Let's Start World War III! Get ready To Rumble!

[Meno2 (Meno_)]

MSNBC, that is.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

@jerkey

MSNBC, that is.

Once again, yeah, sure…

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Turkey Shells Aleppo, Says “Massive Escalation” In Syria Imminent As Saudis Ready Airstrikes
Even as all sides - including the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and select rebel groups - pretend to be working towards a ceasefire and a diplomatic solution to the five year conflict in Syria, actions speak louder than words, and to put it as succinctly as possible, everyone is still fighting.

In fact, the fighting is more intense than ever. Russia and Hezbollah are closing in on Aleppo, the country’s largest city and a key urban center where rebels are dug in for what amounts to a last stand. If the city is liberated by the government (and yes, “liberated” is more accurate than “falls” because occupied territory belongs to the Syrian government, not to Sunni extremists), Assad will have regained control of the country’s backbone in the west.

That would effectively mean the end of the rebellion and the Gulf monarchies, not to mention Turkey, are not happy about it. “The main battle is about cutting the road between Aleppo and Turkey, for Turkey is the main conduit of supplies for the terrorists,” Assad said in an interview with AFP on Friday.

That supply line has been severed and now, it’s do or die time for the rebels’ Sunni benefactors in Ankara, Riyadh, and Doha. Either intervene or watch as Hezbollah rolls up the opposition under cover of Russian airstrikes, restoring the Assad government and securing the Shiite crescent for the Iranians.

As we documented extensively this week, the Saudis and the Turks are now set to invade. Assad has promised to “confront them”, which of course means that the IRGC and Hassan Nasrallah’s army are set to come into direct contact with Turkish and Saudi troops, setting the stage for an all-out sectarian war that will almost invariably end up pitting NATO against the Russians. Note that this is different from Yemen, where Tehran fights via proxies rather than directly against the Saudi military.

On Saturday the stakes were raised when Turkey said Saudi Arabia is set to send warplanes to Incirlik.

As a reminder, access to Incirlik was the carrot Erdogan used last summer to convince NATO to acquiesce to Ankara’s brutal crackdown on the PKK. “Let me wage war against my political rivals, and you can use our airbase,” is a fair approximation of Erdogan’s proposition.

Now, it appears the Saudis are set to use the base as a staging ground for strikes in Syria.

As RT reports, “Saudi Arabia is to deploy military jets and personnel to Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base in the south of the country, Ankara said.”

Of course the excuse is the same as it ever was for everyone involved: the fight against ISIS.

“The deployment is part of the US-led effort to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. "At every coalition meeting, we have always emphasized the need for an extensive result-oriented strategy in the fight against the Daesh terrorist group,” he added.

Cavusoglu was speaking to the Yeni ?afak newspaper after addressing the 52nd Munich Security Conference where over 60 foreign and defense ministers are gathered (see here for more from the meeting).

"If we have such a strategy, then Turkey and Saudi Arabia may launch a ground operation,” he added.

Remember that Ankara’s primary concern in the country is ensuring that the YPG (i.e. the Kurdish opposition that Erdogan equates with the PKK and thus with “terrorism”) doesn’t end up declaring a sovereign state on Turkey’s border. That, Erdogan fears, may embolden Kurds in Turkey who are already pushing for more autonomy.

In short: somehow, Turkey and Saudi Arabia need to figure out how to spin an attack on the YPG and an effort to rescue the opposition at Aleppo as an anti-ISIS operation even though ISIS doesn’t have a large presence in the area.

How they plan to do that is anyone’s guess, but the following tweets should tell you everything you need to know about where this is headed.

Turkey has begun shelling Aleppo in what is indeed a very serious escalation that will likely prompt a Russian response.

“Shelling was reported at Menagh air base, a former Syrian Air Force facility that Kurds seized from Islamist rebels just days ago, and at three other positions between the airport and Turkish border,” The Independent reports. “The air base has been a key target for several parties in the Syrian civil war since 2012, being besieged by rebels for almost a year until it was seized by a coalition including an early form of Isis and the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra in August 2013 [and] it remained in rebel hands until Thursday, when Kurdish PYD fighters capitalised on the diversion caused by Bashar al-Assad’s forces and Russian air strikes attacking rebel areas to the south to seize Menagh.”

“A Kurdish official confirmed the shelling of Menagh air base in the northern Aleppo countryside, which he said had been captured by the Kurdish-allied Jaysh al-Thuwwar group rather than the Kurdish YPG militia,” Reuters says, adding that “Both are part of the Syria Democratic Forces alliance.” That group, you’re reminded, was the subject of intense scrutiny late last year as we documented in our classic piece “Full Metal Retard: US Launches “Performance-Based” Ammo Paradrop Program For Make-Believe ‘Syrian Arabs.’” It’s the same group the US has been paradropping weapons to.

