Tag Archives: Syria

Kerry issues warning as Syrian parties back halt to fighting

BEIRUT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebel groups accepted a plan for a cessation of hostilities to begin on Saturday and the United States warned it would be hard to hold the country together if the fighting did not stop.

With hostilities reported on several fronts, rebels backed by Saudi Arabia expressed doubts about the proposal, which excludes attacks by the Syrian army and its Russian backers on the jihadist groups Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. Saudi-backed rebels said Russia had stepped up air strikes since the plan was announced on Monday.

For its part, the government in Damascus has made clear that continued foreign help for the rebels could wreck the deal.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States would soon know if the plan would take hold. “The proof will be in the actions that come in the next days,” he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington.

If a political transition to a government to replace the current administration does not unfold in Syria, there are “Plan B” options, Kerry said, in a reference to undefined contingency plans believed to include military action.

The next month or two would show if that transition process was serious and Assad would have to make “some real decisions about the formation of a transitional governance process that’s real,” Kerry said.

“It may be too late to keep it as a whole Syria if we wait much longer,” Kerry said.

France said the leaders of the United States, France, Britain and Germany hoped the cessation deal could take effect soon.

The plan is the result of intense diplomacy to end the five-year-long war that has killed 250,000 and forced millions to flee their homes helping to cause a refugee crisis in Europe.

But rebels say the exclusion of Islamic State and Nusra Front will give the government a pretext to keep attacking them because its fighters are widely spread in opposition-held areas.

WAR OF WORDS

The Syrian government, backed by Russian air strikes since September, said it would coordinate with Russia to define which groups and areas would be included in what it called a “halt to combat operations”.

The terminology reflects the difficulties of getting peace efforts under way, with talks in Geneva making no headway and the failure amid further fighting of a cessation of hostilities announced on Feb. 12.

The United Nations describes a cessation as something that would precede the more formal ceasefire it is hoping to establish at some future date.

U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said: “A ceasefire implies a whole mechanism and agreements, signed agreements between the parties etc. This is a cessation of hostilities that we hope will take force very quickly and provide a breathing space for the intra-Syrian talks to resume.”

Assad objects to the word “ceasefire”, saying it is something concluded between armies or states. “It does not happen between a state and terrorists,” he said last week. Instead, he has offered a “halt to combat operations”.

The Russian intervention in the fighting has turned the momentum Assad’s way in a conflict that has mostly reduced his area of control to the big cities of the west and the coast.

U.S. Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he did not believe Russia was convinced it would suffer any consequences if the plan fails. He said he expected Assad’s forces, backed by Russia, would continue to seize territory.

“I don’t think Russia believes that anything is going to happen. And I think that’s why they continue to make the gains,” Corker said.

ALEPPO SUPPLY ROUTE

On Tuesday, Islamic State fighters were reported to have tightened their grip on a supply route to Aleppo that had been used by the Syrian government in its campaign to seize the city.

Heavy Russian air strikes in support of the army were also said to be targeting one of the last roads into opposition-held parts of Aleppo.

Damascus, backed by ground forces including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is making significant advances near Aleppo, which is split between rebel- and government-control.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports the war using a network of sources on the ground, said Islamic State fighters had seized the village of Khanaser on the road, which remained closed for a second day. A Syrian military source told Reuters that army operations continued to repel the attack.

In a statement on the proposed cessation of hostilities, the government in Damascus stressed the importance of sealing Syria’s borders and halting foreign support for armed groups whose activities it said could wreck the agreement.

BLOCKADES, AID AND AIR STRIKES

The Syrian military reserved the right to “respond to any breach by these groups against Syrian citizens or against its armed forces”, the government statement added.

The main, Saudi-backed Syrian opposition body said late on Monday it consented to international efforts, but said acceptance of a truce was conditional on an end to blockades of rebel-held areas, free access for humanitarian aid, a release of detainees, and a halt to air strikes against civilians.

The opposition High Negotiations Committee also said it did not expect Assad, Russia or Iran to cease hostilities.

The powerful Kurdish YPG militia, which is fighting both Islamic State and rebels near Aleppo, is “seriously examining” the U.S.-Russian plan to decide whether to take part, a YPG official told Reuters.

Turkey, a major sponsor of the insurgency against Assad, said it welcomed plans for the halt to fighting but was not optimistic about a positive outcome to talks on a political transition.

A rebel fighter in the Aleppo area said he did not expect the ceasefire plan to work and Russian warplanes “will not stop bombing”.

(Additional reporting by Kinda Makieh in Damascus, Orhan Coskun in Ankara, Guy Faulconbridge in London and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Giles Elgood and Andrew Hay; Editing by Peter Millership and Peter Cooney)

Islamic State tightens grip on Syrian government road to Aleppo

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Islamic State fighters were reported to have tightened their grip on a Syrian government supply route to Aleppo on Tuesday as the army battled to retake the road, which is important to its campaign to retake the city.

As Damascus accepted a U.S.-Russian plan for a “cessation of hostilities” between the government and rebels due to take effect on Saturday, heavy Russian air strikes were also said to be targeting one of the last roads into opposition-held parts of Aleppo.

