Russian involvement in Syrian crisis

[AbRaj]

Syria war: 33 Turkish soldiers killed in attack in Idlib

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Image copyrightAFP
Image captionTurkish troops are backing rebel forces in north-western Syria
At least 33 Turkish soldiers have been killed in an air strike by Syrian government forces in north-west Syria, in a major escalation of the conflict.

Turkey says it hit back by striking some 200 Syrian government targets, "neutralising" 309 Syrian soldiers.

Russia, Syria's key military ally, says Turkish troops were attacked in Idlib province by Syrian forces while operating alongside jihadist fighters.

It denies its own air force was involved in fighting in the Behun area.

• Why does the battle for Idlib matter?
• Forgotten amid the bombs: Idlib's ancient riches
• The rescue worker who won’t leave a bombed-out town
• The town with more cats than people

Government forces, supported by Russia, have been trying to retake Idlib from rebels who are backed by Turkey. The air strike came after the rebels retook the key town of Saraqeb.

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Idlib is the last Syrian province to remain in opposition hands.

Reports suggest Turkey, a key member of the Nato alliance, may be relaxing its border controls to allow Syrian refugees to seek refuge in the EU.

What do we know about the air strike?
"Thirty-three of our soldiers were martyred as a result of the air strike... by the forces of the [Bashar al-]Assad regime," said Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Turkey's neighbouring Hatay province.

Image copyrightAFP/GETTY IMAGES
Image captionTurkish-backed Syrian fighters were seen taking positions in the town of Saraqeb on Thursday
Those wounded were being treated in hospital in Turkey but none were in a critical condition, he added.

After President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held an urgent top-level security meeting in Ankara, Turkish forces began conducting ground and air strikes.

Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said that in addition to the casualties inflicted, five Syrian government helicopters, 23 tanks, 23 howitzers, and two air defence systems had been destroyed.

According to the Russian defence ministry, the Turkish soldiers had been killed in a "bombardment" while operating alongside "terrorists" in the Behun area where, it said, fighters from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance (formerly the Nusra Front) were attacking Syrian government forces.

Russia said it was in constant contact with Turkey to ensure Turkish troops were not targeted in Idlib and had not been informed that Turkish forces were active at Behun.

But Mr Akar insisted the Russians had been informed about the locations of Turkish troops and said no armed groups had been present near the soldiers who were attacked. He also said ambulances had been hit in the attack.

An unconfirmed Russian media report says two Russian warships equipped with cruise missiles are being sent towards the Syrian coast.



Media captionWatch: Turkey's defence ministry reiterates his country's threat to Syria
President Erdogan wants Syrian government forces to pull back from positions where Turkey has set up military observation posts and earlier threatened to attack them if they did not halt their advance.

But Syria's government and Russia have rejected his demand to pull back to ceasefire lines agreed in 2018. Russia has also accused Turkey of violating the 2018 ceasefire by backing rebels with artillery fire.

In reaction to the crisis:

• Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke by phone to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and "condemned the continued indiscriminate air strikes by the Syrian regime and its backer Russia in Idlib province", and Turkey is meeting its Nato partners on Friday

• A spokesman for the US state department said: "We stand by our Nato ally Turkey and continue to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces. We are looking at options on how we can best support Turkey in this crisis"

• UN Secretary General António Guterres expressed "grave concern" over the latest escalation, calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Will Ankara or Damascus back down?

The scene is set for a full-scale confrontation between Turkey and Syria.

This leaves all sorts of questions.

Will Ankara or Damascus back down? Can Moscow - hardly a neutral party - in some way encourage de-escalation?

And is there any way to persuade the Syrian regime to halt its wider offensive in Idlib?

This appears doubtful since President Assad seems intent on taking back control of the area, and the Russians have already been backing him to this end.

Read Jonathan's analysis in full

Is the EU facing a new migrant crisis?
At least 948,000 people have been displaced in north-west Syria since a government offensive began on 1 December, the UN says.

At least 465 civilians, including 145 children, have been killed during that period, the vast majority of them victims of attacks by the Syrian government and its allies, according to the UN. Children are also dying from the cold.

Turkey has already taken in some 3.7 million refugees and Turkey's exasperation may lead it to send a new wave of refugees towards Europe.

