Pentagon: 'This is Turkey and Russia. This Is Their Incident. Our Focus Is On ISIL.'

[bemildred]

Pentagon officials want Turkey and Russia to settle their fight over air space. U.S. wants to focus on its attacks against the Islamic State.

"This is Turkey and Russia. This is their incident our focus is on ISIL," Col. Steve Warren told reporters Tuesday during a Pentagon briefing.

The response comes just after the Turks took down a Russian fighter plane along the Turkish-Syrian border after the Russian plane was repeatedly warned it was encroaching on Turkish airspace.

The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday that the Turkish authorities sent 10 warnings to the Russian plane before it shot it down.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/pentagon-wants-russia-and-turkey-to-settle-differences-on-air-space

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1. Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet was a confrontation waiting to happen

THE SHOOTING down by Turkey of a Russian Su-24 fighter-bomber on Tuesday morning—the first time a NATO member has admitted bringing down a Russian warplane since the end of the cold war—was in many ways a confrontation waiting to happen. Syria has become a messy battleground with outside powers supporting different proxy factions and, increasinsly, intervening directly in the country’s civil war. Russian, American and French air forces have all bombed targets in Syria with worryingly little co-ordination.

Turkey, in particular, has repeatedly cautioned Russia to keep its planes on the Syrian side of the border, after an intrusion by a Russian jet in October. While Russia is supporting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey has made little secret of wanting to see him gone and of supporting Sunni rebel groups.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21679092-turkish-frustration-russian-intervention-has-smouldered-months-all-it-needed-was

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2. New World Order? By intervening in Syria, Vladimir Putin has made Russia indispensible

By intervening in Syria, President Vladimir Putin has broken Russia's relative isolation and is making it the "indispensable nation" in conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and with Islamic State while the United States balks at deeper involvement. But in this geopolitical poker game, it's not clear he will be able to quit while he's winning, especially when events can take unexpected turns such as the shooting down of a Russian jet by Turkey's air force on Tuesday.

Russia's air strikes, cruise missiles and trainers on the ground have tilted the balance of forces in Syria back towards President Bashar al-Assad's army, forcing a U.S.-backed coalition waging an air war against Islamic State onto the back foot. Now Putin has seized on this month's Islamist attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people, and the downing of a Russian airliner in Egypt, which was claimed by IS and killed all 224 people on board, to shift his focus and offer France an alliance against the militant group, also known as ISIS.

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-new-world-order-by-intervening-in-syria-vladimir-putin-has-made-russia-indispensible-2148676

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3. ISIS Recruitment Thrives in Brutal Prisons Run By U.S.-Backed Egypt

FOR NEARLY TWO YEARS, Mohamed Soltan, a 26-year-old citizen of both Egypt and America, endured torture, deprivation, and cruelty while locked in the prisons of Egyptian military dictator Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. In 2013, he was among thousands arrested in a country-wide crackdown on civil society activists, journalists, and members of the deposed government following Sisi’s coup and massacre of protestors in Cairo’s Raba’a Adawiya Square.

Soltan was released this year after a 400-day hunger strike in which he lost over 130 pounds and nearly died, saved only by the intervention of the American government on his behalf. Despite bending to pressure in his case, the Egyptian regime continues to imprison as many as 41,000 other political prisoners, recent Human Rights Watch estimates suggest. And Soltan worries that extremism is incubating in those facilities, where he witnessed and experienced torture. Today, he says that, through its oppressive practices, the Sisi government is effectively acting as a “recruiting agent” for extremist groups like the Islamic State.

“The regime is fostering an environment in their prisons that makes them a fertile ground for that kind of ideology to flourish,” Soltan says. “The brutality and the overwhelming loss of hope is creating a situation which fits [the Islamic State’s] narrative, and they’re using it to try and recruit people and spread their message.”

Despite Soltan’s ordeal, some of his own relatives support Sisi. Like many families in Egypt today, they are starkly divided between support for Sisi’s military regime and for the deposed government of Mohamed Morsi. Soltan’s father, Salah, who was also taken into custody, was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and served in Morsi’s government, although Soltan himself remained aloof from the party. “I was against the policies of Morsi, but I would’ve liked to have seen a referendum or early elections instead of a coup,” Soltan says.

https://theintercept.com/2015/11/24/isis-recruitment-thrives-in-brutal-prisons-run-by-u-s-backed-egypt/

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4. Coalition: Islamic State truck bombs losing effectiveness in Iraq

WASHINGTON – Iraqi Security Forces have nearly neutralized the Islamic State’s ability to launch attacks with truck bombs, once a favorite technique of the militant group, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said Tuesday.

