ISIS update 12/13/2015..Note to Erdogan: Beware of funny ideas

Syria War: Latest News
TheMedvedova

Syrian army established full control over 6 villages in Aleppo province

Russian‬ Rockets Launchers is Raining Down on Militants in Sahel al-Ghab, Hama province

Daesh claims responsibility for deadly attack on hospital in Syria’s Homs

Syrian army forces kill militant leader, group member in Latakia

Syrian army uses local recruits to secure newly-liberated areas

IRAQIS FEAR US BACKED TURKISH LAND GRAB

Iraqis rally against Turkey’s troop deployment in their country

Iraqi leaders: Baghdad has right to use all legitimate means to defend its sovereignty

US CONGRESS AIMS TO ARM KURDS DESPITE BAGHDAD

Russian Missile Destroyer “Fires Warning Shots” To Avoid Collision With Turkish Vessel

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-13/russian-missile-destroyer-fires-warning-shots-avoid-collision-turkish-vessel

Another day, another military escalation between Russia and Turkey, this time not in the air, but on the water in the northern part of the Aegean sea, where the crew of the Russian “Smetlivy” destroyer was forced to use firearms on Sunday to prevent a collision with a Turkish seiner vessel according to a statement by Russia’s Ministry of Defense.

Turkey’s version of events is comparable, with Hurriyet reporting that “a Russian warship had to fire warning shots at a Turkish vessel in the Aegean Sea to avoid collision.

The full statement from Russia’s Defense Ministry read that “the crew of the Russian patrol ship Smetlivy which was located 22 kilometres from the Greek island of Lemnos in the northern part of the Aegean Sea avoided collision with a Turkish seiner.”

The crew of the Kashin-class guided missile destroyer Smetlivy spotted the Turkish fishing trawler some 1,000 meters from the Russian warship early on Sunday morning, the ministry said. The ship was sailing towards the destroyer and ignored calls for radio contact and other attempts to communicate.

The destoyer’s morning crew spotted an approaching Turkish ship at a distance of approximately one kilometer. The seiner did not get on the air for radio contact with the Russian ship and did not respond to signal lamps or flairs.

Upon the Turkish seiner’s dangerously close approach to “Smetlivy” at a distance of 600 meters, the Russian partol ship fired a shot beyond the hitting range of the fireamrs to avoid collision.

The ministry said the Turkish fishing ship changed course after that and kept about 540 meters from the Smetlivy, but didn’t contact the Russian warship.

“Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov has summoned the military attaché of the Turkish embassy in Russia in connection with the incident in the Aegean Sea,” the statement said.

For now there is no official (or unofficial) closure of the Bosphorus to Russian shipping, however as noted previously, this does remain a key Turkish trump card, one which however Putin would promptly read as an declaration of war by Erdogan, and as a further reminder, the bloody Russo-Turkish was of 1828 was sparked by nothing less than the closure of the Dardanelles Strait to Russian ships.

TURKEY IS THREATENING EU AND MIDEAST PEACE CLAIMS FORMER EU OFFICIAL

Russia: Riyadh talks failed to represent all Syrian opposition groups

The People’s Opinon: Nusra Front head says there is no such thing as the FSA

Assad wants to negotiate with Syrians, not with foreign mercenaries

http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/12/assad-wants-to-negotiate-with-syrians.html

Syria will not negotiate with the terrorists to put an end the conflict on their terms, even if the West tries to present the armed groups as political opponents, said the Syrian president to EFE.

For Bashar Assad, the problem is due to the fact that a large part of armed fighters and terrorist groups in Syria are foreign mercenaries, mercenaries that the United States and its allies in the Persian Gulf region are eager to include in the negotiation process.

“Opposition is a political term, not a military one. Thus, the talk about the concept does not mean actuating it, because we have seen that some countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United States, and other Western countries would like certain terrorist groups to participate in negotiations. I.e. they want the Syrian government to negotiate with terrorists. This is something that no country would accept, “said the leader.