To sum up, Turkey is deliberately attempting to reverse gains made by the US-backed Kurds in an area that is under siege by the Russians and Iran. Or, more simply: utter chaos.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-1 … s#comments

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Turkey Shells Aleppo, Says “Massive Escalation” In Syria Imminent As Saudis Ready Airstrikes
Even as all sides - including the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and select rebel groups - pretend to be working towards a ceasefire and a diplomatic solution to the five year conflict in Syria, actions speak louder than words, and to put it as succinctly as possible, everyone is still fighting.

In fact, the fighting is more intense than ever. Russia and Hezbollah are closing in on Aleppo, the country’s largest city and a key urban center where rebels are dug in for what amounts to a last stand. If the city is liberated by the government (and yes, “liberated” is more accurate than “falls” because occupied territory belongs to the Syrian government, not to Sunni extremists), Assad will have regained control of the country’s backbone in the west.

That would effectively mean the end of the rebellion and the Gulf monarchies, not to mention Turkey, are not happy about it. “The main battle is about cutting the road between Aleppo and Turkey, for Turkey is the main conduit of supplies for the terrorists,” Assad said in an interview with AFP on Friday.

That supply line has been severed and now, it’s do or die time for the rebels’ Sunni benefactors in Ankara, Riyadh, and Doha. Either intervene or watch as Hezbollah rolls up the opposition under cover of Russian airstrikes, restoring the Assad government and securing the Shiite crescent for the Iranians.

As we documented extensively this week, the Saudis and the Turks are now set to invade. Assad has promised to “confront them”, which of course means that the IRGC and Hassan Nasrallah’s army are set to come into direct contact with Turkish and Saudi troops, setting the stage for an all-out sectarian war that will almost invariably end up pitting NATO against the Russians. Note that this is different from Yemen, where Tehran fights via proxies rather than directly against the Saudi military.

On Saturday the stakes were raised when Turkey said Saudi Arabia is set to send warplanes to Incirlik.

As a reminder, access to Incirlik was the carrot Erdogan used last summer to convince NATO to acquiesce to Ankara’s brutal crackdown on the PKK. “Let me wage war against my political rivals, and you can use our airbase,” is a fair approximation of Erdogan’s proposition.

Now, it appears the Saudis are set to use the base as a staging ground for strikes in Syria.

As RT reports, “Saudi Arabia is to deploy military jets and personnel to Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base in the south of the country, Ankara said.”

Of course the excuse is the same as it ever was for everyone involved: the fight against ISIS.

“The deployment is part of the US-led effort to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. "At every coalition meeting, we have always emphasized the need for an extensive result-oriented strategy in the fight against the Daesh terrorist group,” he added.

Cavusoglu was speaking to the Yeni ?afak newspaper after addressing the 52nd Munich Security Conference where over 60 foreign and defense ministers are gathered (see here for more from the meeting).

"If we have such a strategy, then Turkey and Saudi Arabia may launch a ground operation,” he added.

Remember that Ankara’s primary concern in the country is ensuring that the YPG (i.e. the Kurdish opposition that Erdogan equates with the PKK and thus with “terrorism”) doesn’t end up declaring a sovereign state on Turkey’s border. That, Erdogan fears, may embolden Kurds in Turkey who are already pushing for more autonomy.

In short: somehow, Turkey and Saudi Arabia need to figure out how to spin an attack on the YPG and an effort to rescue the opposition at Aleppo as an anti-ISIS operation even though ISIS doesn’t have a large presence in the area.

How they plan to do that is anyone’s guess, but the following tweets should tell you everything you need to know about where this is headed.

Turkey has begun shelling Aleppo in what is indeed a very serious escalation that will likely prompt a Russian response.

“Shelling was reported at Menagh air base, a former Syrian Air Force facility that Kurds seized from Islamist rebels just days ago, and at three other positions between the airport and Turkish border,” The Independent reports. “The air base has been a key target for several parties in the Syrian civil war since 2012, being besieged by rebels for almost a year until it was seized by a coalition including an early form of Isis and the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra in August 2013 [and] it remained in rebel hands until Thursday, when Kurdish PYD fighters capitalised on the diversion caused by Bashar al-Assad’s forces and Russian air strikes attacking rebel areas to the south to seize Menagh.”

“A Kurdish official confirmed the shelling of Menagh air base in the northern Aleppo countryside, which he said had been captured by the Kurdish-allied Jaysh al-Thuwwar group rather than the Kurdish YPG militia,” Reuters says, adding that “Both are part of the Syria Democratic Forces alliance.” That group, you’re reminded, was the subject of intense scrutiny late last year as we documented in our classic piece “Full Metal Retard: US Launches “Performance-Based” Ammo Paradrop Program For Make-Believe ‘Syrian Arabs.’” It’s the same group the US has been paradropping weapons to.

