Turks and Kurds Amassing on Their Sides of the Border, ISIS Takes Advantage in Raqqa, Russia Trying to Broker Peace
Turkey has started airstrikes on YPG/US held NE Syria but no ground invasion yet
Turks seem anxious to get the ball rolling to show the rules have changed and preemt a possible U-turn so typical of Trump with new facts on the ground. To this end they’re already shelling Kurdish targets across the border, but they’ve also carried out airstrikes (at least one of them deep in Kurdish-held territory) which would have been a no-no before Trump’s withdrawal from the border zone.
Turkey's @cnnturk reports what appear to be two separate airstrikes hit the Syrian town of Ras al Ain, controlled by the Kurdish SDF #now amid expectations a Turkish offensive would begin today.
— Ayla Jean Yackley (@aylajean) October 9, 2019
However it seems Trump’s green light for an invasion has caught the Turks as much by surprise as it has the Pentagon and the Kurds, so they need to do more troop movement before they can strike in earnest. That is exactly what they seem to be doing however, with numerous reports of troops and armor moving to various sections of the border.
Gaziantep 5. Zırhlı Tugay Komutanlığı'ndan sınır birliklerine 120 araçlık sevkıyat #DHA pic.twitter.com/4uy3P02pWe
— Yaser Emre (@yasiremres) October 9, 2019
For their part the Kurds are likewise assembling at the border, bringing in reinforcement from all over of their quite extensive fief. Their authorities have even instructed civilians to take up arms and join the troops at the border.
The SDF continues to send massive reinforcements from Deir ez-zor, Raqqa, Tabqa, Hasake and Manbij, reports of the arrival of heavy weapons on the Turkish borders.#Twitterkurds #Rojava #SDF #Turkey #TSK #Syria pic.twitter.com/2iwoWqeb7j
— Rojava Network (@RojavaNetwork) October 9, 2019
#BREAKING Syria Kurds call up civilians for defence against Turkey pic.twitter.com/K5TDa3U3CY
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) October 9, 2019
The odds do not favor the Kurds however. Not only are they lightly armed but the terrain is flat and open and the border with Turkey they hold is extremely long so the Turks can pick and chose where to pour through in overwhelming numbers (if they’re smart).
Meanwhile ISIS took advantage of the unenviable position of the YPG by crawling from the underground in Raqqa but was put down.
https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1181708956365987840
https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1181709480486154242
Meanwhile the Russian diplomacy is fevereshly working to forestall fighting and is talking to Ankara, Damascus and the Kurds alike.
#BREAKING Syria Kurds urge Russia to facilitate 'dialogue' with Damascus pic.twitter.com/wVNGpLlyGF
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) October 9, 2019
https://twitter.com/ynms79797979/status/1181863376424706049
Putin cautions Turkey's Erdogan against undermining peace efforts in Syria https://t.co/SwgdoNqOgN
— Bloomberg (@business) October 9, 2019
Chaos is likely part of the plan with the U.S. pulling the strings.
Russia wants peace?
Have Putin to tell his bestist butties the Non Semitic Khazarian Russian Expat & Spawn thereof Turkmen/slavic members off the End of Times Death Cult Holocausting the Indigenous semitic Palestinian souls, in the Semitic Indigenous Palestinian’s own ancestral home land, to recall their ISIS terrorist to their headquarters in Tel Aviv!