Recent data shows only 5 percent of Islamic State vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, or VBIEDs, have been effective against Iraqi forces in recent fighting to retake Ramadi from the militant group, said Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition.

In the past, Warren said the truck bombs had been a highly reliable way for the militants to attack Iraqi positions, effectively causing some level of havoc nearly 99 percent of the time they were deployed.

“The enemy (would) take a vehicle, they’ll bolt on extra pieces of metal around it, they’ll stuff it full of explosives, and they’ll try to drive it into the flank of ISF formation to create confusion and panic and mayhem,” Warren told reporters at the Pentagon in a teleconference. “Early on it was working. That’s exactly what was happening, but the Iraqi Security Forces have adapted.”

http://www.stripes.com/news/coalition-islamic-state-truck-bombs-losing-effectiveness-in-iraq-1.380415

[Jefferson23]

7. Aside from all the general ugliness of war..that presents as a horrific visual...damn. n/t

[bemildred]

11. Crude. nt

[bemildred]

5. Footage Reveals Who Shot Down Russian Rescue Helicopter at Syrian Border – And It Looks Pretty Bad

Footage provided by the FSA purportedly shows Syrian rebels using a U.S.-made TOW missile to finish off a rescue helicopter sent to secure pilots ejected from a downed Russian Su-24 fighter jet.

While Russian fighter pilots descended by parachute from his plummeted Su-24, footage allegedly shows Syrian rebels shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and trying to kill them in the air – a violation of the Geneva conventions.

http://www.ijreview.com/2015/11/479569-disturbing-footage-of-just-who-shot-down-russian-helicopter-shot-down-at-syrian-turkish-border-trying-to-rescue-fighter-pilot/

[bemildred]

6. . nt

[Jefferson23]

12. That does look really bad..Erdogan is incredibly stupid. n/t

[Nyan]

8. 'This is Turkey and Russia. This Is Their Incident'

This is about as a cold shoulder you can give to a NATO ally. Seriously. Erdogan has crossed it. It's good that Obama's distancing himself from him, and apart from NATO's warmongering position.

[bemildred]

10. I think the matter is still in dispute.

But yeah, it's not enthusiastic, a tepid response I'd call it, and that's not a bad thing.

[Jefferson23]

9. I get the whole warning thing, but come on..Turkey is not suppose to feel threatened by Russia.

Turkey is suppose to want what we want...we'll see soon enough I guess what
they do next...sheesh.

[bemildred]

13. Different people want different things.

Erdogan wants NATO to back him up in his dispute with Putin/Iran over Assad and Syria, and to save his political ass.

The USA wants Putin to be more "flexible" about Assad, partly because of Turkey, and apparently thinks this will somehow effect that. I could go on about that, it is the same Putin will back off nitwittery we saw in Ukraine.

The jihadis want to kill various people.

The Saudis/GCC have a long-standing hard-on for Assad for several reasons, religious, political, and historical.

NATO wants to stay relevant.

The EU would like to make it all go away.

And so it goes.

[Jefferson23]

14. That's a very good summation.

Erdogan is wacked to think he can bring that to fruition and the sooner
we send him that message the better, I feel. Putin is correct about
Assad, no matter the reasons lack a benevolent factor.

Maybe NATO can be relevant one day if they stop joining our
interventions.

The Saudis, how often do all roads to trouble lead there? hmmm.

[bemildred]

20. Can Russia Afford To Fight Two Wars In Syria And Ukraine?

Russian President Vladimir Putin is already having a bad week and it’s only Tuesday. A Russian military aircraft was shot down by Turkey Tuesday, further complicating the Kremlin’s involvement in the long-running war in Syria. Closer to home, activists in Ukraine cut off electricity to 1.6 million people in Crimea Sunday plunging Russia’s newest territorial point of pride into darkness as violence again increases in Eastern Ukraine.

While Russia’s airstrikes in Syria were likely envisioned as a way for the Kremlin to come out of the cold and reengage with the West after the annexation of Crimea in March 2014, the conflict has further increased the burden on the country’s already crippled economy with predictions of a 3.7 percent GDP contraction this year. Added to the long-term support of separatists in Eastern Ukraine and the high cost of supporting the annexed peninsula of Crimea, Russia’s two conflicts – one with ground troops in Eastern Ukraine and the other with air power in Middle East – are proving unsustainable.

