US military officials say that during the Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria, drone feeds showed Turkish-backed rebels attacking civilians in Kurdish territory. The US officials reported it to commanders as possible war crimes.
Officials didn’t say specifically what the four credible cases of war crimes were, but did say that they had been included in an internal report compiled by the State Department.
Turkey’s President Erdogan said war criminals involved in the invasion are no different than ISIS and that Turkey is “going to take care of that.” US officials say they don’t believe Turkey is actually taking the matter seriously.
Whether it even ends up a matter of discussion between Trump and Erdogan during the anticipated meeting this week is anyone’s guess. Trump is believed to not want to anger Erdogan, however, and since he’s already dodging around House votes on sanctions and the Armenian genocide, this is likely just one more thing not to mention.
This report pours a little cold water on the ridiculous “Assad loves to attack civilians” nonsense.
This is only to generate talking points for Trump.
Errmm, isnt a US military drone in a foreign country, we are not at war with, a war crime ?
I still hold hope for Antiwar to be a bit more sophisticated then your average reporting.
What is Kurdish territory? Where exactly? How do you distinguish a civilian from YPG militants? Perhaps by carrying weapons? Turkish military is not in any Kurdish majority areas. Syrian Army and Russian police are in Kurdish majority town of Kobane, Turkish and Russian forces patrol 10km zone , but SDF/YPG have agreed to pull out their militants from 30 km zone.
Unless accurate information is provided in the exact location of such incidents — it is no more then propaganda supporting Kurdish
secessionism.
This has bern the problem all along in our Syrian adventure. “Rebels” never identified by their group name, and never identified by location.
Today it is mythical ISIS. Where exactly is it? Are we talking of a militant group, how strong, who is arming them, financing them?
Or are we talking about a few terrorists holed up in an abandoned farm house? Syrian Government could have taken care of those at least two years ago.
As for the detection capabilities — I doubt it. Seeing people from such heights, running and fighting, does not provide much information about what is actually happening.
It is also not professional journalism to use government line in attacking opponents. Armenian genocide? It is always pulled out of mothballs whenever Turkey is in for flogging. And when Turkey and Armenia agreed in Commission of historians, France pulled voting on Armenian genocide just to allow Erdogan’s political opponents to complain about him about to cave in to external pressure! I hoped we are smart enough not to fall for government games. This “concern” for WWI Armenians at present is aimed at Russia supporting Turkey in border security. Hint, hint Armenians — Russia is selling you to Turkey. And for as long as there are politicians out there in need of some cash there will be takers.
And how exactly are House sanctions justified, so we can glibly talk of Turkey dodging them?
I understand perfectly that when Israeli lobby supports someone — those become sanctified. Kurds can just do no wring, and Turkey fighting armed secessionists on its territory and across borders — is evil?
If we continue justifying armed “democracy”, military coup “democracies”, we may as well supporting ISIS or any other group that does not like the laws, and wants to take power and territory by force.
I would not be surprised if Turkey presents US President with its intention to leave NATO. If Europe and US support Kurdish territorial demands irrespective of the wish of Turkish (or Syrian or Iraqi) population — then NATO Charter is meaningless. So is the UN Charter.