect themselves or has Obama placed them in an untenable position? We do not need them trying to fight their way out like the Greek mercenaries led by Xenophon had to do. And understand this, the Russians have deployed surface to air missile defense systems — for what? Neither the Syrian rebels nor ISIS has an air force. But we do.

In a development first reported by Fox News, the U.S. Embassy brushed aside an official request, or “demarche,” from Russia to clear air space over northern Syria, where Moscow said it intended to conduct airstrikes against ISIS on behalf of Assad, according to sources who spoke to Fox News. The request was made in a heated discussion between a Russian three-star general and U.S. officials at the American Embassy in Baghdad, sources said.

“If you have forces in the area we request they leave,” said the general, who used the word “please” in the contentious encounter. A senior Pentagon official said the U.S., which also has been conducting airstrikes against ISIS, but does not support Assad, said the request was not honored. “We still conducted our normal strike operations in Syria today,” the official said. “We did not and have not changed our operations.”

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters the Russian airstrikes won’t change the strategy of the U.S.-led coalition. “The U.S.-led coalition will continue to fly missions over Iraq and Syria as planned and in support of our international mission to degrade and destroy ISIL,” Kirby told reporters, while acknowledging the meeting at the American embassy in Baghdad.”

The issue becomes a simple one. Syria is a sovereign country. If Syria invokes its sovereignty and declares its airspace is not open to any country not coordinating with it — meaning the Russians — we have a problem. Furthermore, with the void left by Obama’s strategic blunder to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq, we now have Iranian Army leadership and Russian advisors in Baghdad. What if the Iraqi leadership, which is completely subservient to Tehran, demands the Americans leave? And since Obama has done such a good job not supporting the Kurds, guess in what position they now find themselves?

I wonder how much coverage of this is occurring on the liberal progressive media outlets? I’d bet the focus is on Cecile Richards and Planned Parenthood. But ask yourself, should the $565 billion in taxpayer funds go to a private sector not-for-profit organization that is turning a $1 billion profit, or should it go to our military to keep America from reducing its active duty Army by 40,000 Soldiers? Something tells me we need those 40,000 troops more than we need to be killing babies and harvesting their body parts.

And that is why Vladimir Putin is in Syria bombing targets, because he knows Barack Obama would rather shut down the federal government to kill American babies rather than the enemy.

http://www.allenbwest.com/2015/10/fo...bombing-syria/

'After my election I have more flexibility': Microphones pick up Obama making astonishing boast during private discussion with Russian Minister ....Guess we know what that was all about now.....

Russian Air Force hits 50 ISIS targets in Syria over 3 days, ‘significantly’ damaging militants
Published time: 3 Oct, 2015 09:00

The Russian Air Force has conducted more than 60 flights and bombed over 50 Islamic State targets in three days, according to Russia’s top armed forces official. He added the strikes have significantly reduced the terrorists’ combat capabilities.


“The airstrikes were being conducted night and day from the Khmeimim airbase and throughout the whole of Syria. In three days we managed to undermine the terrorists’ material-technical base and significantly reduce their combat potential,” Lieutenant General Andrey Kartapolov, head of the Main Operation Directorate of the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces, told reporters on Saturday.

He added that according to Russian intelligence the militants are fleeing the area that was in their control.

“There is panic and defection among them. About 600 mercenaries have left their positions and are trying to reach Europe,” he said.

Washington has notified the Russian Defense Ministry that there were only militants in the areas of Russia’s military operation against IS in Syria, he added. "The Americans informed us during contacts that there was no one except terrorists in this region," he said.

“Over the past 24 hours, Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-24M fighter jets have performed 20 sorties and hit nine Islamic State installations,” Igor Konashenkov, Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman, reported.



Commenting on the video filmed by a Russian UAV monitoring the assault near Raqqa, Konashenkov noted,

“a powerful explosion inside the bunker indicates it was also used for storing a large quantity of munitions.

Konashenkov added that yesterday evening Russian aircraft went on six sorties, inflicting strikes on three terrorist installations.

“A bunker-busting BETAB-500 air bomb dropped from a Sukhoi Su-34 bomber near Raqqa has eliminated the command post of one of the terror groups, together with an underground storage facility for explosives and munitions,”

Another bomber on a sortie from Khmeimim has dropped a KAB-500 air bomb on an Islamic State camp near Maarrat al-Numan. It destroyed fortifications, ammunition, fuel and seven units of equipment, Konashenkov said at a media briefing on Saturday.

KAB-500 bombs are accurate to within five meters.

Assault aircraft from at Khmeimim airbase have also inflicted airstrikes against terrorist forces near Jisr al-Shughur in Idlib province, destroying vehicle storage depots used for organizing terror attacks.

Regarding the airstrike on a target near Jisr al-Shughur, Igor Konashenkov pointed out, “footage of a huge pillar of smoke indicates a direct hit resulted in the total elimination of the facility.”

http://www.rt.com/news/317505-air-fo...rorists-raqqa/

BREAKING NEWS – PUTIN EXPOSES OBAMA’S PAID ISIS MERCENARIES IN MIDDLE EAST AND SYRIA

https://themarshallreport.wordpress....ast-and-syria/

ISIS left so weakened by airstrikes and desertion it could be destroyed in just HOURS

ISLAMIC STATE (ISIS) is now so fragile that its so-called Caliphate could be wiped out in a matter of HOURS, a top terror expert said today.

By Nick Gutteridge, EXCLUSIVE PUBLISHED: 00:00, Sun, Oct 4, 2015


Western and more recently Russian airstrikes, chaotic leadership and mass defections have weakened the jihadi group to such an extent that it would be unable to repel even a small invasion force.