“I don’t think Russia can fight a two-front war in earnest,” said Anna Borshchevskaya, an expert on Russian policy in the Middle East at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank. “Russian military forces have many problems, and while they are still the strongest in the post-Soviet sphere, it’s not the level it was in the Cold War.”

#MoDprotest Combat actions against terrorists in #SYRIA will be continued

— Минобороны России (@mod_russia) November 24, 2015

http://www.ibtimes.com/can-russia-afford-fight-two-wars-syria-ukraine-2198253

They always double down.

[bemildred]

15. Putin is Accusing Turkey of Being an ISIS Ally—and He’s At Least Partly Right

The developing crisis over Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane today (Nov. 24) worsened when Syrian opposition fighters shot down a Russian rescue helicopter searching for two airmen who parachuted out of the stricken jet.

Turkish media reported that at least one and possibly both of the jet pilots are dead. If so, they may be the first western or Russian troops to die in the Syrian conflict. There was no word on the fate of some 10 crewmen said to be aboard the helicopter.

Putin called the Turkish shooting of the jet “a stab in the back by accomplices of the terrorists.” He accused Turkey of aiding the Islamic State (ISIL) by facilitating its sale of oil:

(ISIL) has big money, hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, from selling oil. In addition they are protected by the military of an entire nation. One can understand why they are acting so boldly and blatantly. Why they [can] kill people in such atrocious ways. Why they [can] commit terrorist acts across the world, including in the heart of Europe.

http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2015/11/putin-accusing-turkey-being-isis-allyand-hes-least-partly-right/123975/

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16. Is Vladimir Putin right to label Turkey ‘accomplices of terrorists’?

Since the earliest months of the Syrian war, Turkey has had more direct involvement and more at stake than any of the regional states lined up against Bashar al-Assad.

Turkish borders have been the primary thoroughfare for fighters of all kinds to enter Syria. Its military bases have been used to distribute weapons and to train rebel fighters. And its frontier towns and villages have taken in almost one million refugees.

Turkey’s international airports have also been busy. Many, if not most, of the estimated 15,000-20,000 foreign fighters to have joined Islamic State (Isis) have first flown into Istanbul or Adana, or arrived by ferry along its Mediterranean coast.

The influx has offered fertile ground to allies of Assad who, well before a Turkish jet shot down a Russian fighter on Tuesday, had enabled, or even supported Isis. Vladimir Putin’s reference to Turkey as “accomplices of terrorists” is likely to resonate even among some of Ankara’s backers.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/24/vladimir-putin-turkey-isis-terrorists-warplane-analysis

[bemildred]

17. Turkmen says his forces killed two Russian pilots

Turkmen commander Alpaslan Celik says the pilots of a Russian war plane downed in Syria were shot dead by his forces as they fell from the sky. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

http://www.reuters.com/video/2015/11/24/turkmen-says-his-forces-killed-two-russi?rpc=401&videoId=366438602&feedType=VideoRSS&feedName=TopNews&rpc=401&videoChannel=1

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18. Russia Deploys Maritime Air Defense After Jet Shot Down Over Syria

Moscow will deploy a warship off the Syrian coast near Latakia to strengthen the defense of its air base there, the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces announced on Tuesday after Turkish warplanes shot down a Russian strike aircraft.

Russian fighter jets will now accompany all of Moscow's missions against Islamic State targets in Syria, the General Staff said. Prior to Tuesday's attack, Russian bombers were conducting their missions without air cover.

Turkish warplanes shot down a Russian Su-24M bomber aircraft that Turkey said had violated its airspace. Both pilots ejected, and one was fatally shot while parachuting to the ground, the Russian Defense Ministry later confirmed.

Moscow has insisted its aircraft was not in Turkish airspace and posed no threat. The Russian Defense Ministry has suspended military contact with Turkey over the plane downing, which President Vladimir Putin called "a stab in the back."

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151124/1030691269/russia-maritime-air-defense-syria.html

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19. Pentagon hesitant to commit to no-fly zone, given challenges

WASHINGTON — Implementing a “no-fly zone” in Syria would require a large number of U.S. ground forces and would require the U.S. and coalition to define what they would be willing to do to protect the population residing there, military and civilian experts said.

For months, French President Francois Hollande and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have considered establishing a “safe zone” in northern Syria to create a region for some of the estimated 11 million civilians displaced by the country’s five-year civil war and the takeover of key cities by the Islamic State group. The surge in refugees into Europe has further complicated security challenges there.

But President Barack Obama has opposed a no-fly zone, citing it would require a large ground force to enforce and protect it, something he is unwilling to do.