Unnamed Turkish sources told international news agencies on Friday that the country was indeed lifting border controls to allow refugees to try to travel to the EU.

Media captionSyrian refugee families on their search for safety
"We will no longer keep the doors closed for refugees who want to go to Europe," one source told AFP.

Several hundred people are reported to have gathered on the Turkish border at Dikili in the hope of crossing illegally to Greece.

Under a 2016 agreement with the EU, which followed a wave of Syrian refugees and refugees and migrants from other countries to Europe, Turkey imposed stronger controls to curb the flow.

The deal involved an EU pledge to provide €6bn (£5.4bn; $6.6bn) in aid to Turkey to house Syrian refugees.

Greece has been consulting its EU and Nato partners about the crisis, Reuters news agency reports.

Turkey's communications director said his country could not take in another million refugees from Syria. Fahrettin Altun went on Twitter to call for the international community to protect civilians in Idlib from "genocide" by imposing a no-fly zone.

Image Copyright @fahrettinaltun@FAHRETTINALTUN
Report
Russia has rejected calls in the UN Security Council for a humanitarian ceasefire in northern Syria, saying the only solution is to chase what it calls terrorists from the country.

The Syrian government, which has regularly been accused of committing atrocities against civilians during the country's civil war, says it is liberating Idlib from "terrorism".

Why is Turkey so deeply involved in Syria?
Its long border with Syria has brought it into close contact with the civil war and its strong opposition to the Assad government has made it a natural destination for refugees.

But Turkey is also actively trying to prevent Syria's Kurdish community establishing control over the border region, fearing that this would encourage Kurdish separatism within Turkey itself.

It has been accused of seeking to drive Kurds away from the border in order to establish a safe area within Syria to rehouse two million refugees

 

[AbRaj]

............. .............. lol......
Check out @architect_zees’s Tweet:

Both Dimraan and Erduaan have similar personalities too. Big mouth and nothing to back that.

Not so long ago many people were blaming US for leaving Syria and Handing Kurds to Barbaric Turkish backed militia :biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2:.
Now Sultan is getting his butthole banged by RuAF and Syria.
He deserved it

 

[asianobserve]

I'm just asking how it's useless?
As far as i know S-400 is having decent strategic depth it's capable to monitor half of the Pakistani airspace if it's deployed in Punjab region it's having highest range in it's competition of 400km. It's cheaper when you see how much patriot systems will be required to cover the same range which S-400 is covering.
Actually deployment of several different systems gives india a edge it's quite difficult for pakistan to spoof different system from different countries.
MR-SAM is build to fill Mid range gap left by S-400.

Why then can't Turkey use it against Assad's air force? Why is Erdogan begging for Patriot?

Because against Russia and Syria S-400 is useless. The same thing against S-400 user China and sidekick Pakistan.

 

[AbRaj]

Why then can't Turkey use it against Assad's air force? Why is Erdogan begging for Patriot?

Because against Russia and Syria S-400 is useless. The same thing against S-400 user China and sidekick Pakistan.

Erdogan has placed turkey in such a measurable possible that it has virtually no allies. Except may be Qater, which is more of a burden than anything else.
His blackmailing caused EU to distance itself from any support. He antagonised US and cozied up to Russia and Iran. His support to Muslim Brotherhood made Arab countries and Egypt to side with Syria.
Russians have not forgotten the downing of their Fighter pilot and subsequent brutal murder of pilots by Turkish backed Terrorists.

 

[Assassin 2.0]

Why then can't Turkey use it against Assad's air force? Why is Erdogan begging for Patriot?

Because against Russia and Syria S-400 is useless. The same thing against S-400 user China and sidekick Pakistan.

S-400 against Russia can be useless as they are OEM and well the last time i heard that Turkey was claiming that patriot is a BS system. But copying Radar technology totally is quite difficult creating inferior copies is another thing i don't think Iranian S-300 or Chinese copies are comparable to Russian one's. You are claiming that S-400 of india is useless against pakistan but in reality if pakistan did had that type of system they would have been boosting photographs of that system on twitter daily.
Yes i agree over the period of time Chinese / other countries can build counter measures against S-400 as every system is vulnerable.
As they always try to counter India's purchases.
And Chinese have F-16 copies does that mean F-16 owned by Taiwan is also useless.