At the same time, Assad reaffirmed that his government was still open to negotiations with the real opposition, but stressed that it must first be defined. “An opposition, for every country in the world, does not mean fighters,” he said. The President recalled that Damascus was already engaged in dialogue with certain armed groups, not the organizations, to lay down their weapons in exchange for “the government’s amnesty” and the chance to take up a “normal life.”

“This is the only way to deal with the fighters in Syria. When they want to change their approach, disarm, we are ready, but negotiate with them as a political entity, we categorically refuse to do,” clarified the Syrian leader. The agreement on a peaceful resolution to the crisis, according to Assad, can not be achieved, except by “a true patriotic and political opposition,” which is bound to Syria, “but not to some other state or regime of the world.”

Week Ten of the Russian Intervention in Syria: the “Assad must go” policy leads to war with Russia, Iran and Hezbollah | The Vineyard of the Saker

The “news” that Israel and Turkey are systematically violating international law is hardly news at all. After all, we all know that Turkey has been regularly bombing the Kurds in Iraq and Syria, that Turkey still illegally occupies northern Cyprus just like the Israelis have been bombing Syria and Lebanon for decades and that they are still illegally occupying Palestine. The interesting development this week is that France, the UK and Germany have all officially decided to join these rogue states and act just like the Turks and Israelis by illegally intervening in Syria – in direct violation of international law – supposedly to fight Daesh. And even though Daesh is the official enemy, it “just so happens” that Syrian army positions were bombed by the USAF while the Israelis bombed Hezbollah missile depots. Apparently, the “Assad must go” policy is still the order of the day. In a way, one could argue that the West has now (re-)affirmed the principle that “might makes right” and that threats and violence are still the only “policy” of of the Empire in lieu of a legal, negotiated, policy. The problem with that is that the “other side” strongly feels that surrendering to the Empire’s demands is simply not an option.

The Russian warning:

In reality this has been going on for years. From the decision to bomb Serbia to the recent decision by the IMF to bail out the Ukraine in direct violation of IMF rules (which, apparently, shall now be re-written), the AngloZionist Empire has now been violating its own so-called “rules” and “principles” for decades against the background of a quasi-general indifference to the end of the international world order agreed upon after WWII. The big difference today is that the Empire’s reckless arrogance has now brought it in direct contact with the Russian Armed Forces which, apparently, are not willing to accept that kind of thuggery and who will fight back if attacked: in his annual address to expanded meeting of the Russian Federation Defense Ministry Board Putin has clearly indicated that the fact that Russia chose not to strike back at Turkey was a one time exception saying:

I want to warn those who might again try to organize any kind of provocation against our troops: we have taken additional measures to ensure the security of Russian troops and air base. It is reinforced by new air force squadrons and air defenses. All our strike aircraft are now flying with fighter cover. I order you to act very extreme resolve. Any targets that threaten Russia’s group or our terrestrial infrastructure is to be immediately destroyed.

What Putin is doing here is warning Turkey and, really all of NATO and the Empire that next time Russia will shoot back, immediately. This also shows that the authority shoot back has now been given to the Russian forces in Syria and that no top-level decision will have to be requested to return fire. It is true that this is not a first. The RAF was also given similar order in October already, but since the notion of antiquated Tornados shooting down a SU-30SM is rather far fetched (even if the British press insist that their 1970s-era aircraft are “and are capable of blasting any aircraft out of the sky”), the capability of the SU-30SMs and even the SU-34s to shoot down Western 4th generation aircraft is not in doubt. The Russians have the resolve and the means.

But will the West take the Russian warnings seriously?………….http://thesaker.is/week-ten-of-the-russian-intervention-in-syria-the-assad-must-go-policy-leads-to-war-with-russia-iran-and-hezbollah/…………..