To sum up, Turkey is deliberately attempting to reverse gains made by the US-backed Kurds in an area that is under siege by the Russians and Iran. Or, more simply: utter chaos.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-1 … s#comments

[Mictlantecuhtli]

[Meno2 (Meno_)]

Ha,

There may be a connection between Trump’s immense buildup, of personal political capital, and what is going on in the Middle East. This is merely a hunch, but reverse psych is an envelope of ambiguity ; vis, the conventional old republican guard would like it believed that they disfavor a Trum run, in fact they love the Arab world to think that here is the man for the hour, a man to be reckoned with, a man who will bust a lot of balls , and put a stop to the charade, once and for all. Internal and external politics are at these mixed times are inversely proportional, and this is a simulated quagmire which can never really be fixed, using straight forward, conventional politics

[Meno2 (Meno_)]

Ha,

There may be a connection between Trump’s immense buildup, of personal political capital, and what is going on in the Middle East. This is merely a hunch, but reverse psych is an envelope of ambiguity ; vis, the conventional old republican guard would like it believed that they disfavor a Trum run, in fact they love the Arab world to think that here is the man for the hour, a man to be reckoned with, a man who will bust a lot of balls , and put a stop to the charade, once and for all. Internal and external politics are at these mixed times are inversely proportional, and this is a simulated quagmire which can never really be fixed, using straight forward, conventional politics

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Road To World War III: Turkey Shells Syria For Second Day As Saudi Warplanes Arrive

On Saturday, the geopolitical world was shocked when Turkey began shelling Aleppo, where the Syrian opposition has its back against the wall in the face of an aggressive advance by Hezbollah and the IRGC supported, of course, by Russian airstrikes.

To be sure, everyone knew Ankara and Riyadh would have to do something quick if they wanted to preserve the rebellion. Their proxies are being rolled up rapidly by Hassan Nasrallah’s army and Vladimir Putin’s air force juggernaut. But few expected the escalation would come so quickly.

But Recep Tayyip Erdogan is unpredictable (just ask the lone surviving pilot of the Su-24 Turkey shot down in November) and this weekend, he decided that there’s no time like the present when it comes to starting World War III.

Officially, Turkey says it’s shelling Kurdish positions in Syria in self defense. It’s all about securing the border against hostiles, Ankara says. Of course the idea that the YPG are set to invade Turkey is laughable. The Syrian Kurds have secured enough space in their own country to declare an autonomous proto-state, and they needn’t aspire to capturing Turkish territory.

But for Erdogan, that’s precisely the problem. Ankara fears the YPG’s gains will embolden the PKK militarily and the HDP politically and last June’s elections clearly suggest that an emboldened Kurdish minority has the power to shake up the political scene.

And so, Turkey is set to take the fight to Syria in the name of fighting “terrorists”, which for Erdogan, means eradicating the Kurds. As we noted on Saturday, the challenge for Ankara and Riyadh is this: somehow, Turkey and Saudi Arabia need to figure out how to spin an attack on the YPG and an effort to rescue the opposition at Aleppo as an anti-ISIS operation even though ISIS doesn’t have a large presence in the area.

Incredibly, Turkey seems less concerned about the optics than we thought. In short, Erdogan looks as though he’s prepared to simply enter the war on the pretext that Turkey needs to roll back the YPG which, you’re reminded is explicitly backed by the US.

In a way that makes sense. You can’t very well shell Aleppo and use ISIS as an excuse. The group’s presence isn’t large enough in the area. But what you can do is say “the PKK are terrorists, they’re allied with the YPG who are in Aleppo, and therefore, we need to shell Aleppo.” Put in the simplest possible terms, what Erdogan is really doing is trying to reopen supply lines closed by Russia and Iran by wiping out Kurdish forces who dominate the northern border with Turkey.

The shelling continued on Sunday. “The Turkish army shelled positions held by Kurdish-backed militia in northern Syria for a second day on Sunday, killing two fighters,” Reuters reports, citing the admittedly dubious Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The YPG controls nearly all of Syria’s northern frontier with Turkey, and has been a close ally of the United States in the campaign against Islamic State in Syria, but Ankara views the group as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade-old insurgency for autonomy in southeast Turkey."

Jaysh al-Thuwwar, an allied group warned Turkey against further attacks, saying if the country “has goals in our dear nation, we will defend our land and our people, and view it as a hostile party”. Again, this comes from the very same groups the US is overtly supporting with arms and air power. So not the CIA-sponsored opposition. Turkey is shelling fighters who literally have the clearance to call in US airstrikes from warplanes that, in an irony of ironies, are flying from Incirlik, the Turkish air base.

And speaking of Incirlik, the Saudis are moving into position.

A lot of words to say this: “We’re flexing our muscles on the way to invading Syria.”

“What is present now is aircraft that are part of the Saudi forces,” Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asiri told Al Arabiya News Channel on Sunday, referencing the Saudi presence at Incirlik. “The kingdom is ready to participate in any ground operations that the coalition (against ISIS) may agree to carry out in Syria,” he added.

