Head of Syrian opposition delegation, Naser al-Hariri (C) speaks during a press conference after a meeting with United Nations' Syria envoy on February 27, 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland. ( Mustafa Yalcin - Anadolu Agency )
http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/assad-regime-working-with-daesh-says-syrian-opposition/760461
The Syrian regime has been setting up a buffer zone between Daesh and the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), the head of the country’s opposition delegation at the Geneva IV talks said on Monday.
On the fifth day of the fourth round of the intra-Syrian talks, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura met the Syrian opposition delegation headed by Nasr Hariri, a senior member of the largest anti-regime group, the Syrian National Coalition.
"The regime is actually coordinating with Daesh and has opened a corridor to prevent the Free Syrian Army from fighting Daesh," Hariri told a news conference at the UN at Geneva following a two-hour meeting with de Mistura.
Claiming the regime did not want the FSA to defeat the terror group, Hariri said: "This regime is setting up a buffer zone between the FSA and Daesh."
"We just gave the special envoy a video of testimony of a former detainee who was detained by the FSA and was recently released. In the video, he explains and testifies how regime forces are coordinating with Daesh," Hariri said.
About a possible change in Russia's political position at the Syria talks, Hariri said: "We see an openness of their position."
The opposition delegation is expected to meet Russian officials in Geneva.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.
Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and upwards of 10 million displaced across the war-torn country, according to the UN. The Syrian Center for Policy Research puts the death toll at more than 470,000.
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http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/syria-opposition-forces-will-go-to-manbij-says-erdogan/760950
Following the successful operation against the Daesh terror group in Al-Bab, the next target for the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) will be the northern Syrian city of Manbij, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
“Manbij is not a place for the PYD or YPG … it belongs to Arabs,” Erdogan told reporters at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul before departing for an economic summit in Pakistan.
Manbij, an Arab-populated city on the western bank of the Euphrates River, is currently controlled by the terror group PYD, an offshoot of the PKK which Ankara has been fighting for several decades.
Turkey has insisted PYD elements must leave Manbij and withdraw east of the Euphrates.
“First of all they should evacuate the place so that local residents can come there,” Erdogan urged.
Ankara has repeatedly said one terror group should not be used against another and urged the U.S.-led coalition to stop using the YPG to eliminate Daesh terrorists in the region.
The Turkish government said it would not participate in any formation where the PYD/YPG is included.
Erdogan said FSA forces could lead the Raqqa operation, adding they have completed successful operations in Jarabulus, Al-Rai, Dabiq and Al-Bab.
Turkish-backed forces have killed more than 3,000 Daesh terrorists -- as well as some PYD elements -- in northern Syria under Operation Euphrates Shield, according to the Turkish president.
Operation Euphrates Shield began in late August to improve security, support coalition forces, and eliminate the terror threat along the Turkish border using Free Syrian Army fighters backed by Turkish artillery and jets.
Steps to Raqqa, Manbij
On Feb. 24, the Turkish military said the Al-Bab operation had been completed and the strategic city cleared of Daesh elements.
Erdogan added that the completion of the Al-Bab operation did not mean Operation Euphrates Shield was over and said there were “some steps to be taken” to free Raqqa and Manbij.
He also referred to making an agreement with “coalition forces, Russia and America”.
Erdogan said Ankara was dealing with Russia, a close neighbor, and the U.S., a strategic ally, and also with the U.S.-led coalition forces regarding the issue.
“The Turkish-led forces should be used in the Raqqa operation,” Erdogan said and added, “Because our fight is against Daesh. If our allies are sensitive in the fight against Daesh, we tell them: ‘We can move together with you’”.
“Just let Raqqa be freed of Daesh. And let the city be handed over to its real [Arab] owners,” he added.
Turkey and the new U.S. administration of President Donald Trump has also been discussing a possible joint operation in Raqqa.
Some top-level officials from the U.S. visited Ankara this month to discuss a strategy. A detailed proposal is expected to be submitted to Trump this week.
“As Turkey, we don’t have any intention or plan to stay there. We will just attempt to clear threats from there. We don’t want a region around us from where we face threats,” Erdogan said.
“The Syrian people are our friends. They are our brothers. They are not threats against us,” he added.
Erdogan noted that Turkey intended to continue the process of Operation Euphrates Shield in “unity” with international forces.
“We are not in a situation to watch all happenings from distance,” Erdogan said, adding that Turkey had paid a huge cost for observing from afar in the past.
He recalled Turkish government policy to be in the field as well as at the negotiation table on the Syria issue.
Erdogan also stressed Turkey's idea of training and equipping moderate opposition fighters and creating a safe zone inside Syria for displaced people.
http://aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-admiral-praises-turkeys-role-in-fighting-daesh/760311
The commander of a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group conducting missions against Daesh has described to Anadolu Agency the importance of Turkey’s involvement in fighting the terrorist group in Syria and northern Iraq.
