ISIL Archives

Turkey’s Fight Against ISIL is Myth as Erdogan Continues War Against Kurds

October 12, 2015 By administrator

Turkey’s participation in the war against the Islamic State is just a myth as there is no confirmation of it, noted a Pakistani scholar Salman Rafi.

In fact, Erdogan is fighting a war against the Kurds, who have shown their power in the last elections in Turkey and in the fight against ISIL militants.

With pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) winning 80 parliamentary seats, Erdogan was left with no option but to negotiate with other parties to form a coalition government.

So the combined threat of Kurdish political and military ascendance is what basically pushed Erdogan to launch a military operation against them. “It was, therefore, not so much Turkey’s covert support for the ISIL that might have prompted the former to wage war against Kurds; it was rather the question of pre-empting the making of an independent Kurdish state on the borders of Turkey,” Salman Rafi wrote for the journal New Eastern Outlook.
Kurdish villages along the Syrian-Turkish border have repeatedly found themselves in the midst of the confrontation between the Turkish military and the Kurdistan Workers Party, but now they have become the target of the Turkish government.
Erdogan has decided that the destruction of the Kurds is the only way to prevent the creation of an independent Kurdistan, but the violence only complicates the already difficult political situation in the country.
ISIL is, therefore, not Turkey’s main target. In fact, given the history of Turkey-Kurd conflict, there is a possibility that Turkey might prefer ISIL to an independent Syrian Kurdish state on its border, anxious that it could further motivate Turkish Kurds to reignite their campaign for Kurdish sovereignty on Turkish territory.
Under such circumstances the author noted that Kurds are quickly adapting to the new realities — around most Kurdish villages in Turkey there are several rows of trenches and ditches, and the men in them are on the lookout with weapons at all times.

Source: sputniknews.com

Iraq Joint Operation Center Confirms ISIL Leader “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi” Injured in Airstrike

October 11, 2015 By administrator

The Baghdad Information Center confirmed that the leader of ISIL jihadist group has been injured in an airstrike in Iraq.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The leader of the Islamic State (ISIL) jihadist group has been injured in an airstrike in Iraq, the Baghdad Information Center confirmed.
“Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was injured in the bombing that targeted his motorcade,” the center said in a statement on Sunday.
It added that two terrorist leading figures – Abu Omar Kubaisi and Abu Saad Karbouli – were also injured in the attack.
Local media reported earlier Baghdadi’s fate remained unknown after Iraqi Air Forces attacked an ISIL convoy in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.

Russian Jets Carry Out Record 67 Sorties past 24 hours Against ISIL Targets in Syria

October 9, 2015 By administrator

Russian jets have carried out 67 sorties against the Islamic State targets in Syria in past 24 hours, Russian Air Force chief Lieutenant General Igor Makushev told journalists.
Attack aircraft from the Russian air group deployed in Syria carried out record 67 combat missions in the past 24 hours hitting a total of 60 Islamic State targets, the Russian General Staff said Friday.
“In the past 24 hours, the Russian combat aircraft carried out 67 missions. The Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-24SM planes destroyed 60 terrorist targets,” Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Igor Makushev told reporters in Moscow.
The intensity and effectiveness of airstrikes by Russian air force against the Islamic State targets significantly increased in the past 24 hours, inflicting heavy casualties among terrorists.

According to Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff, Lt. Gen. Igor Makushev, the Russian Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-25SM strike aircraft destroyed six command and communication posts, six ammunition and fuel depots, 17 training camps, three underground bunkers, 16 fortified positions, a vehicle repairs facility, 17 vehicles and two multiple-launch rocket systems.

Russia’s Sukhoi Su-25, Su-24M and Su-34 attack aircraft, with the support of Su-30 jets, commenced precision airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria on September 30, following a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, since the beginning of the air campaign Russian air forces have carried out about 140 strikes against terrorist positions, including command centers, training camps and ammunition depots. Russian warships in the Caspian Sea fired 26 cruise missiles on ISIL targets on Wednesday.