Remember, Turkey also shelled the Syrian army on Saturday.

“Turkish artillery shelled Syrian territory, targeting Syrian Kurdish positions and the positions of the Syrian Arab Army,” SANA news agency reported, citing a letter from Damascus to the UN. Expect those attacks to continue in the name of “self defense.”

Meanwhile, the Russians aren’t letting up. Aleppo will be recaptured and that, as they say, is that. “Russia is determined to create facts on the ground, and when they have accomplished this, then they will invite the West to fight a common enemy, this is ISIS,” Norbert Roettgen, head of the foreign affairs committee in the German parliament says, underscoring our contention that Russia is determined to negotiate from a position of absolute strength. “Let’s be clear about what this agreement does. It allows Russia’s assault on Aleppo to continue for another week,” John McCain exclaimed. “Mr Putin is not interested in being our partner. He wants to shore up the Assad regime, he wants to establish Russia as a major power in the Middle East, he wants to use Syria as a live fire exercise for Russia’s modernizing military.”

Right. And America is seemingly powerless to stop him.

In the short term, the only question now is this: how long will it be before Turkey or Saudi Arabia kills a Hezbollah fighter or an IRGC general?

Or worse: what happens when a Russian ends up dead at the hands of the region’s Sunni powers?

zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-1 … e#comments

[Meno2 (Meno_)]

A lot of smoke and mirrors to hide the second to second calculations of who intends what, where, when, with how much loss ratio in terms of gains or losses. It’s all about the money, petrodollar politics, no one cares about the dynamics of dominance in a
vanishing world, where electric cars, the threat of fracturing oil in the US, and diminishing wells is likely to push back the Middle East into the days of Lawrence of Arabia. Tactically, their significance is waning.

[Ultimate_Philosophy (Ultimate Philosophy 1001)]

Jerkey is no more absurd than you, Hahaha.

In that picture you posted, that nuke would only wipe out a mile of the city. A couple of radioactive babies here and there. People are already retarded so we won’t see much change in their behavoirs. and they are already cancer bound so statistically charts won’t even be able to map it. They’ll just continue living their lazy lifestyles as if nothing would happen. There is no reason to riot, as the nuke was from a foreign attack. If anything, they’ll probably bond with each other. Thinking it will devolve into playground anarchy, my that’s wishful thinking Im sorry to say.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

@Ultimate Philosophy 1001

Jerkey is no more absurd than you, Hahaha.

In that picture you posted, that nuke would only wipe out a mile of the city. A couple of radioactive babies here and there. People are already retarded so we won’t see much change in their behavoirs. and they are already cancer bound so statistically charts won’t even be able to map it. They’ll just continue living their lazy lifestyles as if nothing would happen. There is no reason to riot, as the nuke was from a foreign attack. If anything, they’ll probably bond with each other. Thinking it will devolve into playground anarchy, my that’s wishful thinking Im sorry to say.

Darling, what part of world war and global economic collapse happening simultaneously do you not understand?

There won’t be any semblance of a functioning society or civilization while all of this happens.

You really should see about increasing your reading comprehension skills.

[cba1067950]

@HaHaHa

@Peter Kropotkin

spoken like idiots who have no idea what this means.
If you had a clue, you wouldn’t be so excited for WW 3, as
it would mean decades of really ugly living, basically not much
more than stone age living and that, despite childish thinking
that would be fun, would not be fun nor exciting nor very desirable.
It would be ugly for millions of people, to the point where the
living might envy the dead. Life like that is simply survival and
nothing more. No arts, no music, no internet, no TV, no movies.
All that anyone would do is trying to survive, that’s it, that is all
you would be doing and that sports fans is not fun and not exciting.

Kropotkin

It would be terrible for the rest of you.

I’ve already been living an ugly life the last ten years. Nothing new to me.

Even better for me because I won’t have to worry about that pesky thing called law anymore. So many opportunities open up for an individual like myself.

It’s about time the rest of you get to experience genuine suffering, despair, and pain also.

How old are you?

[Mictlantecuhtli]

@cba1067950

@HaHaHa

@Peter Kropotkin

spoken like idiots who have no idea what this means.
If you had a clue, you wouldn’t be so excited for WW 3, as
it would mean decades of really ugly living, basically not much
more than stone age living and that, despite childish thinking
that would be fun, would not be fun nor exciting nor very desirable.
It would be ugly for millions of people, to the point where the
living might envy the dead. Life like that is simply survival and
nothing more. No arts, no music, no internet, no TV, no movies.
All that anyone would do is trying to survive, that’s it, that is all
you would be doing and that sports fans is not fun and not exciting.

Kropotkin

It would be terrible for the rest of you.

I’ve already been living an ugly life the last ten years. Nothing new to me.

