Faced with the prospect of al-Qaeda forces in Syria getting totally overrun, Turkey has sent troops back into the Idlib Province, and are attacking the Syrian military, nominally to defend themselves as the Syrian military was looking to reclaim the town of Saraqeb from al-Qaeda. Syria fired shells at al-Qaeda, and hit Turkish troops.
Russia and Turkey were meant to have a deal over this matter, but Turkey’s President Erdogan has warned Russia not to “stand in their way” in attacking the Syrian military. Erdogan had threatened to use military force on Syria Friday, and are now attacking them outright.
Turkish officials say in the course of sieging Saraqeb, eight Turkish soldiers were killed. The Turkish state media reported that in subsequent attacks they hit 54 targets in the vicinity and killed at least 76 Syrian soldiers.
Syria recently reclaimed the town of Maarat al-Numaan from al-Qaeda. The town, along with Saraqeb, are on the main highway connecting the capital of Damascus and the major northern city of Aleppo. The Syrian government clearly wants to control this valuable highway, and get al-Qaeda away from it.
Turkey, which has suffered their first combat deaths in the entire Syrian War, has a long history of acting to benefit the Syrian al-Qaeda faction, despite them nominally not being part of the Turkish-backed rebels.
When Turkey negotiated a safe zone in Idlib with Russia, they did so leaving a lot of al-Qaeda’s territory within the safe zone. While that was meant to be cleared of hostile forces on either side, it never was, and after months of fighting, Syria went after al-Qaeda again. Turkish officials now view that as a “violation,” even though al-Qaeda was never officially a party to any of these deals, and were not supposed to be recognized by any of the parties as the rightful rulers of any towns or cities in Idlib.
Turkey is begging for a smackdown … Russia will oblige if they keep this up.
To me Turkey is as much against Syria as Al Qatda , ISIS , USA or any other criminal group .
Putin is too much of a crybaby to do anything. Russia stupidity sold Turkey and the Saudis the s400 that can be used against Russia.
Putin will straighten Erdogan out. Just a matter of some negotiation.
Erdogan needs Putin’s support for his missile defense.
I wonder if russia will test its S400 against an F16?
Time for Putin to put up or shut up. The world will be watching closely.
Putin is too weak to do anything other than complain.
I prefer wait and see. We are talking as if we really know the situation on the ground. It has been my beef from the. beginning of Syria conflict. Rebels, Islamists, Salafists, Al-Qaeda. We do not know what caused the incident. We do not have a clue what is Turkey doing
there. We do not know full story, just knee jerk reactions. Turkey is clearly attempting to bring Al-Qaeda under its control. Since Helmets are Bitish ops, I doubt it will work. Now they can be shooting at both, and hope for deflecting from them. Do not dismiss the determination if West to keep one part if Syria under its control and resist all efforts to have them drop their arms.
Thus — patience. We heard same story of Turkey hitting Syrian army in operation against Kurds. I prefer to see dust settle. Turkish and Syrian intelligence recently had open meeting, signaling end game. It will not be pretty nor simple.
Turkey needs to be put in its place. Erdogan has overplayed his hand. He is also a fool and a horrible leader.
Turkey would be unwise to invade Syria .
Turkey already has invaded Syria when the US got out of their way .
But wait; isn’t Syria a Russian “ally”? Meanwhile, Putin kisses up to Israel, anther regime constantly attacking Syria.
I think you have it backwards. Putin is in the driver’s seat and everyone in the region – not just israel – recognizes him as “the adult in the room”.
Don’t be naive. Putin is one of them. The longer this thing drags out, the more likely the globalists win. If
Russia would have kept up their intense bombing campaign up back in 2015 the issue could have been settled then. The excuse for the end to that campaign was never revealed. The globalists and Zionists are just waiting out Assad. As for
Putin? He was handpicked by
Yeltsin and company for a reason. Fake opposition.
If Putin was one of them they wouldn’t be treating him so shabbily.
If the whole thing is a charade that would be the way to go. False opposition is the name of the game on multiple levels. Both sides seemingly pitted against each other to justify oppression at home and keeping the pretty little hate machine going so the merchants of death keep the profits rolling in. The
Russian arms industry needs to sell war as well. Not to mention central banks who make the big bucks off of war.
Putin’s opposition to the encroachment of NATO on it’s borders is quite genuine – as is the West’s campaign of sanctions and slander against Russia.
Putin is not a globalist but the United States and NATO are the globalists
Israel claims to be neutral on Syria Israel only attacks Hezabola that Israel says are Lebanese terrorists funded by Iran .
If Syria does not soon become a united state again it might become the fuse for much bigger conflagrations. Look who is fighting there: Syrians, Russians, Americans, Turks, Israeli’s, probably a few Lebanese and Iranians too. They are not murdering for a common goal. They are murdering others for establishing regional power.
The Syrian people are worse off than the Germans at the beginning of May 1945 when their defeat was all but sealed. And Assad is not going to commit suicide.
outrageously untrue statement.
Jabhat al-Nusra, an affiliate of al-CIAda, is backed by Turkey and will eventually be wiped out by the Syrian Army and Russia. The treacherous Erdogan is making up stories about killing Syrians when in fact Turkey is the one that stands to lose the most in Idlib Province. He was trying to get Putin on the phone the other day to explain why he’d just killed four Russian soldiers… Putin didn’t take his call. Something big, coming up soon.
According to the Russians, no Turkish aircraft crossed into Syria during the time Erdogan claims the strikes took place.
Fake news. Neither Turkey nor their cutthroat merc’s has killed any Syrian soldiers after the Syrian advance on Saraqib. There is no confirmation anywhere on Ditz’s claims. What Erdogan claimed was a face saving measure for domestic consumption and has nothing to do with reality.
SAA continues to advance in their pincher movement on Saraqib in order to keep the crucial M4 open. So far they have succeeded. Erdogan is trying to block them but there’s little he can do since any advance will be met by the Russian or Syrian airforces.