Source: sputniknews.com

‘Relentless’ Russian Airstrikes Caught Terrified ISIL Off Guard – Source

October 6, 2015 By administrator

A recent series of airstrikes launched by Russian air forces against the Islamic State in Syria caused the ISIL militants to evacuate their checkpoints in Raqqa and to cancel all public events there.
A source in the Islamic State’s so-called ‘capital’ told Sputnik on condition of anonymity that Russian airstrikes have caused widespread panic among the Islamist militants who apparently were not expecting such a relentless assault.
“They thought that Russian warplanes would act like their American counterparts – that they would launch some sporadic surgical strikes at dusk and then they would fly away,” the source said. “Instead, Russian military aircraft constantly bombard ISIS positions in the vicinity of Raqqa, and these massed strikes have completely paralyzed the Islamist group’s activities. The Russian air operation proved to be extremely effective.”
The source added that Russian military aircraft engage any ISIL forces they encounter, and that the militants were forced to evacuate the checkpoints they previously maintained in and around Raqqa.
“The militants now have to wear burqas to conceal their weapons and ISIL command also ordered them not to move in large formations,” the source added.
The Islamic State leadership also cancelled collective prayers that were previously held by the terrorist group members on the city streets. According to the source, weddings and public punishments are also no longer held in the city’s squares.
“Previously, when one of the city residents was caught stealing or smoking or committing some other transgression, he or she was brought to the central square where the Sharia court was held to be publically punished. Now these activities were are no longer conducted due to safety concerns,” source said.

Source: sputniknews.com

Syria: Watch Russian jets annihilating Daesh “Islamic State” targets in Syria VIDEO’S

October 4, 2015 By administrator

Over the last 24 hours, Russia’s fighter jets have launched 10 attacks on Daesh Takfiri terrorist positions in Syria, the country’s Defense Ministry says.

A Sunday report by the ministry announced that a number of arms depots along with a bomb workshop, and a Takfiri training center were among the targets. Watch some of the combat cam footage below.

Jets target a Takfiri training camp in the northwestern Idlib province:

An arms and munitions depot is destroyed with precision bombs in Idlib’s Jisr al-Shughur:

Russia Air Force Destroys ISIL Command Center, Underground Depot Near Raqqa

October 3, 2015 By administrator

The Russian Air Force has destroyed an ISIL command center and underground depot with explosives near the Syrian city of Raqqa, Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a statement on Saturday.
“Accurate delivery of a concrete-piercing bomb BETAB-500 launched from a Su-34 aircraft near Raqqa destroyed a hardened command centre of one of the illegal armed groups as well as an underground bunker with explosives and ammunition depot,” Igor Konashenkov said.
“Russian air grouping continues making precise attacks at the ‪‎ISIL‬ terrorists from the Hmeymim airbase. Twenty-four hours a day ‪‎UAV‬s are monitoring the situation in the ISIL activity areas. All the detected targets are effectively engaged day and night in any weather conditions,” Igor Konashenkov said. “As a result of 6 sorties from the Hmeymim airbase in the evening and at night, pinpoint strikes hit 3 facilities of terrorists’ infrastructure.”

Su-34 and Su-24M aircraft of the Russian air grouping in Syria performed over 20 sorties attacking 9 objects of ISIL terrorists.

“At the Jisr al-Shughur district (Idlib), tactical bombers Su-24M eliminated storage bases for military hardware used by militants for preparation of terrorist attacks. Moreover, an airstrike was made against a base of militants at the same district. It completely destroyed depots with ammunition and equipment situated at the base,” he added.
Fortifications, ammunitions depots, seven units of the military equipment near Syria’s Maarrat al-Numan were also destroyed by the Russian Air Force, Igor Konashenkov added.
“Su-34 tactical bomber engaged an ISIL base near Maarrat Al-Nuuman (Idlib) with a guided air bomb KAB-500 during a pinpoint strike. According to the objective monitoring data, terrorist fortifications, ammunition and POL depots as well as 7 vehicles were destroyed.”
On Wednesday, Russia commenced precision airstrikes on ISIL targets in Syria upon Syrian President Bashar Assad’s request. The Russian Defense Ministry said that during the first two days of the operation the country’s aircraft hit over 10 targets, among them an explosives factory, an arms depot and an ISIL coordination center.