So this is the key question here: do the deep state elites which run the US Empire understand that neither Russia, nor Iran or Hezbollah believe that they can back down and accept a Daesh victory in Syria? Do the western leader realize that Russia, Iran and Hezbollah cannot let the Empire overthrow Assad? Is there anybody out there who does not realize that the “Assad must go policy” implies a war against Russia, Iran and Hezbollah? The only way to avoid a war is to finally give up, even if that is initially denied publicly, on the “Assad must go” policy.

The Saker

Sistani Orders Turkey Out Of Iraq – Syria Oppo-Conference Fails

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq the U.S vice consul Paul Bremer tried to install a handpicked Iraqi government. The top Shia religious authority in Iraq, Grand Ajatollah Sistani, demanded a democratic vote. The issue was thereby decided. There was no way the U.S could have circumvented Sisitani’s edict without a massive revolt by the 65% of Iraqis who are Shia and mostly follow his advice. Bremer had to fold.

Now Ajatollah Sistani takes position against the Turkish invasion of Iraq:

Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on the government on Friday to show “no tolerance” of any infringement of the country’s sovereignty, after Turkey deployed heavily armed troops to northern Iraq.

Sistani’s spokesman, Sheikh Abdul Mehdi Karbala’i, did not explicitly name Turkey, but a row over the deployment has badly soured relations between Ankara and Baghdad, which denies having agreed to it.

…

“The Iraqi government is responsible for protecting Iraq’s sovereignty and must not tolerate and side that infringes upon on it, whatever the justifications and necessities,” Karbalai’i said in a weekly sermon.

The issue is thereby decided. Turkish troops will have to leave or will have to decisively defeat all Shia of Iraq (and Iran). If Erdogan were smart he would now order the Turkish troops stationed near Mosul to leave Iraq.

The Russian President Putin also increased pressure on Turkey:

President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered Russia’s armed forces to act in an “extremely tough way” in Syria to protect Russian forces striking Islamic State targets there.

“Any targets threatening our (military) group or land infrastructure must be immediately destroyed,” Putin said, speaking at a Defence Ministry event.

Note to Erdogan: Beware of funny ideas…http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/12/sistani-orders-turkey-out-of-iraq-syria-oppo-conference-fails.html

Crippled in Syria, Turkey Goes for a ‘Sunnistan’ in Iraq

By Pepe Escobar

Turkey’s “incursion” into Iraq is a cold, calculated move. And once again, the name of the game is – what else? – Divide and Rule.

Turkey sent to Iraqi Kurdistan – which is part of the state of Iraq – no less than a 400-strong battalion supported by 25 M-60A3 tanks. Now the Turkish boots on the ground at Bashiqa camp, northeast of Mosul, have reportedly reached a total of around 600.

The short breakdown: this is not a “training camp”- as Ankara is spinning. It’s a full-blown, perhaps permanent, military base.

The dodgy deal was struck between the ultra-corrupt Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and then-Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu in Erbil last month.

Torrents of Turkish spin swear this is only about “training” Peshmergas to fight ISIS/ISIL/Daesh.

Absolute nonsense. The crucial fact is that Ankara is terrified of the “4+1” alliance fighting Islamic State, which unites Iran, Iraqi Shiites and the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), as well as Hezbollah, with Russia.

In Syria, Ankara is virtually paralyzed, after the “stab in the back” downing of the Su-24; the Russian revelations of complicity between Turkey’s first family and stolen Syrian oil (Bilal Erdogan, a.k.a. Erdogan ‘Mini Me’, denies everything); and the Russian Air Force relentless pounding of Turkey’s fifth column Turkmen. Not to mention the deployment of S-400s and even a third-generation submarine complete with Kalibr cruise missiles.

So Ankara now switches the attention to Iraq with a “counter-alliance”, made up of Turkey; the KRG (which – illegally – sells oil to Turkey); and Sunnis in northern Iraq under the supposed leadership of the sprawling Nuceyfi tribe in Mosul.

