Credit: REUTERS/Mursel Coban/Depo Photos'
By Orhan Coskun
(Reuters) - Turkish forces (click here) swept into Syria overnight to rescue about 40 soldiers who had been surrounded for months by Islamic State militants while guarding the tomb of a revered Turkish figure.
The Syrian government described the operation as act of "flagrant aggression" and said it would hold Ankara responsible for its repercussions.
The action, which involved tanks, drones and reconnaissance planes as well as several hundred ground troops, was the first such incursion by Turkish troops into Syria since the start of the civil war there nearly four years ago. The military said no clashes took place during the operation although one soldier had been killed in an accident....
The Turkish military went unchallenged by either Daesh or the Syrian military....A Turkish security source said the operation was conducted via the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani with the support of local Kurdish authorities. Kurdish forces, backed by U.S.-led air strikes, drove Islamic State from Kobani last month....
...Syria accuses Turkey of supporting insurgent groups that have seized control of wide areas of northern and eastern Syria, including Islamic State....
The insurgent groups are Kurds. Turkey has no support for Daesh.
...Islamic State and other Islamist groups, whose strict Salafi interpretation of Islam deems the veneration of tombs to be idolatrous, have destroyed several tombs and mosques in Syria....
The truth of the situation is that the Syrian forces have been unable to defend the sovereign borders of Syria. The Kurds have been successful in defending land in northeast Syria where they have lived for some time now. They have lived there under the No Fly Zone.
This is what a Peshmerga Kurd looks like.
By Scott Bleiwis
...To say the least, (click here) the government of Turkey has long had a contentious relationship with the country’s Kurdish population. Turkey has barred its Kurds from entering Syria to join the fight against the Islamic State. But it fully supports Kurdish soldiers from Iraq, and is allowing them to cross the Turkish border into Syria to defend the border town of Kobane. Explaining this divergent attitude towards Kurds sheds light on the delicate cultural and political relationships is this increasingly volatile region. Kurds make up about 15–20 percent of the Turkish population, and were in conflict with the government for decades. Clashes with the semi-political, semi-militant group Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) resulted in 40,000 fatalities. Despite an uneasy truce reached in 2013 PKK is still considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, and the U.S. for that matter. As I wrote about in August, PKK has grown into a key player in pushing back IS advances in Iraq while its leader remains imprisoned in Turkey....
The challenge to the alliance is to protect the Kurds during any battles for their land. But, the Kurds have been in that region for decades. Syria can complain the Kurds are insurgents, but, the Kurds defend people in Syria that the Syrian military never has defended.