Source: sputniknews.com

100 ISIL militants reportedly enter Turkey for an offensive

September 30, 2015 By administrator

(ISIL) marching in Raqqa, Syria. (Photo:AP)

Turkey recently changing its stance regarding the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), adopting more aggressive policies, has led the ISIL leadership to consider an offensive against Turkey, a news agency has reported, claiming that 100 ISIL militants have already entered the country to offer training to sleeper cells.

In a plan approved by ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, 100 militants were assigned to give military training to ISIL members and sympathizers in Turkey, the news agency Sputnik Türkiye reported on Tuesday.

According to the agency’s “reliable sources in Syria,” ISIL will use members in Turkey to carry out attacks in various cities if current policies are maintained by Turkey, which only two months ago took an offensive stance against the group by participating in air strikes with an international coalition, authorizing it to use important airbases.

The transfer of militants through the border provinces of Kilis and Gaziantep was executed with “great secrecy,” the report stated, adding that nine ISIL emirs (commanders) accompanied the militants as the terrorist group’s structure requires one emir for every 12 militants.

After crossing Turkey’s border from Syria in groups, 100 militants scattered to Adana, Adıyaman, Ankara, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, İstanbul, İzmir, Kilis, Konya and Şanlıurfa. The militants were instructed to avoid unnecessary communication by phone. In addition to arms training, ISIL members and sympathizers in Turkey will also be taught to make bombs.

Sputnik Türkiye also claimed the group traveled with military equipment, including Kalashnikov rifles, Bixi machine guns, pistols with silencers, binoculars, rocket launchers, grenades, mines and explosives. The report also states that some members bought weapons from smugglers in Kilis.

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) administration had long been criticized for allegedly turning a blind eye to the passage of foreign fighters, many coming from European countries, to war-torn Syria with the intention of joining ISIL. Ignoring warnings from many experts that a lack of border security might one day cause Turkey trouble, the AK Party government long maintained its policy of neglecting necessary precautions at its borders.

When Turkey was shocked by a bomb attack in the southeastern border town of Suruç on July 20, the AK Party changed its stance regarding ISIL, which was held responsible for the attack that killed 34 civilians on their way to reconstruct a city that had been ravaged by the terrorist group.

Within a week after the Suruç bombing, Turkey agreed to grant the US expanded access to the İncirlik Air Base, located in the southeastern province of Adana, close to Syria. By late August, Turkey had also joined air strikes on important ISIL targets, conducted by a US-led coalition, in which it had previously declined to participate.

Source: Zaman

Turkish Agents Likely Provide Chemical Weapons to ISIL

September 5, 2015 By administrator

Experts claimed that Turkish intelligence agents and scientific pundits might have been embroiled in buying or producing chemical weapons that ISIL used to attack Syria and Iraq.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Turkish intelligence agents and scientific experts might have been involved in helping the ISIL to acquire or produce chemical weapons recently used in attacks in Syria and Iraq, experts told Sputnik.
US authorities have seen reports that the ISIL used a chemical “blistering agent” during clashes in Iraq and Syria earlier this week, and claim they are conducting a “serious” investigation into the incidents.
The United States has consistently blamed Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government for using chemical weapons while downplaying suggestions that opposition forces, including the ISIL, might be culpable.

Veteran’s Today (VT) Senior Editor and security consultant Gordon Duff told Sputnik on Friday that Turkish agents have not only distributed chemical weapons to the ISIL, but have helped the militants manufacture them.

Lethal chemical substances were initially being produced within Turkey itself, Duff said, before they moved operations across the border into Raqqah, Syria, where the ISIL is reportedly headquartered.

“Mustard gas and chlorine come from Raqqah… at a Turkish-run facility,” Duff explained, citing a Syrian army general who informed VT’s Bureau Chief in Damascus Nayed al Hussaini.