“[The Islamic State] does not have planes, so the attacks are on the ground,” he said last week during a summit of wealthy nations in Antalya, Turkey. “A true safe zone requires us to set up ground operations.”

http://www.stripes.com/news/pentagon-hesitant-to-commit-to-no-fly-zone-given-challenges-1.380304

[Jefferson23]

21. noooo. n/t

[Jefferson23]

22. Syria: The world's most contested airspace

Fourteen air forces operate in the congested airspace above Syria, a factor which has given rise to regional challenges, and may possibly lead to more clashes and border violations.

Adam Evenhaim
Published: 11.24.15,


The downing of a Russian Su-24 fighter bomber by Turkish Air Force F-16's, adjacent to the Turkish Syrian border on Tuesday, provided yet another example of the increasing complexity which has emerged as a result of the sheer number of combat aircraft operating above the failing state.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4730467,00.html

[bemildred]

23. Leonid Bershidsky: Putin waging war on far too many fronts

I am seeing this idea in various places just recently.

Has Vladimir Putin finally overreached?

The Russian president is confronting several simultaneous crises. Over the weekend, Ukrainian activists blew up high-voltage transmission towers and cut off electricity supplies to Russian-held Crimea. In St. Petersburg, his home city, on Tuesday a column of 600 heavy trucks was crawling toward the city government building to protest tolls on Russian roads (a son of a close Putin friend has a financial interest in the system). And on the Turkey-Syria border, the Turkish air force downed a Russian bomber.

After annexing Crimea and fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine, stamping out domestic opposition, deploying his military to Syria, Putin hasn't responded to the latest outrages.

In Crimea, the lights largely have been out for almost three days, and Governor Sergei Aksyonov has called on the population to "prepare for the worst" — that is, a blackout that could last until the end of December. In St. Petersburg, the police gave up on stopping the trucks, and local officials agreed to meet with the drivers; and Putin's response to the downing of the Su-24 has been muted and pained rather than aggressive.

http://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-putin-russia-downed-jet-1125-20151124-story.html

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24. News Analysis: Turkish downing of Russian warplane in Syria aims to draw redlines for Moscow

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Whether Russia violated Turkey's airspace or not, Ankara has attempted, by the plane downing, to draw redlines for Moscow, analysts say.

Those redlines are the Turkmen rebels, Turkey's favorite, which the Russian air force has recently been pounding in the northern countryside of Syria's Latakia province, and its plan to impose a "safe zone" on the Syrian side of the Syrian-Turkish borders, Osama Danura, a political analyst, told Xinhua.

Syrian Turkmen are ethnic Turks who have lived in several Syrian areas since the 11th century. Their population is concentrated in the north of Syria, more specifically in the Turkmen Mountain in the northern countryside of Latakia near the Turkish borders and in other areas in several provinces. This ethnic group enjoys close ties with Turkey, due to the historical connects and the support the Turkish government has provided for them during the nearly five-year-old conflict in Syria.

Long denied freedoms related to their ethnic belongingness by the Syrian authorities, the Turkmen were quick to rise against the government when the crisis began in Syria in 2011.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-11/25/c_134851288.htm

[bemildred]

25. Turkey Shoots Down Russian Warplane (And Any Hope of Safe Zones)

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Ironically, Turkey may have also shot itself in the foot by killing any hope of a no-fly/safe zone in Syria – a policy it had long been advocating but one which was of extremely questionable viability. Turkey’s plan had sought to reinforce friendly rebel groups in northern Syria to the point where they would be able to completely force the Islamic State out of a swath of Aleppo province and then establish a no-fly zone over that area. It had struggled to sell this idea to its NATO allies who raised a number of questions and concerns over the affiliations of the Turkish-backed rebel groups and their ability to effectively secure these spaces on the ground. The United States and its partners in the coalition against ISIS also had been extremely wary of any plans which could place them in direct confrontation with Russia and their strategic objectives in Syria.

Indeed, Tuesday’s incident underscored the fact that the presence of Russian troops in Syria at the behest of the Assad regime has fundamentally altered the nature of the conflict. If any no-fly zone were to be implemented, it would need to be in coordination with Vladimir Putin, who has scant incentive to approve such a plan. Establishing a no-fly zone would not only jeopardize the gains the Assad regime forces have made with the backing of Russian airpower, but it could also hamper Putin’s efforts to strike back at the Islamic State in retaliation for its bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt last month.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/turkey-shoots-down-russian-war-plane-any-hope-safe-zones-14434