Developments in northern Iraq and Syria

There seem to be two parallel and simultaneous developments:

• the Americans (illegally) setting up an airbase in north-eastern Syria
• the Turks invading northern Iraq (ostensibly to provide training to the Kurdish Pashmerga)

US Building Military Airbase in Northeastern Syria

US experts are reconstructing and equipping a desolate airport special to carrying agricultural products in the region controlled by the Kurdish forces in Hasaka region, Northeastern Syria, to turn it into a military base.

By Fars News Agency

Global Research,

4 December, 2015

The Lebanese al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Saturday that a number of US experts have entered the region since 50 days ago to develop and prepare the runways with 2,500m length and 250m width to be used by fighter jets.

Abu Hajar airport which has not been used since 2010 is located in Tal al-Hajar region in the Eastern countryside of Hasaka which is controlled by the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG).

The airbase is located Southeast of the town of Rimelan, which is one of the YPG’s main strongholds and “largest arms and ammunition depots”.

The US has not received or even asked for a permission from Damascus for reconstructing the airbase. The United States does not have a UN mandate for interventing in the Syria war.

The airport will help enable Washington to add an additional safe place to land its forces, commando units for instance, and bring in military support to its allies who are working to finalize control over Southern Hasaka countryside, al-Akhbar said.

The report came over a week after the Kurdish region said that the US and Kurdish forces were working together to construct a 10 hectare military airbase South of the town of Rimelan in the village of Rimelan al-Basha.

“American experts are directly supervising the airbase with a Kurdish workforce,” the reports claimed, saying that US unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) had been flown from the facility to test it.

The report also said that two helicopter had flown over the town of Rimelan on November 24 and landed eight US military specialists at the airport.

Interestingly, the Kurdish YPG issued a statement saying that “two unknown helicopters” had flown over Rimelan on the same day.

The following day, the Kurdish media said that residents in the nearby village of Cil Axa had heard helicopters overhead, although they claimed they were Turkish.

"NATO and the United States should change their policy because the time when they dictate their conditions to the world has passed," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Dushanbe, capital of the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan

‘Turkish Troops on Iraqi Ground Could Be Used to Fight Against PKK’

Baghdad is demanding the immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Iraq. Radio Sputnik discussed the issue with political analyst and former advisor to Iraqi President Jalal Talaban, Hiwa Osman.

Sputnik,

4 December, 2015

Earlier, various media reports said that about 130 Turkish military personnel had been deployed to the Mosul area allegedly to provide training to Kurdish Peshmerga.

The deployment "is considered a serious violation of Iraqi sovereignty," the statement added.

Turkish media earlier reported that around 150 Turkish soldiers backed by 20 to 25 tanks had been transported to the Bashiqa area northeast of Mosul, Daesh's main hub in Iraq.

Speaking to Sputnik in an exclusive interview, former Iraqi advisor to the president Hiwa Osman said, “It is very difficult to tell right now because the full information is not out, but judging by the statements of the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic it doesn’t seem to be any official Iraqi knowledge. There may have been deals with the Kurdish political party on the ground to come and train some of its forces but that is again according to some Turkish officials.”

Osman further said, “We are yet to hear from the KDP as to exactly what is going on because if they are to enter they will be entering through the KDP territory the political party that is led by Mossaud Barzani, President of the region and we haven’t heard anything from him yet.”

“Judging by their track record over the last year and a half, Turkey is really not serious about fighting ISIL and their number one priority is the PKK the Kurdistan Workers' Party that is fighting ISIL and they see them as a threa to themselves. One fear is that these troops could later on fight the PKK,” the analyst noted.

“Turkey has done this in the past. They came in the mountainous areas of Iraqi Kurdistan to come after PKK but they weren’t so successful in the past. I don’t think that they will be successful this time.”

Talking about what stance NATO will take on this new development, Osman said that NATO is something that Turkey uses to try and hide behind to avoid fighting ISIL.

