Donald Trump warned Turkey that there would be ‘big trouble’ if American troops in Syria are injured, as Turkish forces push into Kurdish lands across north-eastern Syria. On Monday the White House gave the green light to a Turkish offensive into Syria, moving US forces out of the area in an abrupt foreign policy change that will in effect abandon the Kurds, Washington’s longtime military partner
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Trump’s shock Syria retreat reverberates as Turkish troops mass
Officials scramble to understand implications of US move as Kurds face prospect of invasion alone
Kurdish forces in Syria have said the fate of tens of thousands of suspected Islamic State fighters and their families is uncertain, after US forces began a sudden withdrawal from the Turkish-Syrian border, leaving their Kurdish allies to face the prospect of a Turkish invasion alone.
The effects of the shock retreat reverberated through the region on Monday as Turkish forces massed near the border with the Kurdish stronghold of north-eastern Syria.
Continue reading...‘There will be chaos once again’: Kurds respond to Trump’s Syria decision
Kurdish-held territories of north-eastern Syria prepare for assault by Turkish forces – and insist they will resist
Across the Kurdish-held territories of north-eastern Syria, people are steeling themselves for a long-threatened assault by Turkish forces – which now seems imminent after Donald Trump withdrew US forces from the area.
The Kurds took advantage of the chaos which has reigned in Syria since 2011, fighting off the Damascus regime to build their own autonomous statelet, known as Rojava.
Continue reading...Latest betrayal of Kurds risks undermining defeat of Isis
It is unclear whether Turkey has the will or capacity to take over detention camps
In early 2015, as Islamic State trampled over armies of the Middle East and menaced the west, the US turned to the Kurds for help. It was a familiar call, having been repeated over the decades whenever Washington needed a friend in the region. The outcome has been similar too.
Four years on, the people who helped safeguard the global order have been abandoned by the US on the eve of a Turkish push into Kurdish lands across north-eastern Syria. Betrayal has been an enduring theme whenever the US and the Kurds have partnered, but never before as nakedly as this.
Continue reading...Australia urged to act quickly to get families out of Syrian refugee camps
As the US moves to withdraw troops the window to safely move children and women is rapidly closing, families say
Family members of Australians held in detention camps in northern Syria have begged the Australian government to “act urgently” to bring their relatives to safety, as a US withdrawal from the region overtly greenlights a Turkish military offensive.
Kamalle Daboussy, whose daughter Mariam and three grandchildren are in Al-Hawl camp in north-east Syria, told the Guardian “the window is rapidly closing” to bring women and children caught in the camps to safety.
Continue reading...US to let Turkish forces move into Syria, dumping Kurdish allies
White House reveals policy shift following conversation between Trump and Erdoğan
The White House has given the green light to a Turkish offensive into northern Syria, moving US forces out of the area in an abrupt foreign policy change that will in effect abandon the Kurds, Washington’s longtime military partner.
Kurdish forces have spearheaded the campaign against Islamic State in the region, but the policy swerve, after a phone conversation between Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday, means Turkey would take custody of captured Isis fighters, the White House said.
Continue reading...Assad regime used chlorine as a chemical weapon, says US
Chlorine use in May marks first confirmed violation of ban since Trump authorized airstrikes in 2018 over Syria’s use of poison gas
The United States has concluded that the government of Bashar al-Assad used chlorine as a chemical weapon in May, marking the first confirmed violation of the ban on chemical weapons since Donald Trump authorized airstrikes in 2018 over Syria’s use of poison gas.
“The Assad regime is responsible for innumerable atrocities some of which rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, told a news conference in New York, where he has been attending the UN general assembly.
Continue reading...Isis leader purportedly urges members to free detainees from camps
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears to claim in audio recording that Isis is still carrying out attacks
An audio recording was released on Monday in which the leader of the Islamic State group purportedly called on members of the extremist group to do all they can to free Isis detainees and women held in jails and camps.
The alleged audio recording of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which also said Isis is carrying out attacks in different countries, is believed to be his first public statement since April, when he appeared in a video for the first time in five years.
Continue reading...Middle East drones signal end to era of fast jet air supremacy
Tiny, cheap, unmanned and hard-to-detect aircraft are transforming conflicts across region
In the history of modern warfare, “own the skies, win the war” has been a constant maxim. Countries with the best technology and biggest budgets have devoted tens of billions to building modern air forces, confident they will continue to give their militaries primacy in almost any conflict.
Tiny, cheap, unmanned aircraft have changed that, especially over the battlefields of the Middle East. In the past three months alone, drones have made quite an impact in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and possibly now Saudi Arabia, where half the country’s oil production - and up to 7% of the world’s global supply – has been taken offline by a blitz that caused no air raid sirens and seems to have eluded the region’s most advanced air warning systems.
Continue reading...My young cousin fled the bombs … only to be held in a camp alongside Isis supporters
A 15-year-old girl from my family was among thousands of traumatised innocents dumped at the notorious al-Hawl displacement facility in Syria
In April, a 15-year-old female relative of mine attempted to escape from al-Hawl camp, the displacement facility in eastern Syria that hosts families of Islamic State fighters. My cousin was one of thousands of civilians displaced from areas previously held by Isis and kept at the camp as they fled the group’s last strongholds.
My relative never joined the organisation, nor did any member of her family. But when she was caught, the guards noticed she was wearing a burqa, the face veil that Isis imposed on women living under its so-called caliphate. Since she was no longer living under Isis, the Kurdish interrogators accused her of being a “Daeshiyah” – a pejorative word to describe female Isis sympathisers. Rather than defending herself as a civilian with no association or sympathy to Isis, she opted for a defiant tone: “This is Islam, like it or not.”
