...a plan to establish a demilitarized zone in northern Syria... was worked out Monday in a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held in Sochi, Russia. Russia’s defense minister said that under the agreement, Syria would refrain from launching an offensive on Idlib Province, the last major rebel stronghold.
In case you wondered why Syria shot down that plane full of Russians, and why Russia tried to bluster and blame Israel.
“An estimated 3 million civilians and 30,000 opposition fighters are essentially trapped in Idlib province, the last significant piece of territory not under control of Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s forces.”
They are not including the ISIS, Nusra and al Sham forces who invaded Efrin (Afrin). I do not believe Assad intends to let Turkey keep that one and not Idlib either. Turkey will be moving the remaining terrorists in Idlib to Efrin. This will be a serious mistake. The Kurds will be freed up when the last of ISIS is extinguished on the Eastern boarder of Syria. That will be soon.
Kurds are still repaying the brutality of Erdogan’s Terrorists. Every week they kill 5-20 of them. And the Terrorists are still committing atrocities against the remaining non-jihadi citizens of Efrin.
It will at some point be a bloody mess. And if Russia forces Turkey to stay out of Syria with their air force, the jihadi’s will be killed.
Jamie McIntyre joined the Washington Examiner in 2016 as senior writer covering defense and national security. His newsletter, “Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense” goes out each weekday morning to thousands of national security professional and opinion leaders. An internationally known journalist with more than 40 years of experience, he served as CNN’s military affairs and senior Pentagon correspondent from 1992-2008 and Al Jazeera America’s national security correspondent from 2014-2016. McIntyre began his career in radio in 1976 at WTOP, the all-news station in Washington, and was a newscaster for NPR’s "All Things Considered" from 2011-2014. He holds a bachelor's degree in broadcasting from the University of Florida and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland, where he also serves as an adjunct instructor.