Good day and thanx for stopping by……
Today’s briefing will be a short one….the coalition is focused on Kobane and not much else seems to matter to the media…….
Item 1–Kurds en route to Kobane via Turkey…….
Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has sent 150 Peshmerga paramilitary fighters into Turkey, to be taken across the country’s southern border into the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani (Ayn al-Arab in Arabic).
There are considerable doubts over whether or not 150 additional troops, even armed with artillery as they reportedly are, will really be a game-changer, with estimates of thousands of fighters on either side of the battle.
Item 2–Turkey sets demands for the war in Syria……..
Turkey has named its price for co-operation in the West’s fight to end the Islamic State’s stranglehold on the Syrian border town of Kobane, saying the fight must be led by the Free Syrian Army rather than Kurdish “terrorists”
The country’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said that any military operation to free Kobane must involve arming regular Syrian rebel groups rather than the Kurdish militants who have so far defended the town. Turkey has refused to help the Kurdish fighters so far, claiming that many of them belong to the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a separatist insurgency against the Turkish state.
“Equip and train the Free Syrian Army so that if the Islamic State leaves, PKK terrorists should not come,” Mr Davutoglu said, aiming his comments at the US.
Eventually the Us will stop being dictated to about the direction of the coalition….
Item 3–The economy of Syria is badly damaged by airstrikes…….
The US war on ISIS in Syria, when it hasn’t centered on the offensive near Kobani, has mostly been a war on oil. Airstrikes have pounded oil wells and refineries across ISIS territory, which is also the primary oil-producing part of Syria.
It’s being couched as an effort to cut off ISIS funding, but the oil wells and other infrastructure being targeted are actually privately owned, and the attacks are badly damaging the civilian economy across Syria.
After at least 3 years of a civil war…how much civilian economy could be left to destroy?
That concludes today’s briefing….the briefings may be shorter for now…..as the drudgery of the air war continues there may not be much to report.
Thanx for your time and attention.
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