Speaking onboard the USS H.W. Bush aircraft carrier on Monday, Rear Admiral Kenneth Whitesell said:
"We can’t do this now without Turkey’s cooperation and friendship. You are very important for us to be able to do our mission."
He described the ties between the two countries as a "very good relationship, a very friendly relationship".
Whitesell said their role in the Mediterranean was to conduct strike operations on Daesh targets in Syria and northern Iraq as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.
"So that’s what we are doing and we have been doing this for about eight days now and we got a couple more weeks to go before we go into another theater of operations," he said.
Whitesell said his forces flew about eight to nine sorties a day but are still awaiting information from the Combined Air Operations Center in Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar on how many targets they had destroyed so far.
The USS George H.W. Bush, with the callsign "Avenger," can carry 85 aircraft and helicopters, and has about 6,000 crew members.
Admiral Whitesell said the friendship between Turkey and U.S. -- both NATO members -- was based on mutual trust, adding that they could not carry out Operation Inherent Resolve without Ankara’s help.
"They [Turkey] are in charge of the procedural control of aircraft from the George H.W. Bush going through the northern route, Turkish air traffic control,” Whitesell said.
He added: "Turkey has been very accommodating. We have rules we have to go by before we are allowed to come into Turkey. We have been abiding by those rules."
Incirlik Air Base
Whitesell also stressed the importance of Incirlik Air Base, near the southern Turkish city of Adana.
"Turkish controllers have been very accommodating. They allow us to fly to Incirlik and then once we get under U.S. Air Force control we land at Incirlik air force base and refuel and then go back and do our strikes. That base is very, very important to us," he added.
Colonel Will Pennington, a command officer aboard the George H.W. Bush, said the base was very important, adding that they were able to use it when their planes were forced to land.
Turkey has taken an active role in the international fight against Daesh in both Iraq and Syria. Turkish troops also provide training to local fighters in Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul.
In Syria, the Turkish military recently announced its ongoing Operation Euphrates Shield had seen the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) wresting control of Al-Bab -- 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the Turkish-Syrian border -- from Daesh.
The Turkish-led Operation Euphrates Shield began on 24 Aug. 2016 to improve security, support coalition forces and eliminate the terror threat along the Turkish border using FSA fighters backed by Turkish artillery and jets.
*Reporting by Sarp Ozer; Writing by Fatma Bulbul
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http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/te...ure-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=110274&NewsCatID=352
The Turkish army has established a temporary base in a strategically important point of the newly captured al-Bab, located in northern Syria.
Turkish military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Turkish army founded a temporary base on the hilltop of Akil inside al-Bab, which it along with its ally Free Syrian Army (FSA) liberated from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The sources described the hilltop as the “most critical area” with regards to its strategic location, adding that it was overlooking the northern Syrian town.
The base also functions as a place where armored vehicles used in Turkey’s ongoing Euphrates Shield operation are parked and repaired if damages are minor.
Launched on Aug. 24, 2016, the Euphrates Shield operation aims at clearing its border with Syria of terrorists, which include ISIL and the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) forces, which Turkey regards as a terrorist organization due to its links with the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Turkey had captured Jarablus and symbolically important Dabiq from ISIL as a part of the operation.
The Turkish army had also set up a base in Dabiq after capturing it and the base in al-Bab is no larger than that in Dabiq, the sources said.
Three Turkish troops were also slightly wounded during sweeping operations inside the town when a blast occurred.
The military sources also denied FSA’s claim that 22 Syrian regime forces’ soldiers had been killed in clashes in the south of al-Bab, near the town of Tadef.
Sources said the Sultan Murad Brigade, which operates under FSA, spotted a group of around 12 Syrian regime forces’ members coming close to the “green line,” an emptied road that separates the Ankara-backed FSA from the forces of the Syrian regime in the south of al-Bab.
FSA members fired a warning shot as the Syrian regime forces continued to march, whereupon the regime forces responded in the same way.
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Russian commander leading the Syrian regime forces in the region reached out to a Turkish commander leading the FSA forces through a previously established “red telephone line,” and told his counterpart that the Syrian troops accidentally came close to the area where FSA members were stationed. Upon this call, the Turkish commander also ordered the rebels to cease fire and a clash was avoided, sources said.
Meanwhile, following the capture of Tadef from ISIL over the weekend, Syrian regime forces moved forwards to Manbij, which lies to the east of al-Bab. Manbij was captured by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from ISIL last year. PYD’s military wing, the People’s Protection Unit (YPG), is the main element of the SDF along with some Arab forces.
February/28/2017