Former Air Force chief BS Dhanoa on Saturday termed S-400 missile system as a 'game-changer' and stressed the need to speed up the defence acquisition process.

"I have always said that S-400 is a game-changer ... It is a very good deal by the government to get S-400," Dhanoa said at an event here on Saturday.

 

[Assassin 2.0]

On the other note why pakistan failed to jam missiles launched By MIG - 21? As those missiles are also owned by Chinese?

 

[asianobserve]

Erdogan has placed turkey in such a measurable possible that it has virtually no allies. Except may be Qater, which is more of a burden than anything else.
His blackmailing caused EU to distance itself from any support. He antagonised US and cozied up to Russia and Iran. His support to Muslim Brotherhood made Arab countries and Egypt to side with Syria.
Russians have not forgotten the downing of their Fighter pilot and subsequent brutal murder of pilots by Turkish backed Terrorists.

But it has 2 batteries of super duper S-400, so allies or no allies if we follow the heavenly marketing and oogling fanboy reviews of S-400 no Assad planes or even ballistic missiles should be able to come close any Turkish forces in Northen Syria. Turkey can close down the airspace there.

But it can't... Instead, it begs for Patriot...

 

[asianobserve]

S-400 against Russia can be useless as they are OEM and well the last time i heard that Turkey was claiming that patriot is a BS system. But copying Radar technology totally is quite difficult creating inferior copies is another thing i don't think Iranian S-300 or Chinese copies are comparable to Russian one's. You are claiming that S-400 of india is useless against pakistan but in reality if pakistan did had that type of system they would have been boosting photographs of that system on twitter daily.
Yes i agree over the period of time Chinese / other countries can build counter measures against S-400 as every system is vulnerable.
As they always try to counter India's purchases.
And Chinese have F-16 copies does that mean F-16 owned by Taiwan is also useless.



Former Air Force chief BS Dhanoa on Saturday termed S-400 missile system as a 'game-changer' and stressed the need to speed up the defence acquisition process.

"I have always said that S-400 is a game-changer ... It is a very good deal by the government to get S-400," Dhanoa said at an event here on Saturday.

Turkish spanking brand new S-400 is no use against Asssd's planes that are murdering Turkish forces! It's a useless toy.

Now Sultan Erdo is screwed up! He ditched his NATO allies and F-35 to buy S-400 now it turned out it's useless! What an idi0t!

 

[Atcjurvin]

Why then can't Turkey use it against Assad's air force? Why is Erdogan begging for Patriot?

Because against Russia and Syria S-400 is useless. The same thing against S-400 user China and sidekick Pakistan.

Can u tell me how exactly it will be useless against China and Pakistan. In case of Turkey it became useless bcz of kill switch since they are now directly threatening Russia. Whereas In our case Russia will never object how we want to use it. Even though if it becomes useless according to u then we have cheap alternative XRSAM available with same range.

 

[asianobserve]

Can u tell me how exactly it will be useless against China and Pakistan. In case of Turkey it became useless bcz of kill switch since they are now directly threatening Russia. Whereas In our case Russia will never object how we want to use it. Even though it became useless according to u then we have cheap alternative XRSAM available with same range.

Don't be naive. Russia is now China's b1tch. Russia will do whatever China asks for, kill switch for Indoa's S-400? No problem!

 

[asianobserve]

Turkey's brand new S-400 should be able to shut down an airspace of 400 kms radius. At least that's the advertisement. Instead, Assad is on a Turkey shoot...

At least 33 Turkish soldiers killed in an air attack by Syrian regime, Turkish governor says
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cn...east/turkish-soldiers-killed-syria/index.html

 

[Waanar]

Don't be naive. Russia is now China's b1tch. Russia will do whatever China asks for, kill switch for Indoa's S-400? No problem!

Now that's just taking it too far.
I see your foreign policy worldview aligns with US but at least keep your bias aside for a moment.

You don't like Russia (and clearly not China) so you just lumped them together as iron allies (or bitch).
Russia has always been a fiercely selfish nation as has China. Their interests just need to cross each other once and bye bye friendship.

The only nation which we need to be wary of more than China is USA. It has a history of abandoning it's allies when they serve no purpose and has always kept India on it's toes with it's nefarious tactics.