This is textbook neo-Ottomanism in action. We should never forget that for the AKP in power in Ankara, northern Syria and northern Iraq are nothing but former Ottoman Empire provinces, an eastward extension of Turkey’s Hatay province. ‘Sultan’ Erdogan’s (unstated) wet dream is to annex the whole lot.

Meanwhile, Daesh still controls Mosul. But Iraqi Sunnis – as well as the Iraqi Army – are slowly setting up an offensive.

So what Ankara wants with this military base close to Mosul is to be part of the game, coupled with two “invisible” agendas; protect their fifth-column Turkmen, wherever they are, and having more boots on the ground to fight – what else – PKK Kurds taking refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan.

‘Sultan’ Erdogan’s whole rationale is that Baghdad does not rule northern Iraq anymore (he’s got a point). But the problem, for Ankara, is that the real powers in the region may turn out to be Shiites and the PKK (that’s far-fetched; but that’s Erdogan thinking.)

‘Sultan’ Erdogan has extremely close business deals with the KRG’s ‘Mobster-in-Chief’, Massoud Barzani – as in the oil exporting deal which, illegally, bypasses Baghdad. Barzani, predictably, has no problems with Turkish military designs; after all “his” oil is paid for by the Turks.

As for the clincher, follow geopolitical ace Mick Jagger: it’s a gas, gas, gas.

Ankara’s move plays straight into the ultimate ‘Pipelineistan’ war; the clash between two competing gas pipelines, Qatar-Saudi Arabia-Jordan-Syria-Turkey, or Iran-Iraq-Syria, at the heart of the Syrian tragedy.

Erdogan’s paranoia that Russia may cut off gas supplies to Turkey after the downing of the Su-24 – something that Gazprom simply won’t do – has led Ankara, in desperation, to force Baghdad, mob-style, to “accept” a Qatar gas pipeline crossing Iraqi, not Syrian territory.

Needless to add this far-fetched scheme is an absolute no-go for Baghdad, which is part of the “4+1” alliance. Moreover, expect Iran – and Russia – to go no holds barred exploiting divisions among the notoriously divisive Kurds to bomb Erdogan’s elaborate plans.

Erdogan’s bottom line is quite something; he is aiming for no less than an Iraqi ‘Sunnistan’ – jointly managed by the ultra-corrupt KRG and assorted Sunnis, but under Turkish security arrangements. As if Washington and Tel-Aviv would let him get away with that.

The fact is that at least for the moment, while his game in Syria may be going down the drain, Erdogan has decided to change the subject and turbo-charge his strategy for breaking up Iraq.

And that brings up the question, once again, of how Daesh was able last year to conquer Mosul – the second city in Iraq – without a fight. And this after their notorious convoy of gleaming white Toyotas crossing the desert from Syria to Iraq managed to evade detection by the most sophisticated satellite surveillance system in the history of the Universe.

Regarding the mystery, persistent intel rumblings across the Middle East and among the “4+1” coalition are bound to turn into a volcano.

According to the rumblings, the official – Pentagon – narrative that the Iraqi Army supposed to fight Islamic State in Mosul last year got scared and simply ran away is a myth.

As we know, the Iraqi Army, trained by the Pentagon, left behind a wealth of tanks and heavy weapons duly captured by IS. And IS couldn’t be luckier in collecting this almighty ‘gift’.

The new narrative rules that the Pentagon deliberately “instructed” the Iraqi Army to run away, as a sort of tactical retreat, leaving behind all that fabulous hardware.

So what we have here is the Pentagon fully protected by plausible deniability.

And Islamic State duly weaponized as a proxy/regime change army in Syria. A perfect chaos-provoking tool aligned with the strategic objective of the ‘Empire of Chaos’ in Syria. Which, by the way, does include, in the absence of full regime change, the formation of a ‘Sunnistan’ in Syria as well.

Oh, but the Pentagon would never engage in such practices, would they?

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Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2015/12/isis-update-12132015note-to-erdogan.html