Posted on 02/03/2020 1:01:39 PM PST by BenLurkin
Five Turkish soldiers and one civilian personnel were killed in Syria on Sunday, Turkey's first fatalities as a result of direct confrontation between the countries since the start of Syria's civil war in 2011.
Nine other troops were also wounded in northwest Syria's Idlib province after they came under heavy artillery fire from the Syrian government Sunday, according to a Turkey defense department statement which added that the troops were reinforcements.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said up to 35 Syrian government soldiers had been killed Monday in response, and pledged further retaliation.
Erdogan said up to 40 Syrian targets were being considered as part of the operation, and warned Russia -- the most powerful backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- to "not stand in our way."
"We told the Russian authorities you are not party to this it is totally the regime and do not stand in our way. Because we have martyrs, we cannot remain silent.
We will continue to respond, including with our F-16s, our howitzers, our artillery, it is all in the field firing on the targets determined by our national intelligence," Erdogan said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Let me get this straight.
Turkey has ground troops in Syria. Is fully engaging Syrian government troops in ground combat and is considering more government targets to engage.
And shot down a Russian plane that was in its airspace for like 30 seconds for violating its sovereignty.
KTA.
?
Prickly bunch, ain’t they? Easy to take offense, and slow to realize they may have done “inappropriate” things, like incursions into Syrian territory in pursuit of recalcitrant Kurds.
From such ham-handed bully tactics, grow conflicts that cannot be contained. But if it is the Turks who get into a fight, I say let the Syrians and Russians pummel them a little.
Pretty serious schoolyard fight, but not in the interests of the United States to be the referee or cop.
Get Turkey out of NATO ... NOW! The Turk Islamists have no legitimacy INVADING a neighboring country. Whatever repercussions come Turkey’s way should be “suffered” by Turkey alone. We have no treaty obligations to protect Turkey from the CONSEQUENCES of its own actions!
Kill them all.
Seeing as how Syria has been fighting this war for years and therefore battle trained and honed, Turkey is going to find out the hard way it’s not going to be easy . For the rest of us it’s popcorn time!
‘Turkey’ hasn’t been in any major conflicts, since it stopped being The Ottoman Empire in WW1!
I would imagine that they are out of practice, unless you call slaughtering Armenians, practice.
Remove all of our nukes from Turkey now.
Sounds like push has finally come to shove between Turkey and Syria, and it could be outright war. Turkey is not trying to hide behind deniable surrogates any longer.
NATO must clarify that Turkish aggression negates NATO’s responsibilities in the conflict
Perhaps now the foolishness of relying on Russian air defenses will be made all too clear.
Turkey needs to get rid of Erdogan, before he brings epic disaster to Turkey. The economy is already heading over the cliff.
Thanks for info.
None of it surprises me. We both already knew exactly what Erdoo really is.
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