In March, Duff added, Syrians captured a Turkish chemical weapons officer at another facility in the region.

Geopolitical analyst and editor Eric Draitser told Sputnik that it was entirely possible Turkish intelligence agents to have supplied chemical weapons to terrorist groups like the al-Nusra Front and the ISIL, either directly or through foreign agents operating on the Syrian-Turkish border.

“Either way, the hands of the Turkish government are not clean,” Draitser claimed. “President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan in Turkey has a lot to answer for.”
On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had evidence that the ISIL acquired documentation related to manufacturing chemical weapons.

The ISIL reportedly used chemicals during an attack on the northeastern Syrian town of Marea on Tuesday.
In August, US officials confirmed that mustard gas had been used to attack Kurdish forces fighting the ISIL in northern Iraq.
The Assad government decided to destroy the country’s chemical weapons stockpile after a sarin gas attack near Damascus killed hundreds of people in 2013. The Syrian government and anti-government rebels, which include numerous Islamic extremists, have traded blame for the sarin attack.
At the end of October 2014, international monitors reported that nearly 98 percent of chemical weapons removed from Syria had been destroyed.

Source: http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20150905/1026617084.html#ixzz3ktmjSyFk

Missing Turkish soldier ‘seen in ISIL hospital’ in Syria as clashes rage in key border town

September 5, 2015 By administrator

A Turkish soldier who went missing after a border clash with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) affiliated smugglers has visited an ISIL-controlled hospital in Syria, security sources told daily Hürriyet, citing an intelligence report.

One soldier was killed and another one was injured after gunfire from ISIL-held territory in Syria while their unit was patrolling the border in the southeastern Turkish province of Kilis on Sept. 1.

The Turkish Armed Forces declared another soldier, identified as Sefer T., as missing in action (MIA) after the clash.

According to security forces in Ankara who spoke to daily Hürriyet on Sept. 5 citing intelligence reports, Sefer T. was wounded from his foot during the clash. The soldier was taken by militants to an ISIL-controlled hospital near the Syrian city of Aleppo, the source said.

Turkish authorities also received reports suggesting that ISIL considered to transfer the soldier to Mosul in Iraq, although this claim could not be verified.

Officials stressed that efforts have been continuing to release the Turkish soldier, while ruling out any negotiations with ISIL involving an exchange.

A number of ISIL-linked social media accounts have been suggesting that the group could only release the Turkish hostage when Ankara agreed to leave the anti-ISIL coalition.

Last year the jihadists seized 46 Turkish citizens in the Iraqi city of Mosul. The hostages were released unharmed after more than three months, but fears for their fate were seen as a key reason for Ankara’s reticence to engage in anti-ISIL operations.

Turkey has a 900-km (558-mile)-long border with Syria and has borne the brunt of the refugee crisis sparked by the Syrian civil war, hosting around 2 million people who have fled the fighting.

Diplomats say Ankara’s decision to launch attacks against ISIL has increased the risk of reprisals.

47 dead as rebels battle ISIL in key Syrian town near Turkey

Meanwhile, a battle between ISIL and rebels for control of an opposition stronghold in northern Syria has killed at least 47 fighters, a monitor said Sept. 5.

Twenty Islamist and other rebel fighters were killed in the clashes in Aleppo province throughout Sept. 4, along with 27 ISIL militants, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The fighting centred on the town of Marea, a key rebel bastion that ISIL has been trying to capture for months.

The Observatory said fighting was ongoing around the town, which rebel forces still control, as well in villages in the surrounding area.

Marea is one of the most significant rebel-held towns in northern Aleppo and lies on a key supply route running to the Turkish border.

ISIL has targeted the town for months, seeking to expand westwards from territory it already holds in Aleppo province.

Last week, ISIL advanced in the area, seizing five villages from rebel forces around Marea after allegations it had used a chemical agent, possibly mustard gas, in its attacks.

ISIL advances came despite an agreement between Turkey and the United States to work on the establishment of an ISIL-free zone in northern Aleppo.