Even better for me because I won’t have to worry about that pesky thing called law anymore. So many opportunities open up for an individual like myself.

It’s about time the rest of you get to experience genuine suffering, despair, and pain also.

How old are you?

I am 150 years old.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Turkey Will “Definitely” Join Ground Operation In Syria, Accuses Russia Of “War Crimes”

Update: Here are the latest headlines out of Russia where the defense ministry is at wit’s end with the Turks.

RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS ‘TERRORISTS’ IN SYRIA’S IDLIB AND ALEPPO PROVINCES CONTINUE TO RECEIVE WEAPONS AND REINFORCEMENTS FROM TURKISH TERRITORY - INTERFAX
TURKEY IS LAUNCHING ‘MASSED’ ARTILLERY STRIKES ON SYRIAN GOVT FORCES AND ‘SYRIA’S PATRIOTIC OPPOSITION’ - RIA CITES RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY
Turkey shelled Syria for a fourth consecutive day on Tuesday as Ankara steps up efforts to bolster rebels in the face of an advance by the Kurdish YPG. “As many as 150 terrorists were killed during the 4-day-long shelling targeting PYD points,” the pro-government Yeni Safak wrote today, adding that “the PYD, backed by both the US and Russia, is working with President Bashar al-Assad to control areas along the Turkish border.”

The move by Russia and Iran to encircle Aleppo and cut rebel supply lines to Turkey has allowed the YPG to advance on towns near the border, effectively consolidating the group’s grip on northern Syria, where they’ve been highly successful at holding large swaths of territory.That’s an especially undesirable outcome for Ankara where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is hell bent on rolling back a groundswell of popular support for the pro-Kurdish HDP which, at least in AKP’s mind, is merely the political arm of the PKK.

Erdogan doesn’t distinguish between the PKK (which both Turkey and the US officially designate as a terror group) and the YPG. The US, on the other hand, openly supports the Syrian Kurds and has backed their advances with airstrikes. Ankara fears that if the YPG are allowed to bridge the territory they control east of the Euphrates with territory they control west of the river, they will effectively establish a proto-state on the border which would embolden the PKK to try something similar in southeast Turkey where some Kurds are already pushing for autonomy.

Throw in the fact that the towns the YPG are seeking to capture are held by rebels Ankara supports in the faltering bid to oust Bashar al-Assad, and there’s every reason to suspect that Turkey will not only persist in the shelling of Azaz, but will in fact invade Syria. You know, “to fight ISIS.”

On Tuesday we got still more indications that a major escalation in Syria is imminent when Turkey said it would “definitely” participate in a ground operation. “It’s impossible to end the war without it,” an official told Bloomberg, speaking on the condition of anonymity. You see how that works? It’s the same logic that France employed when officials declared that the best way to halt the refugee crisis is to bomb Syria. It’s “impossible” to the end the war in Syria without … going to war in Syria.

The official also said there was no plan for a “unilateral” ground operation by Turkey or Saudi Arabia, but according to Yeni Safak newspaper’s Ankara correspondent, Turkey is planning to send troops 10km into Syria to establish “a safe zone.” Ankara is apparently concerned that if Azaz-Tal Rifaat area falls to the YPG, 400K-500K refugees might mass at the Turkish border.

Now bear in mind, it’s not entirely clear why that would be the case. There are indeed questions about the YPG’s human rights record, but they’re hardly ISIS or al-Nusra. Why civilians would flee by the hundreds of thousands is far from evident and it certainly seems as though Turkey is just looking for an excuse to ensure that its supply lines to al-Nusra and other Sunni rebels aren’t cut, and to keep the Kurds from controlling key border towns. The “safe zone” plan - which is reminiscent of the absurd “ISIS-free” zone idea from last August - would reportedly require US support. America, Yeni Safak says “has never been sincere about Assad going from the very beginning.”

Additionally, Turkey now says 500 FSA troops have traveled to Azaz via Turkey to beat back the YPG advance. Here’s Yeni Safak again:

It’s easy to see why the Turks are getting worried. On Monday, the YPG seized control of Tal Rifaat, a town between Aleppo and Azaz. “Their latest advances are part of a bid to unite the Kurdish town of Afrin in western Aleppo province with Kurdish areas to the east,” Al Arabiya notes. “We will not let Azaz fall,” Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said. “The YPG will not be able to cross to the west of the Euphrates (River) and east of Afrin.”

Obviously, simply shelling Azaz and Tal Rifaat isn’t going to do the trick. If Turkey wants to halt the advance, they’re going to have to send troops or F-16s, and the latter option is a virtual impossibility given Russia’s deployment of S-400s in the country.

Meanwhile, Moscow and Ankara continue to accuse one another of being terrorists. What should be clear from the above is that there’s no telling who the Islamist rebels fighting to keep the Azaz corridor open are. It’s the same mishmash of Sunni militants fighting everywhere else in western Syria and it seems likely that al-Nusra elements are present as well. As Russian PM Dmitri Medvedev recently told TIME, “they’re all bandits.”

