Posted on 05/03/2017 1:31:23 PM PDT by drewh
The war of words between Washington and Ankara over the U.S. military’s partnership with Kurdish paramilitaries in Syria escalated Wednesday, when a senior aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested American troops could be targeted alongside their Kurdish allies in the country’s ongoing air war against the militias.
Senior presidential aide Ilnur Cevik said U.S. forces who are teamed up with members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, were in danger of being hit by Turkish fighters patrolling the volatile border region with Syria.
If YPG units and their American military advisers “go too far, our forces would not care if American armor is there, whether armored carriers are there,” Mr. Cevik said during an interview on Turkish radio station CRI TURK Wednesday. “All of a sudden, by accident, a few rockets can hit them,” he added, referring to partnered U.S. forces.
When asked to clarify that U.S. advisers or artillery positions would be in danger from Turkish warplanes, if they continued to support YPG operations in northern Syria, Mr. Cevik replied bluntly that they would.
His comments come days after U.S. forces moved into the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Rojava, in a dramatic show of solidarity amid Turkish airstrikes targeting those U.S.-backed forces there. The strikes were part of an ongoing counterterrorism operation targeting members of the YPG, which Turkey has condemned as a terrorist organization.
Syrian Kurds, some of which are members of or allied with the YPG, make up half of the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF — the 50,000-man strong constellation of Arab and Kurdish militias backed by the U.S., who are preparing for the final, large-scale assault on Raqqa, the self-styled capital of the Islamic State terror group also known as ISIS or ISIL.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Go ahead...
Turkey needs to be eliminated
Something in Turkey should go BOOM simply for suggesting that.
It’s nice having NATO partners, particularly nice, moderate Muslim partners who share a common culture with us.
It’s only known as ISIL to anti-Semites like the ex-Muslim in Chief
I would give a green light to Putin to have his anti-aircraft assets target any Turkish planes crossing the Syrian border.
Putin and Erdogan are buddies again.
Ain’t gonna happen. The czar and the sultan are the best buddies again until the next time one screws the other without K-Y.
That sounds like a Declaration of War, sort of. Mr. Tillerson needs to ask them Turks to make clear whether that is their intention given that the American Troops are not going away. At this point it might be better for all concerned if Turkiye gives us a powerful excuse to suddenly knock out the Turkish Air Force and any exposed artillery, which might give the Head Honcho Mullah pause in Iran.
you beat me to it by 33 seconds.
Trump should pull our forces out of turkey. He should also let them know we will destroy their air force and any military they have within 50 miles of the border if we even remotely think he’s serious.
AND they are still in NATO
Mattis heard the threat from those %#@!nsobs and he better not be restraining our boots in any way, shape, or form from defending themselves or leaving them unprotected from above. Any air movement heading their way should be shot down.
Did I eat too much sugar? oh, just a flashback.
The Washington Times story may or may not be totally accurate. You can never tell with them. They never provide where their source(s) come from. They write as if it is from original reporting from their own reporters in the field, and it rarely if ever is. Just as bad, they do not even provide the source for quotes, when they show it is a quote with quote marks around it.
They are unreliable as a source of news that can be verified.
Not that Pravda on The Hudson or Washington Post are not full of their “anonymous”, “administration insider” and other unverifiable sources, which they are.
But if a journal wants to be a Conservative journal it should not try to make it so easy to call it “fake”, by never sourcing anything it “reports.
They are really just like Freepers, dragging the media and the net for everything, and then cutting & pasting reports together as their own.
Even Freeper posts do a better job of reporting facts than the Washington Times, with their sources, when they indicate they are reporting facts.
Legal question here - If other NATO nations are supposed to assist if one NATO nation is attacked, what happens when two NATO nations go to war with each other?
Turkey Threatens to Strike US Forces Partnered With Kurds>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
That would be a very HUGE mistake.
And Turkey a member of NATO,.
Erdogan would be dead within a day.
IMHO I wouldn’t mind seeing a lot of dead Turkish islamicists.
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