Turkey launches airstrikes near US base in Syria
Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports on how the Pentagon has responded to recent airstrikes that threatened the safety of US personnel in Syria in “Special Report.”
There is great concern that Turkey’s planned ground invasion of Syria to root out US-allied Kurds could open the floodgates for the release of thousands of imprisoned Islamic State terrorists.
Syrian Kurdish forces have imprisoned thousands of ISIS terrorists from more than 50 countries in prisons in northeast Syria.
Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said Wednesday: “The recent airstrikes in Syria directly threaten the safety of American personnel working in Syria with local partners to defeat ISIS and maintain custody of more than 10,000 ISIS detainees.
Democratic Union Party/Kurdistan Workers’ Party positions affected by Turkey’s Pence-Kilic operation in the village of Tel Rifaat in Maranez on November 24, 2022 in Azaz, Syria.
(Photo by Ibrahim Mase/dia images via Getty Images)
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Turkey recently launched airstrikes against the Syrian Kurdish military organization: the People’s Defense Units (YPG) in Syria and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated: “This is not limited to just an air campaign,” adding: “We will consult with our defense ministry and our general staff and decide together what our ground forces should contribute, and then we will take the corresponding measures. Earlier, the country’s media quoted Turkey’s defense minister as saying the operation is continuing with some 326 enemy fighters killed so far.
Combating the resurgence of the Islamic State terrorist movement remains a top priority for the US military. The United States formed an alliance with the YPG to drive out ISIS, while the conflict between Erdogan and Kurdish forces in Syria may be escalating from a localized conflict to a full-blown war.
Ryder noted that “an immediate drawdown is necessary to maintain focus on the mission of defeating ISIS and to ensure the safety of personnel on the ground committed to the mission of defeating ISIS.”
Turkish embassy officials in Washington told Fox News Digital that “we have repeatedly pointed out the threats to our national security posed by the PKK/YPG terrorist network in Syria and Iraq. We have always called for unequivocal and genuine solidarity in the face of terrorism. in all its forms and manifestations.
Turkish President and leader of the Justice and Development Party Recep Tayyip Erdogan is greeted by members of his party before addressing a meeting at the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara on November 23, 2022.
(Photo by ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)
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The Turkish diplomat added: “Nevertheless, the terrorist organization continued its attacks, recently targeting innocent civilians in the heart of Istanbul. As a result of the attack carried out on November 13, 2022, 6 civilians were killed and 81 injured.” .
The US government has classified the PKK as a terrorist organization, but views the YPG as a valuable partner in the fight against the Islamic State.
Ned Price, the US State Department spokesman, recently said: “We express our deepest condolences for the loss of civilian life that has occurred in Syria and Turkey” and urged an “immediate de-escalation.”
Intensive Turkish air and drone strikes have killed Syrian Kurds and pulverized critical industries in northern Syria. Sinam Mohamad, the representative of the Syrian Democratic Council in the US, told Fox News Digital.
Mohamad said the region’s Arabs, Christians and Kurds, who make up the area’s 5 million people, are “suffering.”
Women walk in the al-Hol camp which is home to some 60,000 refugees, including families and supporters of the Islamic State group.
(AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
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He added that Turkey has shelled the region 47 times from November 19 to November 23, and the airstrikes killed six Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) soldiers, including two anti-terror soldiers trained by the US military.
Mohamad, who is in contact with the Syrians on the ground in the conflict zone, said Turkish forces have killed 15 civilians since the start of this round of airstrikes. “Turkey is now targeting vital infrastructure, power plants, grain silos and oil and gas infrastructure.”
He claimed that the Turks attacked a hospital and “targeted very close to an ISIS prison. Imagine if they attacked the prison and people escaped. It is a very critical situation. The international community and the UN should take action to prevent Turkey from destabilizing.” . the region.”
A leading Turkey expert, Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, cast significant doubt on Turkey’s rationalization for launching its most recent attacks.
He stated that “the latest terrorist attack on Istanbul was carried out by Syrian forces who were not satisfied with Turkey’s U-turn because Turkey signaled that it was willing to normalize relations with Turkey.” [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad,” he told Fox News Digital.
He added that “Erdogan knows very well that it would be much easier to punish the Kurds instead of punishing the Syrians. We know that the Free Syrian Army is considered an ally of Turkey. If the Free Syrian Army were labeled as responsible [for the terror attack in Istanbul]his foreign policy doctrine would collapse.”
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The pro-Kurdish party, the People’s Democratic Party, in the Turkish parliament filed a motion calling for an investigation into the Istanbul attack. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party along with its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party, rejected the investigation.
All Kurdish military forces in Syria, as well as the PKK, have strongly denied responsibility for the Istanbul terror attack. SDF commander General Mazloum Abdi, speaking exclusively to Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, claimed the Istanbul attacker was from Islamic State.
Turkey captured a Syrian Arab woman who Turkish authorities say confessed to the attack. Erdogan has faced accusations of showing sympathy for radical Islamists operating in northern Syria.
Uzay Bulut, a Turkish political analyst and a researcher at the Philos Project, told Fox News Digital: “If Kobane falls into the hands of Turkey, Turkey will occupy it together with the jihadist organizations, as they also do in other Syrian cities like Idlib and Afrin. Naturally , these Turkish military attacks against the SDF will weaken the campaign against ISIS in the region.”
According to Bulut, “the Turkish regime must be fully aware that such an occupation only helps ISIS and al-Qaeda-affiliated terror groups in the region.”
A Turkish official rejected such an argument, telling Fox News Digital that “we are the only NATO ally that has the boots on the ground and fought against DAESH.” [Islamic State] chest to chest from the start.”
People inspect a site damaged by Turkish airstrikes that hit a power station in the village of Taql Baql, in Hasakeh province, Syria, Sunday, November 20, 2022. The Turkish Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Turkey launched deadly airstrikes over the northern regions of Syria. and Iraq, targeting Kurdish groups that Ankara blames for last week’s deadly bombing on a bustling Istanbul street.
(AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
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The stature of Turkey’s foreign policy has become more topical within the Biden administration since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkey Research Program at the Washington Institute, said: “Turkey is helping Ukraine militarily” against Russia.
Turkey provided Ukraine with 50 mine-resistant vehicles. The Erdogan government has also sold the Bayraktar TB2 drone to Ukraine. The unmanned aerial vehicle carries laser-guided bombs. The Turkish drone has been a powerful weapon in defeating the Russian forces.
Even in light of Turkey’s improving international reputation, Cagaptay does not believe the Biden administration will leave the Syrian Kurds in the open. “Turkey’s importance to the United States has increased, and that doesn’t mean [the] The US has completely abandoned YPG.”