A terror analyst told Express.co.uk that the fanatics have vastly exaggerated their military strength and called on Western leaders to launch a co-ordinated fightback which would obliterate the hate group.

Dr Afzal Ashraf said ISIS has become its own worst enemy with its campaign of terror against the West, which has prompted an international backlash.

A US-led coalition including Britain has launched airstrikes against the extremist group which have killed thousands of its fighters after being outraged by its barbarity.

And Dr Ashraf said that another atrocity on the scale of this summer's Tunisia beach massacre could result in boots on the ground and an end to ISIS' evil grip on power.


He said: "This mythical state will disappear in a matter of hours once the international community decides to act.

"It won't take very long at all to drive them, if not out of all of Iraq or Syria, then certainly the majority of their territories.

"They will hide in towns, but I would say do not to follow them as they would use innocent civilians as human shields. Leave them in these isolated settlements and they will soon lose control."

ISIS has reportedly lost half of its fighters

Last month it emerged that half of the group's fighters have now been killed, whilst others are deserting en masse after their salaries were slashed.

Dr Ashraf, a researcher at the respected Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank, added that assessments of ISIS' military capabilities have been vastly overplayed.

He said: "They have built up this superhero status because of the way the Iraqi army just fell apart when they confronted it. But that was not very much to do with their ability to fight, it was to do with the Iraqi army, which just doesn't have a leadership that inspires. Once you've got a General running off you don't expect the soldiers to stand and fight.

"As a result, they have given the impression that they are far more capable than they are. If we had serious forces fighting in a coordinated battle against these people they wouldn't last very long at all."

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/...liphate-defeat

U.N. launches Syria peace talks despite opposition boycott
Reuters - By Tom Miles and Tom Perry - 2 hours ago

GENEVA/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The first Syria peace talks for two years were a "complete failure" before they started on Friday, a Western diplomat said, after the United Nations announced it would press ahead with them despite an opposition boycott.

Opponents of President Bashar al-Assad said they were far more concerned with fending off a Russian-backed military onslaught, with civilians reported to be fleeing as the Syrian army and allied militia tried to capture a suburb of Damascus and finish off rebels defending it.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura has invited the Syrian government and an opposition umbrella group to Geneva for "proximity talks", in which they would meet in separate rooms.

But so far the main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) has refused to attend, insisting it wanted an end to air strikes and sieges of towns before talks can start. The boycott defies Washington, which has urged the opposition to take up the "historic opportunity" for the talks, without preconditions.

A U.N. statement said de Mistura would open the talks as scheduled on Friday by meeting the government delegation headed by Syria's ambassador to the United Nations. Meetings with "other participants" would take place "subsequently" it said, without giving details.

"It is a complete failure," said a Western diplomat, on condition of anonymity, describing the event as a boon for Assad's government.

"They are completely off the hook. With whom are they going to talk? If you want to engage in negotiations, you have to have a partner. It's a wonderful occasion for the regime to show they are willing."

If opposition members do attend "they will be telling you they are coming in their personal capacity," the diplomat said.

On Thursday the opposition HNC, which groups both armed and political opponents of Assad and has been meeting in Riyadh this week, said it would not attend the start of talks on Friday because it had not received convincing answers over its demand for goodwill steps such as a ceasefire.

Another major force, the Kurds who control much of northeast Syria and have proven one of the few groups capable of winning territory from Islamic State fighters, were excluded from the talks after Turkey demanded they be kept away. The Kurds say their absence means the talks are doomed to fail.

GOVERNMENT MOMENTUM

International diplomacy has so far seen only failures in a 5-year-old multi-sided ethno-sectarian civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people and driven more than 10 million from their homes while drawing in regional states and global powers.

De Mistura's two predecessors both quit in apparent frustration after staging failed peace conferences.

Since the last talks collapsed in 2014, Islamic State fighters surged across Syria and Iraq declaring a "caliphate", the United States and its European and Arab allies launched air strikes against them, and Russia joined in last year with a separate air campaign to support Assad.

Moscow's intervention in particular has altered the balance of power on the ground, giving strong momentum to government forces and reversing months of rebel gains.

The Syrian military and allied militia are seeking to build on gains in western Syria, and have turned their focus to opposition-held suburbs southwest of Damascus.

The aim is to crush rebels in the district of Daraya to secure the nearby military airport at Mezzeh, said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict with sources on the ground.

Civilians were leaving the nearby opposition-held district of Mouadamiya al-Sham in large numbers, fearing a bigger attack, he said.

"The regime is trying to separate Mouadamiya al-Sham from Daraya so it can finish off the fighters there, because Daraya is a threat to Mezzeh military airport," he said.

"There is now an almost complete separation between Mouadamiya al-Sham and Daraya," he said.

Rebels say the fighting on the ground is of more concern to them than the fate of the negotiations.

Asked about the future of the talks, Abu Ghiath al-Sham, spokesman for the rebel Alwiyat Seif al-Sham group, which is part of the HNC, told Reuters: “It seems very complicated. But frankly, I am a bit busy with the situation in Mouadamiya al-Sham, and the field situation in Deraa.”

Haitham al-Maleh, a prominent Syrian opposition politician, to Al Jazeera: "We cannot hold negotiations while the United Nations and the international community is incapable of (implementing) confidence building steps."

"I personally believe that the negotiations in this situation are futile and will not produce anything," he said. "We cannot hold negotiations with murderers and criminals as they cling to power."

https://news.yahoo.com/syrian-govern...112113074.html