Following a devastating Islamic State (ISIS) linked attack on a Turkish town near the Syrian border, the Erdogan government has launched a campaign primarily targeting the Kurdish fighters who are ISIS’s most effective opponents, essentially terminating the peace process with Turkey’s Kurds.
Turkey said on Monday it would allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to reinforce fellow Kurds in the Syrian town of Kobani on Turkey\’s border, and the United States air-dropped arms to help the Kurds there resist an Islamic State assault.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday denounced as \”villainous\” the leaking of a recording of top security officials discussing possible military action in Syria to the video-sharing site YouTube.
Turkey\’s prime minister will push President Barack Obama for more assertive action on Syria during a visit to Washington this week, days after car bombs tore through a Turkish border town in the deadliest spillover of violence yet.
Gazing out at the rubble, which was all that remained of a four story apartment complex in the city of Azaz just south of the Turkish border, 41 year old bricklayer Khalid Jaza’iri did not see much to be optimistic about.
Syrian President Bashar Assad is likely to run for re-election next year and win, with Syria remaining in military and political deadlock until then, said the deputy leader of Lebanon\’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.
A far-leftist suicide bomber killed a Turkish security guard at the U.S. embassy in Ankara on Friday, officials said, blowing open an entrance and sending debris flying through the air.
At least 65 people were found shot dead with their hands bound in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday in a \”new massacre\” in the near two-year revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.
NATO said on Tuesday it had drawn up plans to defend Turkey if necessary against any further spillover of violence from Syria\’s border areas where rebels and government forces are fighting for control.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Monday the \”worst-case scenarios\” were now playing out in Syria and Turkey would do everything necessary to protect itself, as its army fired back for a sixth day after a shell from Syria flew over the border.
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