An ISIS “web portal” has released a statement in response to Turkey announcing its first airstrikes against the terrorist group alongside the American government, calling Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an “infidel” and threatening retribution for Turkey’s “crimes” against them.
Two British journalists arrested in Turkey for covering the conflict between the national government and the Marxist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terror group may not have had any ties to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS), reports indicate, but did have sources within the PKK.
A plethora of NGOs and civil society groups have demanded that Turkey release two British journalists, along with their driver and translator, who were imprisoned on Thursday for “engaging in acts on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIS).
The Turkish government quickly denied a report that stated authorities provided information to al-Qaeda group Nusra Front about U.S.-trained Syrian fighters. The al-Qaeda members kidnapped the fighters as soon as they crossed into Syria.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told Reuters the government and the U.S. agreed on a “comprehensive” air operations against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) on the border of Syria. However, U.S. officials denied any agreement took place.
Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News sent some reporters to tour the Silvan district of Diyarbakir province in southeastern Turkey on Friday, after two days of fighting between Kurdish PKK separatists (or, more precisely, their “youth wing,” the YDG-H) and Turkish security forces.
A recent report by the Iraqi parliament blamed former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for losing the vital city of Mosul to the Islamic State, going so far as to recommend criminal charges against Maliki and his colleagues.
Two people, believed to be members of the radical left-wing militant group in Turkey known as the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), were arrested for allegedly launching an attack on Wednesday with guns and explosives near the prime minister’s palace in Istanbul.
Over 242 people left portions of Hakkari province due to intense fighting between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Turkish forces.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) declared an autonomous region in the Dersim province on Tuesday. The PKK is a Marxist-Lenin group and noted as a terrorist organization by the U.S., EU, and NATO.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) has released its first Turkish-language video, a fiery rant by an unidentified graybeard surrounded by the usual armed thugs in which the Turkish people are urged to reject democracy, overthrow the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, fight the United States, and do everything they can to assist the Islamic State and its “Caliph,” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The United States has announced that its Patriot defensive missile batteries will be pulled from Turkey and “redeployed” to the U.S. this fall, ostensibly to receive “critical modernization upgrades” following a “review of global missile defense posture,” as the U.S. Embassy in Turkey put it.
Two days after American F-16s arrived at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, authorities are confirming that manned American airstrikes are being conducted from Turkey into Syria, the first time since the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) that such activity has occurred. The arrival of American troops to Syrian skies follows confusion regarding whether Turkey and the United States have agreed to create a “buffer zone” free of jihadis and Kurds in Syria.
For the first time since Turkey declared it had launched a military campaign to create an “ISIS-free zone” in Syria following the terror attack in Suruç, Turkey, the Islamic State has initiated a new, alarmingly successful offensive near the Turkish border.
The U.S.-Turkey coalition appears already in trouble, even before American F-16s take to the Syrian skies out of Turkey to fly anti-ISIS missions. The Turkish military allegedly only gave Americans ten minutes to leave the site of an imminent airstrike on alleged PKK territory in Iraq.
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter named Mamend Rasul claims that, while he was off fighting against ISIS, serving as a company commander, a force supported by the Western powers and heavily relied upon to keep the rapacious terror state in check, Turkish F-16s bombed the Iraqi village of Zergaly where his family lived, killing his 63-year-old sister, 61-year-old brother, and a cousin.
Contents: Wave of violent terrorist attacks strike across Turkey; Vladimir Putin increasingly trapped as Russia’s GDP plunges 4.6%; Europe’s bond yields go negative
On Monday, the U.S. consulate in Turkey was attacked by two female assailants, for reasons as yet unclear.
The Turkish government’s anti-terrorism campaign, initially advertised as a campaign to destroy the Islamic State terrorist group, has killed hundreds of members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and left the terror group significantly diminished, as its imprisoned leader calls for peace talks.
Another violent encounter between Kurdish PKK militants and Turkish police was reported on Friday, leaving two dead and 10 wounded in the town of Silopi near the Syrian border. In another sign of escalating violence, an affiliate of the PKK in Iran claimed responsibility for killing 20 Iranian soldiers in an attack on a military outpost.
Members of the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey recently traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan to inspect Turkey’s airstrike against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). At the same time, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev expressed doubt Turkey has attacked the PKK camps.
The Assyrian Christian community has already suffered greatly at the hands of ISIS, driven from their homes in the Nineveh Plain to find shelter in Iraqi Kurdistan. Human rights groups have already expressed concern about the dangerous conditions in these refugee camps, including brutal temperature extremes and supply shortages. Now the Assyrians face a new menace: Turkish bombs.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PPK) terrorist group’s leadership has called upon the United States to intervene and encourage the Turkish government to engage in peace talks with the Kurdish group, in the hopes of ending the air campaign Turkey is waging against them while claiming to be fighting the Islamic State (ISIS).
Contents: As Iran rises in the Mideast, Kurds benefit in Iraq and Syria; Saudi Arabia suffers deadliest terrorism attack in years; Puerto Rico default triggers selloff in municipal bond funds
Tensions between Turkey and the Kurds continue to escalate as Kurdish militia groups who have been fighting ISIS in Syria complained of coming under fire from Turkish forces. Notably, these are Kurdish militia units not direct affiliated with the PKK—the Kurdish separatists classified as terrorists by Turkey and subjected to airstrikes by American-made Turkish F-16 jets after several recent instances of violence.
