Headlines:
- US Launches First Strikes against ISIL from Incirlik
- US May Investigate Claims of Civilian Deaths in Coalition Airstrikes
- Turkey Building Concrete Wall on its Syrian Border
US Launches First Strikes against ISIL from Incirlik
U.S. warplanes have carried out their first air strikes on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets in Syria after taking off from the key Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, kicking off a key new phase in the campaign against the jihadists.
Pentagon spokeswoman Cmdr. Elissa Smith said the U.S. began flying manned counter-ISIL missions from Incirlik on Aug. 12.
Later, both Turkish military sources speaking to Turkish media and the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that U.S. jets flying from Incirlik had hit ISIL targets in Syria for the first time.
U.S. official Brett McGurk talks in Ankara came exactly as the U.S. launched its first F-16 fighter missions from Turkey against ISIL targets in Syria. McGurk travelled to Turkey following his meeting with Iraqi Kurdistan’s leader, Masoud Barzani, in Arbil.
Joint anti-ISIL operations with the participation of Turkey will increase in the coming days, as Ankara is waiting for requests by Washington to maintain full-fledged coordination with the expected aircraft, the official told the Hurriyet Daily News. [Source: Hurriyet Daily]
This is the beginning of a new treachery plot. Turkish government is launching a new cooperation supposed to fight against ISIL. But in fact this collaboration is established to discourage large masses supporting the real Khilafah Rashidah upon the method of the Prophethood. Despite all efforts they will never succeed.
US May Investigate Claims of Civilian Deaths in Coalition Airstrikes
U.S. military officials are assessing whether to open an investigation into a coalition airstrike earlier this week in northern Syria that a monitoring group and locals claim killed at least eight civilians including children, among them five sisters.
The airstrike on Tuesday on the northern Syrian village of Atme appeared to have been targeting a weapons depot belonging to the Jaish al-Sunna militia, which is part of a rebel alliance that includes al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, say local activists.
The U.S. has mounted several attacks on al-Nusra in the past, specifically targeting al-Qaida veterans.
Islamist rebel commanders who coordinate with al-Nusra suggested the coalition airstrike may have been a warning to them to discontinue an assault on the nearby Kurdish border town of Afrin in neighboring Aleppo province. Last week, al Nusra fighters and allies stormed a district of the town and engaged in fierce firefights with Kurdish defenders, who fear al-Nusra may soon launch suicide bombings on the town.
At first U.S. officials denied having launched an airstrike on the village just north of Idlib where a refugee camp housing more than 20,000 refugees is also located. But later they confirmed the raid, saying there had been confusion over the spelling of the village’s name, which in English can also be rendered as “Atmeh,” “Atma,” or “Atima.”
Later, in a statement, U.S. Central Command said: “We are aware of the reports surrounding Atmeh and are looking into them. We take all reports of non-combatant casualties seriously and look into each one received or reported. We apply very rigorous standards in our targeting process to avoid or minimize civilian casualties in the first place—to include analysis of available intelligence to selection of the appropriate weapons to meet mission requirements with the goal to minimize the risk of collateral damage and, in particular, potential harm to non-combatants.”
At least 18 people were killed in the airstrike; ten were militiamen, claim activists. “Eight were civilians, including five children and two women,” said Rami Abdul Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group that relies on political activists inside Syria for its information. Residential buildings near the target were also struck. “The strikes hit the Jaish al-Sunna weapons depot, which was also used to manufacture shells and rockets. There was a huge explosion after the strikes,” he said.
The five children reportedly killed in the attack were sisters aged between 4 and 10 years and activists posted their photographs online. Their mother survived the attack but was seriously injured.
Syrian rebel commanders claimed Tuesday’s sortie was flown by U.S. warplanes that took off from the NATO base at the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey. Turkish authorities have only recently allowed U.S. fighters, tasked with bombing missions inside Syria, to fly from the base and the first detachment of F-16s arrived last Sunday.
The Turkish foreign ministry denied the warplanes for the airstrike on Atme came from Incirlik.
The US is currently conducting investigations into two cases of civilian deaths caused allegedly by coalition airstrikes targeted on Islamic militants. So far Central Command has acknowledged blame for two civilian deaths. Earlier this month, a group of independent journalists issued a report claiming that U.S-led airstrikes targeting the Islamic State group likely killed at least 459 civilians over the past year. The Violations Documentation Center, a Syrian rights group, says it has been able to document 164 civilian casualties due to coalition airstrikes since September.
The two civilian deaths so far acknowledged as having been caused by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes came in November 2014 near the northern Syrian town of Harim, also in Idlib province. The strike was targeting a meeting of al-Qaida veterans, members of what the Pentagon has dubbed the Khorasan Group. U.S. officials say they regret civilian deaths and have canceled a large number of planned airstrikes because of fears of civilian casualties.
Earlier this month, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said the Department of Defense takes “all allegations of civilian casualties seriously, and we apply very rigorous standards in our targeting process to avoid or to minimize civilian casualties in the first place.”
“We take great care — from analysis of available intelligence to selection of the appropriate weapon to meet mission requirements, — in order to minimize the risk of collateral damage, particularly any potential harm to non-combatants,” he added. [Source: VOA]
It is still not clear if those planes that struck Atma took off from Incirlik but it is very clear that this dirty war will not end soon. It will continue until a pro-American government is established in Syria or the expected Khilafah Rashidah is built to send American troops away and free Muslim lands.
Turkey Building Concrete Wall on its Syrian Border
Turkish authorities are putting up a concrete wall along the country’s border with Syria after the recent wave of terrorist attacks hitting the southern border regions.
The construction in Reyhanli district of Hatay province comes as part of the tightened security measures along the border following a series of terrorist attacks starting with Suruc bombing on July 20, with at least 33 security force members, 12 civilians killed since.
Hatay Governorate and the 2nd Border Regimental Command cooperate in erecting a three-meter-high concrete wall in Reyhanli’s Bukulmez neighborhood, just across Atme town in Syria.
According to Anadolu Agency correspondent on the field, two-meter wide concrete blocks weighing 7 tons each are being aligned on the border using a crane.
The wall, which will stretch eight kilometers, is said to be completed soon. [Source: Anadolu Agency]
Instead of removing artificial borders between Muslim lands, Turkish government is building a long “shame wall” between Turkey and Syria. And this wall is taking place near Atme instead of ISIL intensive zones.