The Islamic state

[butchersapron]

The bad news seem to be true - kurdish fighter reckon ISIS now controls 30-40% of city. of course, wary of propaganda designed to get action but...

 

[butchersapron]

Ta. AFP thing made it sound like it was the YPG/YPJ actual base.

 

[teqniq]

Meanwhile on the outskirts of Baghdad

Militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have infiltrated one of Baghdad's outer suburbs, Abu Ghraib which is only eight miles from the runway perimeter of Baghdad's international airport.

It's cause for serious concern now that the Iraqi Defense Ministry has confirmed ISIS has MANPADs, shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles.

The Iraqi army is still patrolling Abu Ghraib, but they play cat and mouse with the ISIS fighters who stage hit and run attacks on security forces....

 

[inva]

Ta. AFP thing made it sound like it was the YPG/YPJ actual base.

I did read something claimed to be from Sky News Arabia I think it was that some party hq had fallen to IS (Kurdistan Democratic Party if I remember rightly), so that could be the hq that has been referred to or it could be getting confused with the police/court building.

 

[butchersapron]

I did read something claimed to be from Sky News Arabia I think it was that some party hq had fallen to IS (Kurdistan Democratic Party if I remember rightly), so that could be the hq that has been referred to or it could be getting confused with the police/court building.

Either way, it's clear the beardie murderers are advancing today. This is going to be horrible.

 

[butchersapron]

Going to be fierce disagreements within those fighters left - those who want to stay and die and those who want to get out and fight again - though the reality of the latter will likely be a turkish prison.

 

[butchersapron]

I can't get the telegraph live feed to work - can anyone confirm multiple large explosions just now? Maybe booby traps? Suicide stuff? No one seems to suggest they're airstrikes.

 

[peterkro]

You might want to try changing browsers,I couldn't connect with Safari but Firefox is working.
According to Twatter some people saying suicide bombers.

 

[butchersapron]

You might want to try changing browsers,I couldn't connect with Safari but Firefox is working.
According to Twatter some people saying suicide bombers.

Yep - that seems to be general consensus. They'd probably been saving them for best defended areas. Not a good sign at all.

 

[Mr Moose]

Going to be fierce disagreements within those fighters left - those who want to stay and die and those who want to get out and fight again - though the reality of the latter will likely be a turkish prison.

And who will protect those who have fled? Misery.

 

[teqniq]

Lots of pics in the link

@jenanmoussa: As #Kobane fights 4 survival, we tried 2 get from Turkey as close as possible 2 town. Our pics http://www.alaan.tv/news/world-news/115709/camera-images-documenting-city-kobani-syria-jenan-moussa

 

[inva]

thought I'd pass on an update from BBC correspondent for anyone who's not seen it:

"Abu Layla, commander of Shams Al-Shamal Brigade, FSA-affiliate in Kobane says situation stabilised but may turn 180 degrees in next 48 hours"

"He says town centre & security cordon has not been breached as reported. Coalition airstrikes helped a lot, described them as "relentless""

from twitter here

I've seen reports of a number of different FSA fighting in Kobane, and would be interested if anyone has any idea how many FSA and from what groups are in the city?

 

[phildwyer]

Another bit of backstabbing by the Turkish govt, like I said earlier,why negotiate when ISIL can provide a more permanent solution.

Thing is, the PKK declared war on the Turkish state 20 years ago. Now they´re under attack from another direction. I venture to suggest that every single government in the world would see that as a godsend, and exploit it to the fullest extent possible. It would be remiss of them to do otherwise.

The Turkish States behaviour towards the Kurds is very similar to the US govts behaviour towards the native Americans.

You´re going to have to explain this. I see no similarity whatsoever.

 

[phildwyer]

Didn't the Turks agree the west could use the airfields? Seems they say one thing and then do the other, they are obviously trying to suck maximum advantage out of the situation with scant regard for suffering or alliance obligations.

The Turkish government is supposed to serve the interests of its citizens. It´s not supposed to serve the interests of the West.

I´m not sure what it will take to get this simple fact through Western heads. Imperialism is a hard habit to break eh?

 

[teqniq]

Islamic State fighters are threatening to overrun Iraq’s Anbar province

Islamic State militants are threatening to overrun a key province in western Iraq in what would be a major victory for the jihadists and an embarrassing setback for the U.S.-led coalition targeting the group.

A win for the Islamic State in Anbar province would give the militants control of one of the country’s most important dams and several large army installations, potentially adding to their abundant stockpile of weapons. It would also allow them to establish a supply line from Syria almost to Baghdad and give them a valuable position from which to launch attacks on the Iraqi capital.

The Islamic State’s offensive in Anbar has received less attention than its assault on the Syrian border city of Kobane, which has played out in view of news photographers standing on hills in nearby Turkey. But in recent weeks, Islamic State fighters have systematically invaded towns and villages in Anbar, besieged army posts and police stations, and mounted attacks on Iraqi troops in Ramadi, the provincial capital....

 

[phildwyer]

Fuck Turkey - not only are they doing nothing to help Kobane, they are actively cutting them off from reinforcements and fresh supplies of weapons and ammunition. For that alone they are objectively pro-ISIS.