Continue reading...British-Iranian relations strained as oil tanker is seen off Syria
Adrian Darya, previously called Grace 1, photographed near Russian navy facility
Britain is seeking to establish whether Iran has sold oil to Syria in breach of written undertakings given by Tehran to authorities in Gibraltar.
Iran’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that a tanker seized by British Marines on 9 July and released in August had reached its final destination “on the Mediterranean coast” and sold its oil – without identifying the country.
Continue reading...Iranian tanker seized by Gibraltar ‘photographed off Syria’
Adrian Darya 1, formerly the Grace 1, was only released on condition it did not discharge its load of 2.1m barrels of oil in Syria
The Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1 at the centre of a dispute between Tehran and western powers has been photographed by satellite off the Syrian port of Tartus, a US space technology company has said.
Maxar Technologies Inc said the image showed the tanker Adrian Darya 1 very close to Tartus on 6 September. The ship appeared to have turned off its transponder in the Mediterranean west of Syria, ship-tracking data showed. The tanker, which is loaded with Iranian crude oil, sent its last signal giving its position between Cyprus and Syria sailing north on Monday afternoon.
Continue reading...Britain must repatriate Isis fighters, warns US defence secretary
Around 250 to 300 men being held in camps in Syria are believed to have come from UK
Britain and other European nations that are refusing to repatriate Islamic State fighters and put them on trial in their country of origin are creating a risk to regional security, the US defence secretary warned at the start of his visit to London.
Mark Esper said there were around 2,000 foreign fighters, many from Europe, held in north-east Syria, but asking the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to keep them in makeshift jails was an increasing risk to the fragile security of the region.
Continue reading...Erdoğan: I’ll let Syrian refugees leave Turkey for west unless safe zone set up
Turkish president threatens to ‘open the gates’ in face of footdragging from US and EU
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is threatening to “open the gates” to allow Syrian refugees to leave Turkey for western countries unless a controversial “safe zone” inside Syria is established soon.
Erdoğan’s comments come amid growing tension with Washington over delays in establishing the safe zone – first proposed by Donald Trump – not least over the fate of a key US-allied Kurdish militia, the YPG, which Ankara regards as a terrorist organisation.
Continue reading...US blacklists Iranian tanker Mike Pompeo says is heading to Syria
- Vessel seized by Britain and held in Gibraltar for six weeks
- Adrian Darya’s captain also sanctioned by US
The US has blacklisted the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya, saying it had “reliable information” it was transporting oil to Syria in defiance of wide-ranging sanctions on the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Related: Trump tweets photo of Iran rocket site and says US 'not involved' in failed launch
Continue reading...Israel risks becoming the fall guy in Donald Trump’s ‘shadow war’ with Iran | Simon Tisdall
Benjamin Netanyahu is counting on fear of conflict with Iran to win crucial election votes
Donald Trump’s offer to talk peace with Iran sent a shiver of alarm through Israel’s political and security establishment last week. With a too-close-to-call general election looming on 17 September, Benjamin Netanyahu is counting on his hardline anti-Tehran alliance with Washington – and fear of conflict – to win him crucial votes. A North Korea-style Trump tryst with Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, was the prime minister’s “ultimate horror scenario”, one analyst noted.
Yet after a recent series of escalatory strikes against Iran-linked forces in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, Israel’s voters may reflect that if one thing is worse than peace with Iran, it’s war with Iran. Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” on Tehran, strongly backed by Netanyahu and fellow Tel Aviv hawks, is placing Israel squarely in the firing line. The intensifying confrontation is also sucking in regional states, notably Iraq.
Continue reading...Drone attacks in Middle East raise fears of escalating conflict
Multiple attacks in region suggest drone warfare could extend to distant battlefields
A spate of drone attacks in Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and now Lebanon has raised the spectre of a new era of conflict in the region, due to the ability of stealth-like weapons to penetrate distant battlefields and hit closely guarded targets.
Drone warfare has become an instrumental factor in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, now being fought over both sides of the Israeli border and in skies across the region.
Continue reading...UN calls for ‘maximum restraint’ after alleged Israeli strike in Lebanon
Israel has also allegedly bombed Iraq recently, and claimed an attack on Syria
The UN called for maximum restraint on Monday night after a reported drone attack in a Hezbollah stronghold south of Beirut that was blamed on Israel.
A spokesman said the UN was unable to confirm the reports about Sunday’s incident, the latest in a series of attacks reported recently in the region that have stoked a proxy conflict raging between Israel and Iran across the Middle East. “The United Nations calls on the parties to exercise maximum restraint both in action and rhetoric,” he said. “It is imperative for all to avoid an escalation.”
Continue reading...G7: Trump’s demands for Russia’s readmission cause row in Biarritz
US president argues Putin should be included in discussions on Iran, Syria and North Korea
Donald Trump has rowed with his fellow G7 leaders over his demand that Russia be readmitted to the group, rejecting arguments that it should remain an association of liberal democracies, according to diplomats at the summit in Biarritz.
The disagreement led to heated exchanges at a dinner on Saturday night inside the seaside resort’s 19th-century lighthouse. According to diplomatic sources, Trump argued strenuously that Vladimir Putin should be invited back, five years after Russia was ejected from the then G8) for its annexation of Crimea.
Continue reading...Netanyahu hails Israel strikes against Syria to foil Iran ‘killer drone attack’
Israeli prime minister says Iran has ‘no immunity anywhere’ after military says Tehran drone plot thwarted
The Israeli air force struck in Syria to prevent an Iranian force from launching an attack on the Jewish state with drones armed with explosives, the army said on Sunday.
Although Israel operates regularly in Syria, it rarely acknowledges its actions so swiftly, with its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warning arch-foe Iran it had no immunity from his state’s military.
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