[Newsbot]

Title: In a tactical shift, Turkish warplanes strike Islamic State targets across the border in Syria
Category: Military
Posted By: N_Fiddledog
Date: 2015-07-24 11:10:01

[N_Fiddledog]

This one from the AP adds some colour:

"Turkish bombing of Islamic State marks end of tacit truce

By DESMOND BUTLER and LORI HINNANT

In a major tactical shift, Turkish warplanes struck Islamic State group targets Friday across the border in Syria, Turkish officials announced _ a move that came a day after IS militants fired at a Turkish military outpost, killing a soldier


ISTANBUL (AP) - Last month, the first edition of the Islamic State group's Turkish-language magazine contained not a word of criticism of the Turkish government. This week, the second edition calls Istanbul occupied territory and blasts President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a tyrant.

The difference? Turkey has started to crack down on the group under Western pressure and Islamic State now sees Turkey as the enemy, raising the stakes in the struggle against the extremist network. And Turkey's decisive response on Friday - airstrikes on Islamic State targets and 290 arrests nationwide - show how seriously the nation is now taking a threat it had long downplayed.

The abrupt shift in Islamic State's Turkish propaganda magazine shows just how quickly a tacit truce has come apart.

But the underlying changes have not happened overnight. Islamic State - also known by acronyms ISIS and ISIL - has spent years building its network inside Turkey, even as Turkish security services monitored the group to glean valuable intelligence..."

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7f1f61a2 ... acit-truce

[xerxes]

A welcome development. Guess ISIS is going to learn the hard way what happens when you piss off the Turks.

[N_Fiddledog]

And doesn't it seem kind of self-destructive.

ISIS had a good thing going with Turkey. They could do all their black market dealings across borders with little fuss. Turkey seemed to look the other way at the foreign Jihadi recruits using Turkey to cross over into Syria. According to the article above they had a network of ISIS operatives managing things across Turkey.

And ISIS gave all that up, for what? What are they really up to, I wonder.

[BartSimpson]

xerxes xerxes:

A welcome development. Guess ISIS is going to learn the hard way what happens when you piss off the Turks.

We'll see if the Turks commit ground forces to this. If they do then we'll know they're serious.

[ShepherdsDog]

Yeah...they'll likely start by engaging the Kurds.

[N_Fiddledog]

I sometimes wonder if there isn't some sort of strategy in play of winning by losing.

I can see how it might work.

The Religious or ideological arm of ISIS is largely run by Sunni Arabs.

But the operational arm seems to be run more by ex-Iraqi military or one-time Bathists.

So what if the latter has an idea it can gain autonomy in Iraq through negotiations at some future point? They can appear separate from ISIS even though they are together.

Sometime after that ISIS connects their Syrian holdings and the whole thing is legitimized. Maybe they ask for a seat at the United Nations.

Would something like that be possible?

I just don't get this business of picking a fight with the West before even they could possibly believe they'd have a chance if they got their suicidal wish. Or why are they now spitting in the face of the one nation they need to look the other way while they operate.

It's like eventually they want to lose. Could it be a kind of 'Mouse that Roared' scenario?

[BartSimpson]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Yeah...they'll likely start by engaging the Kurds.

They'll get their asses handed to them if they do. The Kurds know what they're doing these days and they're not playing anymore.

[2Cdo]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Yeah...they'll likely start by engaging the Kurds.

They'll get their asses handed to them if they do. The Kurds know what they're doing these days and they're not playing anymore.

Sorry Bart but if the Turks want the Kurds gone, and put their full military to the task, the Kurds will be fucking gone.

[BartSimpson]

2Cdo 2Cdo:

Sorry Bart but if the Turks want the Kurds gone, and put their full military to the task, the Kurds will be fucking gone.

I got to work with the Kurds some years back and let's just say it's best we don't find out.

[2Cdo]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

2Cdo 2Cdo:

Sorry Bart but if the Turks want the Kurds gone, and put their full military to the task, the Kurds will be fucking gone.

I got to work with the Kurds some years back and let's just say it's best we don't find out.

They don't have the numbers to go head to head with the Turks. No doubt the Kurds would give a great accounting and take lots with them but in the end they'd lose.

[BartSimpson]

pm inbound.

[N_Fiddledog]

I don't understand the totality of that Kurdish/Turkish conflict.

The Kurds in Iraq trade with Turkey don't they? So they can get along, I'm assuming.

Isn't the problem more with this communist subset of Kurdistan? I know PKK is part of it.

I was reading about the Turkish raids on ISIS operatives in Turkey today. There was also this.

$1:

Not all arrested were ISIS related. Some of the properties raided were members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) - a Kurdish militant organisation that Turkey considers to be a terror group

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z3gqPLihQW

[BartSimpson]

The Turks pretty much hate everyone they used to rule and everyone they used to rule hates them right back.

There it is in one sentence.

[sandorski]

I'd be tempted to allow Turkey to take control of Iraq and Syria.I kinda doubt they are interested, but suspect that they would be the only regional power that could stabilize that area.