A car
bomb exploded [1] in northern Syria killing 13 and wounding 20. The blast
on Saturday ripped through a crowded market in Tal Abyad, a town recently
occupied by Turkish-backed militant proxies. The Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said the blast targeted pro-Turkey fighters and civilians were also
among the dead.
Even though the Turkish Defense Ministry promptly laid the
finger of blame on Turkey’s arch-foe, the Kurdish YPG militia, without
conducting an investigation, car bombing as a tactic for causing widespread
fear is generally employed by jihadist groups and not by the Kurds.
It’s important to note in the news coverage about the
killing of al-Baghdadi that although the mainstream media had been trumpeting
for the last several years that the Islamic State’s fugitive chief had been hiding
somewhere on the Iraq-Syria border in the east, he was found hiding in the
northwestern Idlib governorate, under the control of Turkey’s militant proxies
and al-Nusra Front, and was killed while trying to flee to Turkey in Barisha
village five kilometers from the border.
The morning after the night raid, the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights reported
[2] on Sunday, October 27, that a squadron of eight helicopters accompanied by
warplanes belonging to the international coalition had attacked positions of
Hurras al-Din, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, in Idlib province where the
Islamic State chief was believed to be hiding.
According to “official
version” [3] of Washington’s story regarding the killing of al-Baghdadi,
the choppers took off from an American airbase in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi
Kurdistan, flew hundreds of miles over the enemy territory in the airspace
controlled by the Syrian and Russian air forces, killed the self-proclaimed
“caliph” of the Islamic State in a Hollywood-style special-ops raid, and took
the same route back to Erbil along with the dead body of the “caliph” and his
belongings.
Although Washington has conducted several airstrikes in
Syria’s Idlib in the past, those were carried out by fixed-wing aircraft that
fly at high altitudes, and the aircraft took off from American airbases in
Turkey, which is just across the border from Syria’s northwestern Idlib
province. Why would Washington take the risk of flying its troops at low
altitudes in helicopters over the hostile territory controlled by myriads of
Syria’s heavily armed militant outfits?
In fact, several Turkish journalists, including Rajip Soylu,
the Turkey correspondent for the Middle East Eye, tweeted
[4] on the night of the special-ops raid that the choppers took off from the
American airbase in Turkey’s Incirlik. As for al-Baghdadi, who was
"hiding" with the blessing of Turkey, it now appears that he was the
bargaining chip in the negotiations between Trump and Erdogan, and the quid for
the US president's agreeing to pull out of Syria was the pro quo that Erdogan
would hand Baghdadi to him on a silver platter.
After the betrayal of its erstwhile allies, the Islamic
jihadists, by the Erdogan administration, a tidal wave of terrorism in Turkey
was expected, and its first installment has apparently been released in the
form of a car bombing in Tal Abyad in northern Syria occupied by Turkish-backed
militant proxies.
The reason why the Trump administration is bending over
backwards to appease Ankara is that Turkish President Erdogan has been drifting
away from Washington’s orbit into Russia’s sphere of influence. Even though the
Kurds too served the imperialist masters loyally for the last five years of
Syria’s proxy war, the choice boiled down to choosing between the Kurds and
Turkey, and Washington understandably chose its NATO ally.
Turkey, which has the second largest army in NATO, has been
cooperating with Russia in Syria against Washington’s interests for the last
several years and has also placed an order for the Russian-made S-400 missile
system, whose first installment has already been delivered.
In order to understand the significance of relationship
between Washington and Ankara, it’s worth noting that the United States has
been conducting airstrikes against targets in Syria from the Incirlik airbase
and around fifty American B-61 hydrogen bombs have also been deployed there,
whose safety became a matter of real concern during the foiled July 2016 coup
plot against the Erdogan administration; when the commander of the Incirlik
airbase, General Bekir Ercan Van, along with nine other officers were arrested
for supporting the coup; movement in and out of the base was denied, power
supply was cut off and the security threat level was raised to the highest
state of alert, according to a report
[5] by Eric Schlosser for the New Yorker.
Perceptive readers who have been keenly watching Erdogan’s
behavior since the foiled July 2016 coup plot against the Erdogan
administration must have noticed that Erdogan has committed quite a few
reckless and impulsive acts during the last few years.
Firstly, the Turkish air force shot down a Russian Sukhoi
Su-24 fighter jet on the border between Syria and Turkey on 24 November 2015
that brought the Turkish and Russian armed forces to the brink of a full-scale
confrontation in Syria.
Secondly, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov,
was assassinated at an art exhibition in Ankara on the evening of 19 December
2016 by an off-duty Turkish police officer, Mevlut Mert Altintas, who was
suspected of being an Islamic fundamentalist.
Thirdly, the Turkish military mounted the seven-month
Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria, immediately after the attempted
coup plot, from August 2016 to March 2017 that brought the Turkish military and
its Syrian militant proxies head-to-head with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic
Forces and their American backers.
Fourthly, Ankara invaded Idlib in northwestern Syria in
October 2017 on the pretext of enforcing a de-escalation zone between the
Syrian militants and the Syrian government, despite official protest from
Damascus that the Turkish armed forces were in violation of Syria’s sovereignty
and territorial integrity.
Fifthly, Turkey mounted Operation Olive Branch in the
Kurdish-held enclave Afrin in northwestern Syria from January to March 2018.
And lastly, the Turkish armed forces and their Syrian
jihadist proxies invaded and occupied 120 kilometers stretch of Syrian
territory between the northern towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn on October 9,
even before the American forces had a chance to fully withdraw from their
military bases in northern Syria, as soon as an understanding between Trump and
Erdogan was reached in a telephonic conversation on October 6.
To avoid confrontation between myriads of local militant
groups and their regional and international backers, Russia once again
displayed the stroke of a genius by playing the role of a peace-maker in Syria,
and concluded an agreement with Turkey in a Putin-Erdogan meeting in Sochi,
Russia, on October 22 to enforce a “safe zone” in northern Syria.
According to the terms of the agreement, Turkish forces
would have exclusive control over 120 kilometers stretch between Tal Abyad and
Ras al-Ayn to the depth of 32 kilometers in northern Syria. To the west and
east of the aforementioned area of the Turkish Operation Peace Spring, Turkish
troops and Russian military police would conduct joint patrols to the depth of
10 kilometers in the Syrian territory, and the remaining 20 kilometers “safe
zone” would be under the control of Syrian government which would ensure that
the Kurdish forces and weapons are evacuated from Manbij, Kobani and Tal Rifat
to the west and the Kurdish areas to the east, excluding the city of Qamishli.
Footnotes:
[1] Car bomb explodes in Syrian town captured by Turkey from
Kurds:
[2] Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed in US
raid:
[3] Official story of the night raid killing al-Baghdadi:
[4] Trump Confirms ISIS Leader Al-Baghdadi Killed In US Raid:
[5] The H Bombs in Turkey by Eric Schlosser:
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