Yes, rampant banditry, facilitated by the Turks.

Of course Russia isn’t innocent in all of this either. Although it’s impossible to verify the veracity of the reports, it seems possible that several Russian strikes hit hospitals on Monday, killing scores of civilians, some women and children. Ankara of course seized on the opportunity to accuse the Russians of being terrorists. “These attacks that we strongly condemn are unconscionable and obvious war crime under international law,” a statement from the Turkish foreign ministry reads. “If Russian Federation does not end those attacks immediately - which remove peace and stability - it is inevitable that Russia will face bigger and more serious results.”

The takeaway from all of this is simple: escalation imminent.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-1 … war-crimes

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Carter Meets with Defense Ministers in Brussels on NATO, ISIL

WASHINGTON, February 10, 2016 — Defense Secretary Ash Carter is in Brussels to attend a NATO defense ministers meeting and to meet for the first time with defense ministers of countries that are major contributors to the coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq and Syria.

During a briefing yesterday with reporters traveling with him, Carter said the meeting with his fellow NATO defense leaders is an important milestone on the way to the alliance’s July 8-9 summit in Warsaw, Poland.

A central topic of discussion, the secretary said, “will be NATO in its posture moving from reassurance, which is where we started two years ago, to a full deterrence posture in Europe of aggression – whether [it’s] outright aggression or so-called hybrid warfare – and putting resources behind what I call a new playbook for NATO.”

NATO Topics

The Defense Department’s fiscal year 2017 budget request contains more than $3 billion in European Reassurance Initiative funding – four times as much as in fiscal 2016 – for an increased rotational presence of U.S. forces in Europe and for the purchase, upgrading and positioning of equipment in European countries, Carter said.

Other NATO topics will include Afghanistan, North Africa and the Middle East, and activities in the Arctic, the secretary said.

The second part of the trip will mark the first gathering of defense ministers of major countries that make up the coalition against ISIL.

The counter-ISIL defense ministers conference, also in Brussels, comprises 27 nations, including Iraq and the United States, that provide force contributions to the counter-ISIL campaign. Observers also will attend.

“There have been lots of meetings of the coalition in the past,” Carter said, “[but] I thought it was important to [convene] defense ministers, because … each country can make a contribution to the military campaign.”

Resources and Forces

Convening the defense ministers is important, he added, “because we do need to accelerate the campaign, and we have a very clear operational picture of how to do it. Now we just need the resources and the forces to fall in behind it.”

Carter said he will brief the coalition military campaign acceleration plan that President Barack Obama sought and approved.

A military campaign plan is necessary, but not sufficient, to defeat ISIL, Carter said. “There are lots of other activities having to do with countering ISIL’s messaging, its finances, foreign fighters and homeland protection,” he explained.

Accelerating ISIL’s Defeat

The United States is looking for opportunities to do more in the fight to hasten and accelerate ISIL’s defeat, the secretary said.

“I’ll be asking others at this meeting also to accelerate their efforts,” he added,” and we’ll be discussing … how their efforts can reinforce that campaign plan.”

America is willing and determined to lead, to devise the campaign plan and to add its own major contributions, Carter said.

“But we’re looking for others to make a contribution as well,” he told reporters, “and their attendance at this meeting suggests a willingness on the part of almost all of them to do more.” Some countries already have indicated a willingness to do more, he added.

defense.gov/News-Article-Vie … -nato-isil

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Russian warplanes have conducted 444 sorties, hitting 1,593 terrorist targets in six Syrian provinces in a week, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

“Warplanes of the Russian air group in the Syrian Arab Republic have conducted 444 sorties, hitting 1,593 terrorist targets in the provinces of Deir ez-Zor, Daraa, Homs, Homs, Latakia and Aleppo from February 10 to February 16,” Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

A picture taken on November 24, 2014, shows damaged buildings in the rebel-held Ansari disctrict of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
© AFP 2016/ BARAA AL-HALABI
Why is the Liberation of Aleppo Key to the Resolution of the Syrian Crisis?
The Syrian army liberated over 800 square kilometers and 73 villages from terrorists since the beginning of February, the Russian general said.
The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said that terrorists in Syria’s Idlib and Aleppo continue to receive weapons and reinforcements through the Turkish border.
He added that militants in Aleppo have carried out a mass evacuation of their families to the north of the province toward the Turkish border.
“However, due to the tightening of the control [at the border] by Turkish authorities, mainly wounded militants are let in.”

The activity of terrorist groups has dramatically increased in Syria’s south and north after a ceasefire deal had been reached in Munich, Konashenkov noted.

