Turkey and the US war on ISIS

Turkey is more interested in keeping its own Kurds at bay (and stopping Kurds from crossing over into Syria to fight) than it is in the US 'war against ISIS'

Turkey bombs Kurdish PKK rebel positions, Kobani inaction threatens ceasefire

RT,

14 October, 2014

Turkish warplanes have bombed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets near the country’s border with Iraq. The strikes highlight rising tensions in Turkey over Ankara’s perceived unwillingness to aid besieged Kurdish fighters in the Syrian town of Kobani.

The Turkish General Staff dispatched F-16 and F-4 jets to the southeastern village of Daglica in Hakkari province on Monday, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reports.

The daily says the airstrikes caused “heavy damage” to the PKK.

The PKK's military wing, however, said in a statement on its website that its forces had not suffered casualties during the strikes, Reuters reports.

Turkey says the bombings came in response to three days of attacks on the Daglıca military guard post with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. PKK insurgents for their part blamed the Turkish military of violating the ceasefire.

Monday’s strikes were the first to be conducted since the Kurdish rebel group declared a ceasefire with Turkey in March 2013.

The incident underlines simmering anger among Kurds in southeastern Turkey over Ankara’s failure to intervene against so-called Islamic State (IS) militants, who launched a massive offensive on the predominately Kurdish town of Kobani – not far from Syria’s border with Turkey – on September 16.

At least 35 people were killed throughout Turkey’s Kurdish majority south-eastern provinces last week after protests against Ankara’s inaction descended into violent street clashes.

Kurdish protesters set fire to a barricade set up to block the street as they clash with riot police in Diyarbakir October 7, 2014.(Reuters / Stringer)

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of PKK, has threatened to call off peace talks to end nearly three decades of insurgency if Ankara does not act by Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a "symbolic" amount of military supplies sent from Iraqi Kurdistan to Syrian Kurds is stuck in Syria’s northeast after Turkey refused to open an aid corridor, German daily Deutsche Welle cites Syrian Kurdish official Alan Othman as saying on Tuesday.

"It is a symbolic shipment that has remained in the Jazeera canton," Othman said, using the Kurdish name for northeastern Syria.

On Monday, Turkish officials denied a previous announcement by the Obama administration that Ankara had authorized US fighter jets to use the Incirlik Airbase as a launching point to conduct bombing campaigns against IS (Islamic State) militants.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that any military operations conducted from its territory should be done with an aim of removing Syrian president Bashar Assad from power.

Earlier this month, Erdogan said that IS and the PKK are equally worthy of contempt in the eyes of Turkey.

"It is wrong to consider them [IS and PKK] in different ways,” Erdogan said. “We need to handle them all together on a common ground."

White House insists anti-Isis strategy is on track despite setbacks on the ground

• Isis advances on Baghdad and Kobani despite 21 air strikes
• Turkey bombs Kurdish targets in south-east of country

the Guardian,

14 October, 2014

The US-led campaign to combat Islamic State (Isis) fighters in Syria and Iraq is facing a growing crisis of confidence as setbacks on the battlefield coincide with efforts to improve allied coordination and calls for President Barack Obama to escalate the military attacks.

White House officials insist their twin strategy of air strikes and support for local ground forces is still working despite advances by Isis outside Baghdad and in the Syrian town of Kobani, but concede they will consider calls for additional bombing if requested by the Pentagon.

In the last two days alone, the US has conducted 21 separate air strikes on Isis forces in and around Kobani and recently deployed Apache attack helicopters to repel advances on Baghdad airport.

Yet the latest damage assessment released by the Pentagon on Tuesday focused primarily on damage to Isis “staging locations” and buildings rather than claiming much success against fighters on the ground who are dispersed in urban areas and much harder to target using current tactics.

“I am confident the president would want to reserve that option dependent on the advice he gets from his military planners,” the White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, told reporters when asked whether Obama was willing to escalate the air campaign against Isis.

Chiefs of defence from 20 US military partners are meeting at Andrews air force base outside Washington for a two-day meeting aimed at ensuring “the military capabilities of our partners are integrated and effectuated”.

Obama was due to address the assembled international military brass in a session later on Tuesday amid reports from some air forces involved that they are running out of obvious Isis targets in Iraq and a reticence among others to become dragged into Syria.

Following his meeting with the international defence chiefs Obama stressed that “this is going to be a long-term campaign” during brief remarks to reporters. “There are going to be periods of progress and setbacks,” he added, but insisted the coalition remained united in defeating Isis.

The alliance is under its greatest strain in Turkey, which has met US requests to intervene in Kobani on behalf of Kurdish rebels not just with refusal, but with air strikes aimed instead against Kurdish groups in Turkey.

Turkish fighter jets bombarded Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) positions in south-eastern Turkey this week for the first time since the start of the peace process between the outlawed group and the Turkish government in 2012.

The attacks on the PKK came in the wake of violent clashes last week between Kurdish factions and security forces in several Turkish cities, as anger grows over perceived government inaction against the Isis attack on Kobani.

According to local media reports, the strikes came in retaliation for armed PKK offensives on several military outposts in the area.

The Turkish chief of general staff said the military “opened fire immediately in retaliation, in the strongest terms” after repeated PKK attacks in the area, and before air strikes were launched.

White House officials were also forced to clarify on Tuesday that talks are ongoing between the US and Turkey over the right to use airbases against Isis and for training purposes.

The national security adviser, Susan Rice, claimed over the weekend that such permission had been obtained but this was later denied by the Turks.

Obama’s approach in Syria and Iraq is under growing criticism in Washington, not just from traditional hawks like John McCain who are calling for US ground troops to be deployed, but also in the media where columnists are increasingly arguing his strategy against Isis has failed.

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