In recent days, the US-led air campaign fighting ISIL in Syria has carried out strikes against the group near Marea, according to the Pentagon.

More than 240,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with peaceful anti-government protests.

It has evolved into a complex multi-front war, with regime and rebel forces as well as Kurds and jihadists involved in the fighting.

Turkey Raid on Koza İpek Media Group comes after reports on transfer of weapons to ISIL

September 2, 2015 By administrator

he front page of Bugün daily published on Tuesday. (Photo Today’s Zaman)

Police raided the offices of a Turkish conglomerate and media group after the Bugün daily ran a lead story showing the transfer of weapons and explosives to the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from Turkey to Syria.

On Tuesday morning the police raided the premises of the Koza İpek Holding, which is critical of the government, in the capital of Ankara, as the daily owned by the group had run a story with video stills showing the illegal weapons transfer to the terrorist group on the same day.

Koza İpek Holding includes Kanaltürk, Bugün TV, the Bugün daily, İpek University and Koza Holding. The residence of Akın İpek, owner of the group, was searched by the police.

Editor-in-Chief of the Bugün daily Erhan Başyurt posted several tweets on his personal Twitter account, saying: “A police operation that aims to silence our group has started. Police raided our office. How shameful!”

“The operation has come right after we revealed the illegal shipment of weapons to ISIL,” he said in another tweet.

The daily claimed the video footage shows that a large amount of materials, including explosives, construction pipes and plates, were being transferred to ISIL from Turkey’s Akçakale border gate in the southeastern Şanlıurfa province, while Turkish customs officials were standing by and watching.

The interim Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government is accused of illegally sending arms to ISIL fighting against both Kurds and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, as the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) was subjected an investigation in January of last year on charges of being the main actor in transferring weapons to ISIL.

In 2014, several MİT trucks were intercepted by gendarmes in two separate incidents in the southern provinces of Hatay and Adana, after prosecutors received tips that the trucks were illegally carrying arms to Syria. Those prosecutors who launched an investigation into the members of MİT linked to the incident were first taken off the case and then were arrested on charges of “treason” and “membership in a terrorist organization that aims to overthrow the government

According to the report run by Bugün, the materials and weapons that were passed into ISIL-controlled territory in Syria are seen in the footage, and images captured from CCTV footage show material enough to fill up numerous trucks as custom officials allowed the transfer of the weapons.

The material includes metal plates weighing 400 to 500 kilograms, which ISIL mounts on vehicles as armor, construction pipes used for firing mortars and electric cables used in explosives.

The quantities being transported on a daily basis are apparently very large. Two trucks of fertilizer used in explosives, in addition to materials such as electric cables and fuses, enough to fill a truck each, have been passing through Turkey’s Akçakale border gate, heading for ISIL-controlled parts of Syria over the past two months.

Mehmet Ali Edipoğlu, Hatay deputy of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), recently said shipments of weapons have been continuing to ISIL elements since the revelation of the MİT-linked weapons transfer issue in 2014.

The Cumhuriyet daily in a headline story in June published video stills of weapons carried by trucks operated by MİT, discrediting the government’s earlier claim that the trucks were carrying humanitarian aid to Turkmens.

After the report, Erdoğan had threatened Can Dündar, editor-in-chief of the daily, saying: “He will pay a heavy price for it. He cannot get away with it.”

Meanwhile, Turkish whistleblower Fuat Avni had recently exposed plans by Erdoğan to launch a crackdown on critical media outlets in the country ahead of a snap election slated for November.

After a massive corruption scandal went in public on Dec. 17, 2013, implicating then-government members, including four former ministers and then-Prime Minister Erdoğan’s close circle, Erdoğan vowed to carry out a witch hunt against all dissent including media groups, businesspeople and civil society groups.

In the first wave of a crackdown on critical media, Samanyolu Broadcasting Group CEO Hidayet Karaca was detained on Dec. 14, 2014, three days before the first anniversary of the Dec. 17 corruption scandal, and since then Karaca has been held in Silivri Prison without any indictment.