On Thursday, the International Syrian Support Group met in Munich on the sidelines of the security conference. The session resulted in the adoption of a final communique that set a one-week deadline for measures to be implemented to end the hostilities in the war-torn country.
According to Konashenkov, conflicts between militants deployed in the southwestern part of Aleppo and the northwestern part of Idlib over the control of territories have become more frequent.

Russian military keeps an eye on terrorist groups in Syria as well as on “some of the country’s neighbors” around-the-clock, Konashenkov said.

The Baghdad Information Center was established by Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria in September to coordinate their efforts in the fight against terrorism. The aim of the center is to collect, process, summarize and analyze current data about the Middle East in the context of counter-terrorism measures, distributing intelligence between the general staffs of the four countries.

sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160 … syria.html

[Mictlantecuhtli]

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the US-led coalition are competing in a race for Raqqa, because the stakes are very high; to restore Syria’s sovereignty, the SAA should be the first to expel Daesh from the eastern Syrian city.

Over the last few days, the 555th Brigade of the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division, backed by pro-government militias, has continued to gain ground in northeast Syria. It has moved toward the Al-Raqqa Governorate’s strategic Tabaqa Military Airport.
On Friday, Syrian armed forces re-entered the governorate for the first time since August 2014. Back in 2014, Tabaqa Military Airport was seized by Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) and turned into the terrorists’ primary military base and training ground in Syria, according to the independent news source Arab al-Masdar.

Raqqa and a number of other east Syrian cities along the Euphrates still remain under Daesh control. Both Damascus and the US-led coalition consider defeating the terrorist group their primary goal.
​However, the issue should be seen in a “larger context,” the blog Moon of Alabama suggests.

In this Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015 file photo, Saudi security forces, whose faces display the word Decisive take part in a military parade.
© AP PHOTO/ MOSA’AB ELSHAMY
Iran: Saudi Willingness to Invade Syria Reflects US Failure
“Could the US and its allies capture Raqqa or Deir ez-Zor and with it parts of eastern Syria? It could use them as a bargaining chip to gain some negotiation power with Syria and its allies over the future of Syria,” the blogger writes.
On the other hand, the US-led coalition may create a Sunni state in northeast Syria and western Iraq, as Amb. John Bolton proposed in his November analysis for the New York Times.
There are clear signs indicating that the US-led coalition could have been preparing for advance in northeast Syria.

The Pentagon has recently expanded the Rmeilan airbase in Syria’s northern province of Hasakah; American helicopters were spotted using the base by independent observers on the ground.
​The information has been confirmed by geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor, which provided satellite imagery of the Rmeilan airfield. Furthermore, it is known that the US Special Ops have been deployed in Syria.
On Friday US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter met with his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates in Brussels. After the meeting, Carter said that the UAE had agreed to deploy its special forces troops in Syria to assist Sunni Arab fighters on the ground to capture Raqqa, the Associated Press reported.

The news is especially interesting in light of the recent Saudi vow to launch a ground operation in Syria with US backing.

At the same time, in mid-January, Ash Carter announced the US 101st Airborne Division would be deployed in Iraq to advise and assist Iraqi armed forces for an attack on Mosul.

Currently Damascus’ major objective is to preserve the unity and sovereignty of Syria. The loss of Raqqa would mean a devastating loss of the country’s eastern oil fields.

“A ground operation would involve all participants in a war. Therefore, the Americans and our Arab partners must consider well whether they want a permanent war. They are wrong if they think they could win this war quickly, especially in the Arab world where everybody fights against everybody,” Russian Prime Minister Medvedev stressed in an interview with Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper Thursday.

sputniknews.com/politics/2016021 … -city.html

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Washington’s support for Riyadh’s decision to put boots on the ground in Syria indicates a failure of US policies in the West Asian region, “beyond any doubt,” a top Iranian military commander stated.

Iranian Armed Forces’ Chief of Staff Major General Hassan Firouzabadi slammed the US for backing Saudi Arabia’s “malicious” activities, amid Riyadh’s announcement of its preparedness to send ground forces to Syria.

Firouzabadi added that the continuous political defeats of the Saudis in the international arena, alongside their support for terrorism and the current low price of oil, have hit the kingdom hard.
“The Quds occupying regime [Israel] is also at loss and fuming. Together with their American and Saudi counterparts they are flogging the dead horse, but they know they are going nowhere,” he said, referring to a planned ground intervention in Syria.