 

[Assassin 2.0]

Don't be naive. Russia is now China's b1tch. Russia will do whatever China asks for, kill switch for Indoa's S-400? No problem!

Don't think that india is a idiot.
India is not turkey or Syria.
If Russia is doing something like that then you can say that Russian Foreign sale to india tata bye bye.
Btw it's been 18 years since india bought su-30 why pakistan is not using kill switch to make our fleet useless?.

 

[asianobserve]

Don't think that india is a idiot.
India is not turkey or Syria.
If Russia is doing something like that then you can say that Russian Foreign sale to india tata bye bye.
Btw it's been 18 years since india bought su-30 why pakistan is not using kill switch to make our fleet useless?.

Then you better advice Tata to say bye bye now. Russia is no longer the Soviet empire. It's just a China leech now... And Russia will always choose it's own hide when push comes to shove between India and China (or by necessary extension China's snake Paki).

 

[AbRaj]

But it has 2 batteries of super duper S-400, so allies or no allies if we follow the heavenly marketing and oogling fanboy reviews of S-400 no Assad planes or even ballistic missiles should be able to come close any Turkish forces in Northen Syria. Turkey can close down the airspace there.

But it can't... Instead, it begs for Patriot...

So they are going to use S400 against Russia? I can only laugh at the stupidity of Sultan.
Now Erdo is hoping US to come to rescue his militias with patriot.

Anyway advertisements are harmless, buying advertisements as reality is stupidity

 

[asianobserve]

Now that's just taking it too far.
I see your foreign policy worldview aligns with US but at least keep your bias aside for a moment.

You don't like Russia (and clearly not China) so you just lumped them together as iron allies (or bitch).
Russia has always been a fiercely selfish nation as has China. Their interests just need to cross each other once and bye bye friendship.

The only nation which we need to be wary of more than China is USA. It has a history of abandoning it's allies when they serve no purpose and has always kept India on it's toes with it's nefarious tactics.

I do not hide my Worldview and disdain for Russia (and the USSR before that). But man better anslyze well what's happening to Turkey in Syria despite Erdo and Putin's love feast and Billions of dollars in trade and latest S-400 buy.

 

[asianobserve]

So they are going to use S400 against Russia? I can only laugh at the stupidity of Sultan.
Now Erdo is hoping US to come to rescue his militias with patriot.

Anyway advertisements are harmless, buying advertisements as reality is stupidity

But thankfully the US is not propping up Erdo the Sultan. I'd like to watch him turmed into roasted Turkey.

 

[AbRaj]

S-400 against Russia can be useless as they are OEM and well the last time i heard that Turkey was claiming that patriot is a BS system. But copying Radar technology totally is quite difficult creating inferior copies is another thing i don't think Iranian S-300 or Chinese copies are comparable to Russian one's. You are claiming that S-400 of india is useless against pakistan but in reality if pakistan did had that type of system they would have been boosting photographs of that system on twitter daily.
Yes i agree over the period of time Chinese / other countries can build counter measures against S-400 as every system is vulnerable.
As they always try to counter India's purchases.
And Chinese have F-16 copies does that mean F-16 owned by Taiwan is also useless.



Former Air Force chief BS Dhanoa on Saturday termed S-400 missile system as a 'game-changer' and stressed the need to speed up the defence acquisition process.

"I have always said that S-400 is a game-changer ... It is a very good deal by the government to get S-400," Dhanoa said at an event here on Saturday.

Excuse me but Dhanoa has a bad habit of labelling any acquisition as game changer.
S400 is good or bad, only time will tell

 

[asianobserve]

Excuse me but Dhanoa has a bad habit of labelling any acquisition as game changer.
S400 is good or bad, only time will tell

It's clearly useless to Turkey. It's now more than ever that Turkey needs S-400's capabilities against Assad's planes.

 

[Assassin 2.0]

Excuse me but Dhanoa has a bad habit of labelling any acquisition as game changer.
S400 is good or bad, only time will tell

It passed all the tests. If it wasn't the capable system then we could have gone ahead with patriot system.
You can watch RSTV episode and learn what are the capabilities of this system and anyways show me one system in it's category which is having range of 400KMs.