They´re not pro-IS. They are anti-PKK. If IS wants to attack the PKK, they´re happy to allow that to happen. Why wouldn´t they be?

 

[phildwyer]

i think they will eventually offer the use of airfeilds and do most of the other stuff people want them to do, however i think the objective here is to drag that process out as far as possible so that by the time IS start to get a really shoeing, the various Kurdish groups have taken the greatest possible beating from IS. Turkey then gets to play the good guy, having effectively ensured the decimation of Kurdish military capability.

whether the public declarations of Turkey being the good guy will translate into a private belief that Turkey is a good guy is perhaps another matter...

Turkey does not care whether it is seen as "the good guy" by the one-dimensional Western media. Those days are long gone. Turkey will pursue its own interests.

 

[phildwyer]

Aye, the hope of a solution to the kurdish problem is fast disappearing, shame, they could have earned themselves a lot of kudos all round if they had taken decisive action but they are going to get Shyte from many sides over the way they have behaved.

Once again, you seem to assume that everyone in Turkey is worrying about the "kudos" they might get from the West. They´re not. They don´t care what the West thinks of them. I know that´s a hard concept to grasp, but such is the situation.

 

[phildwyer]

They have left it far to late and their behaviour/intransigence brings into question whether they can be trusted as a member of NATO, IMO anyway.

Yet again. This schoolmasterly tone is ridiculous. "Tut-tut, naughty Turkey, they´ll never get into the EU like this, they´ve lost an awful lot of kudos, let´s give them a slap on the wrist etc."

They do not care about Western opinión. They do not care about getting into the EU. They are doing just fine. They will fight their opponents as they see fit.

 

[phildwyer]

And the state is going to attack them and it's far -right proxies will attack them and they will mutually re-inforce what it means to be a turk. And it will be a pre-1914 idea.

Pre-1914, the term "Turk" was understood politically, not racially or by religión. The Ottoman Empire was multi-racial, and governed as much by Greeks and Levantines as by ethnic Turks.

 

[phildwyer]

Turkey decided some time ago that it was no longer interested in joining the EU

This is something that Western public opinión has yet to come to terms with.

The idea that Turkey can be threatened or cajoled by the prospect of EU membership is 10 years out of date.

The joke over there is that the EU should think about joining Turkey.

 

[phildwyer]

A win for IS of any reasonable duration must surely destabilise Turkey though? The Islamic State will/would be in a state of continual war and would seek to export it's revolution next door.

No, Turkish Islamism and Arab Islamism are totally incompatible. IS aims to expand into Saudi Arabia, not Turkey. That´s the one to watch.

 

[phildwyer]

Turkey will be ablaze soon. So much for genius realpoitick.

The relish with which you greet the prospect of war in a faraway country of which you know nothing is absolutely disgusting.

Especially since the people with whom you have chosen to sympathize would be the main losers.

If you are right (and I don´t think you are), the radical Kurds will be slaughtered. The only possible victor would be the Turkish Right, which you profess to despise (and which I genuinely do despise, for reasons you could never even begin to understand).

If that prospect fills you with delight, as it apparently does, you are a deeply ignorant man. You have no experience of war, you know nothing of what it is to live in a country at war, and so you happily wish war on others. You think this is a game.

 

[DrRingDing]

Calm down Philip.

 

[coley]

Yet again. This schoolmasterly tone is ridiculous. "Tut-tut, naughty Turkey, they´ll never get into the EU like this, they´ve lost an awful lot of kudos, let´s give them a slap on the wrist etc."

They do not care about Western opinión. They do not care about getting into the EU. They are doing just fine. They will fight their opponents as they see fit.

IE, they are going the Islamist route and seeking to end the decades of secuarlism and western development? As for their opponents, Syria first on the list?

 

[coley]

No, Turkish Islamism and Arab Islamism are totally incompatible. IS aims to expand into Saudi Arabia, not Turkey. That´s the one to watch.

Says the man with the hot line to the IS leadership

 

[coley]

This is something that Western public opinión has yet to come to terms with.

The idea that Turkey can be threatened or cajoled by the prospect of EU membership is 10 years out of date.

The joke over there is that the EU should think about joining Turkey.

The only EU leader that was really keen on Turkey joining was Blair and we know how often he got it right

 

[coley]

Pre-1914, the term "Turk" was understood politically, not racially or by religión. The Ottoman Empire was multi-racial, and governed as much by Greeks and Levantines as by ethnic Turks.

Aye that went well did it not?

 

[coley]

Thing is, the PKK declared war on the Turkish state 20 years ago. Now they´re under attack from another direction. I venture to suggest that every single government in the world would see that as a godsend, and exploit it to the fullest extent possible. It would be remiss of them to do otherwise.



You´re going to have to explain this. I see no similarity whatsoever.

Do some research prof, I would have thought the references would be self explanatory.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

They´re not pro-IS. They are anti-PKK. If IS wants to attack the PKK, they´re happy to allow that to happen. Why wouldn´t they be?

Come on, you can't be that naive. Why wouldn't they be? A simplistic 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' - that's the logic that saw the US arming the Mujahadeen against the Soviets, various dictators in South America, and a host of others.

If what you genuinely want is peace for Turkey, and I don't doubt that you do, you should be appalled by the idea of the Turkish state even tacitly supporting what IS does.