Firouzabadi added the only way to have peace in Muslim countries is to prevent Americans and their allies from meddling in the internal affairs of the nations in the region.
On February 4 Riyadh announced its readiness to take part in any US-led alliance operations in Syria, including a ground offensive. Shortly after the statement, a US State Department representative praised the Saudi move.
Following the statements, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem condemned the announcement, saying that a “ground intervention on Syrian territory without government authorization would amount to an aggression that must be resisted.”

sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160 … ilure.html

[Mictlantecuhtli]

World War III Approaches: Saudi Arabia And Turkey Drop Hints That An Invasion Of Syria Is Imminent

As you read this article, Turkish forces are massing along the border with Syria, and the largest “military exercises” in the history of the Middle East are being held in northern Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are publicly warning that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “will be removed by force” if a political solution cannot be found, and Turkey is claiming that it may have to establish a “safe zone” in northern Syria “for humanitarian purposes”. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their Sunni allies have poured massive amounts of money and arms into the conflict in Syria, and now that their Sunni insurgents are on the verge of total defeat, they are trying to come up with a way to justify going in there and doing the job themselves.

For the Saudis, their focus is on trying to convince everyone that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is an extremely dangerous dictator that must be removed at all costs.
But if the Saudis try to take Damascus and remove Assad by force, the Syrians and their allies will certainly fight back. That means that the Saudis will be fighting Hezbollah, the Iranians and the Russians.

Needless to say, Saudi Arabia is going to need a lot of help to do that.

So that may explain why Saudi Arabia has organized the largest “military exercise” in the history of the Middle East.

This is the list of nations that are reportedly participating in these “exercises” so far…

-Saudi Arabia

-Jordan

-Bahrain

-Senegal

-Oman

-Qatar

-United Arab Emirates

-Sudan

-Kuwait

-the Maldives

-Morocco

-Pakistan

-Chad

-Tunisia

-Comoro Islands

-Djibouti

-Malaysia

-Egypt

-Mauritania

-Mauritius

As I discussed yesterday, 350,000 soldiers, 20,000 tanks, 2,450 warplanes and 460 military helicopters are reportedly gathering for these “military exercises”.

To me, that seems to be a great deal of overkill if the goal is just “training”.

So are these forces massing for a ground invasion of Syria?

We shall see.

In the end, we probably won’t have to wait too long before we find out the answer.

Meanwhile, Turkish officials continue to assert that they may have to establish a “safe zone” for refugees in northern Syria. Since thousands of refugees are continually pouring their direction, they claim that they have no other choice but to go in and take control of the situation.

The truth is that ISIS has been using Turkey as a home base for years, and hundreds of millions of dollars of ISIS oil has been shipped into Turkey where it has then been sold to the rest of the world. Barack Obama knows about all of this, and yet he has refused to do anything to stop it.

Fortunately, the Russian bombing campaign has pretty much put an end to the endless parade of ISIS oil trucks that were entering Turkey, and now the primary supply line to Sunni militants in the strategically important city of Aleppo is about to be cut off.

The corridor that runs through the city of Azaz is vitally important, and the Prime Minister of Turkey recently insisted that the Turkish government “will not allow Azaz to fall”…

Wait for the next few days and you will have the answer?

That sounds rather ominous.

Like I said yesterday, I don’t think that I have ever seen a scenario which was more likely to lead to World War III than the one that we are watching play out right now.

Do Saudi Arabia and Turkey actually expect to waltz into Syria and start taking territory without a response from the Syrians, Hezbollah, the Iranians and the Russians?

And if fighting does break out, how is the United States possibly going to stay out of it?

The truth is that Saudi Arabia and Turkey would never invade Syria in the first place without the express approval of the Obama administration.

The next couple of weeks are key. If we can get into early March without an invasion, by that time Saudi Arabia and Turkey may have missed their window. The troops gathered for the massive military exercise in northern Saudi Arabia will start to go home, and by then the Sunni militants remaining in Aleppo will probably be pretty much completely defeated.

But will Saudi Arabia and Turkey really be willing to walk away after pouring so much time, effort and money into the conflict in Syria? They had dreamed of turning Syria into a full-blown Sunni nation, and if they give up now Syria will end up being dominated by Iran and Hezbollah. It will be a result that is far worse than if they never tried to overthrow Assad in the first place.

So my gut feeling is telling me that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their Sunni allies are not done in Syria. But their obsession with that country threatens to plunge us into World War III, and if that happens the consequences will be felt by every man, woman and child on the entire planet.

theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch … s-imminent

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Saudi Arabia official: If all else fails, remove Syria’s Assad by force
Munich, Germany (CNN)Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister says if the Syrian political process fails, President Bashar al-Assad will have to be removed “by force.”

“I believe Bashar al-Assad is weak and I believe Bashar al-Assad is finished,” Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview in Munich, Germany.

Saudi Arabia is prepared to contribute ground troops to the fight in Syria, but only as part of a U.S.-led coalition, he said.

“Bashar al-Assad will leave — have no doubt about it. He will either leave by a political process or he will be removed by force.”

“We will push as much as we can to ensure that the political process works. But if it doesn’t work, it will be because of the obstinance of the Syrian regime and that of its allies.”

“And should that prove to be the case, then it becomes clear that there is no option to remove Bashar al-Assad except by force.”

cnn.com/2016/02/13/middleeas … sad-force/