“Even with the PKK it has forced many countries to enlist them in their lists of terror because it is using its membership of NATO. They shouldn’t use NATO as carte blanche for everything they want to do. If I was NATO I would seriously reconsider this,” Osman said.

He also said that Turkey started to move only after Russia seriously started to get involved in the war against Daesh (ISIL). “I think they fear that if they don’t do anything, there will be implication that they don’t mind what ISIL is doing in the region.”

He went on to say that since Russia got involved things have started moving faster and had Russia not gotten involved Daesh would have kept growing stronger. “Today there is a serious player i.e. Russia and Vladimir Putin. I think he is the only one in this coalition who knows exactly what he wants and Russian involvement has forced everyone else to be clear in exactly what they want and to find themselves a role.”

Baghdad Summons Turkish Envoy Over Troops' Deployment in Iraq

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry has summoned the Turkish envoy in Baghdad on Saturday over the deployment of Turkish forces near the northern city of Mosul, Reuters reported.

Sputnik,

4 December, 2015

Baghdad: Turkish Tanks Enter Iraqi Province Without Authorization

On Friday, various media reports said that about 130 Turkish military personnel had been deployed to the Mosul area in Iraq allegedly to provide training to Kurdish Peshmerga militia fighting against Daesh (also known as ISIL or the Islamic State terrorist group).

The Iraqi ministry described the deployment of Turkish forces in Iraq without the permission of Baghdad as a "hostile act."

Earlier in the day, Baghdad has called on Ankara to "immediately" withdraw its forces, including tanks and artillery, which it has deployed in the country's northern Ninawa province, without Baghdad's consent, according to a statement from the press service of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi obtained by RIA Novosti.

Moreover, Iraqi authorities called on Turkey to "respect good neighborly relations" and "immediately withdraw its military from the territory of Iraq."

Is Washington Edging Towards Full-Scale Military Operation in Iraq, Syria?

The Obama administration recently announced its plans to send 50 special operations troops to Syria and 100 more commandos to neighboring Iraq in what many view as breaking the promise not to send boots on the ground in the two countries plagued by sectarian violence and terrorism.

Sputnik,

4 December, 2015

The Obama administration recently announced its plans to send 50 special operations troops to Syria and 100 more commandos to neighboring Iraq in what many view as breaking the promise not to send boots on the ground in the two countries plagued by sectarian violence and terrorism.

The White House tried to brush these legitimate concerns aside, claiming that the US will not be dragged into large-scale military operations like the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s.

"The obvious reason that all presidents and senior administration officials initially downplay the mission and role of US military interventions is to catalyze domestic political support. This is because opinion polling of Americans reveals that they overwhelmingly do not support wars that they believe will be unilateral, long, bloody, and costly," conflict prevention expert Micah Zenko wrote for the National Interest.

The announcement regarding Iraq is especially interesting in this respect.

One would imagine that the 100 special operations forces will be deployed to Iraq to take part in the existing mission aimed at training and assisting the Iraqi security forces. But their powers seem to go well beyond the non-combat scope. These troops will be able to "conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence and capture ISIL leaders," US Army Colonel Steve Warren detailed.

These developments fuel fears that what was once supposed to be a limited engagement is gradually turning into a larger and potentially deadlier operation.

"Now 'specialized' troops will conduct high risk operations to simply attempt to capture and kill a few more Islamic State members, of which there is apparently an inexhaustible supply," Zeno observed

Daesh, also known as ISIL, has proved to be quite resilient in the face of the US-led coalition. In mid-2014, the CIA estimated that the terrorist group numbered approximately 30,000 people. Earlier in December, US defense chief Ashton Carter told the House Armed Services Committee that Daesh was an approximately 30,000-strong force.

In other words, the number of militants remained relatively the same in the sixteen months of the US-led operation aimed at exterminating them, giving credence to the opinion that Washington's anti-Daesh strategy does not seem to be working.

Instead of reevaluating and formulating a new approach, Obama has opted for "downplaying a US military commitment, then incrementally increasing that commitment and approving new missions, all while consistently claiming that there has been absolutely no mission creep and no violation of previous pledges," Zenko asserted.