The plan announced by the United States and Russia on Monday is the result of intensive diplomacy to end the five-year-long war. But rebels say the exclusion of Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front will give the government a pretext to keep attacking them because its fighters are widely spread in opposition-held areas.

The Syrian government, backed by Russian air strikes since September, said it would coordinate with Russia to define which groups and areas would be included in what it called a “halt to combat operations”. Damascus also warned that continued foreign support for the rebels could wreck the agreement.

The Russian intervention has turned the momentum President Bashar al-Assad’s way in a conflict that has splintered Syria and mostly reduced his control to the big cities of the west and the coast.

Damascus, backed by ground forces including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is making significant advances, including near the city of Aleppo which is split between rebel- and government-control.

The Islamic State assault has targeted a desert road which the government has been forced to use to reach Aleppo because insurgents still control the main highway further west.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports the war using a network of sources on the ground, said the road remained cut for a second day. A Syrian military source told Reuters army operations were continuing to repel the attack.

Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman told Reuters: “The clashes are ongoing, the regime recovered four of seven (lost positions). It is still cut.” It later reported IS had seized control of the village of Khanaser on the road.

Islamic State, which controls swathes of eastern and central Syria, differs from rebels fighting Assad in western Syria because its priority is expanding its own “caliphate” rather than reforming Syria through Assad’s removal from power.

The group has escalated attacks on government targets in recent days. On Sunday, it staged some of the deadliest suicide bomb attacks of the war, killing around 150 people in government-controlled Damascus and Homs.

A U.S.-Russian statement said the two countries and others would work together to delineate the territory held by IS, Nusra Front, and other militant groups excluded from the truce.

In Geneva, U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said: “This is a cessation of hostilities that we hope will take force very quickly and hope provide breathing space for intra-Syrian talks to resume.”

RIGHT TO RESPOND

Damascus stressed the importance of sealing the borders and halting foreign support for armed groups and “preventing these organizations from strengthening their capabilities or changing their positions, in order to avoid what may lead to wrecking this agreement”.

The Syrian military reserved the right to “respond to any breach by these groups against Syrian citizens or against its armed forces”, a government statement added.

The main, Saudi-backed Syrian opposition body said late on Monday it “consented to” the international efforts, but said acceptance of a truce was conditional on an end to blockades of rebel-held areas, free access for humanitarian aid, a release of detainees, and a halt to air strikes against civilians.

The opposition High Negotiations Committee also said it did not expect Assad, Russia, or Iran to cease hostilities.

The powerful Kurdish YPG militia, which is currently fighting both Islamic State and rebels near Aleppo, is “seriously examining” the U.S.-Russian plan to decide whether to take part, a YPG official told Reuters. “There is so far no decision,” said the official, declining to be identified because he is not an official YPG spokesman.

The YPG, an ally of the United States in the fight against Islamic State in Syria, has recently received Russian air support during an offensive against rebels near Aleppo.

Britain said on Tuesday it had seen disturbing evidence that Syrian Kurdish forces were coordinating with the Syrian government and the Russian air force.

Turkey, a major sponsor of the insurgency against Assad, said it welcomed plans for the halt to fighting but was not optimistic about a positive outcome to talks on a political transition.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Ankara had reservations about actions that Russian forces could take against Syria’s moderate opposition and civilians. Turkey is worried about the expansion of YPG influence in Syria, fearing it could fuel separatism among its own Kurdish population.

A rebel fighter in the Aleppo area said he did not expect the ceasefire plan to work.

“The Russian jets will not stop bombing on the pretext of Nusra and the Islamic State organization, and will keep bombing civilians and the rest of the factions with this pretext,” said Abu al-Baraa al-Hamawi, a fighter with the Ajnad al-Sham group.

“Everything that is happening is pressure to extend the life of the regime,” he told Reuters from the Aleppo area.

(Additional reporting by Kinda Makieh in Damascus, Orhan Coskun in Ankara, Guy Faulconbridge in London and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Syrian rebels see flaws in U.S.-Russia truce plan

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) – The United States and Russia announced plans for a ‘cessation of hostilities’ in Syria that would take effect on Saturday but exclude groups such as Islamic State and al Qaeda’s Nusra Front, a loophole that Syrian rebels immediately highlighted as a problem.

Monday’s agreement, described by a U.N. spokesman as “a first step towards a more durable ceasefire”, is the fruit of intensive diplomacy between Washington and Moscow, which back opposing sides in the five-year-old civil war that has killed more than a quarter of a million people.

Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin discussed the accord by phone, and the Kremlin leader said it could “radically transform the crisis situation in Syria”. The White House said it could help advance talks on bringing about political change in Syria.

To succeed, the deal will require both countries to persuade their allies on the ground to comply.

It allows the Syrian army and allied forces, as well as Syrian opposition fighters, to respond with “proportionate use of force” in self-defense. And it leaves a significant loophole by allowing continued attacks, including air strikes, against Islamic State, Nusra and other militant groups.

Bashar al-Zoubi, head of the political office of the Yarmouk Army, part of the rebel Free Syrian Army, said this would provide cover for President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies to continue to attack opposition-held territory where rebel and militant factions are tightly packed.

“Russia and the regime will target the areas of the revolutionaries on the pretext of the Nusra Front’s presence, and you know how mixed those areas are, and if this happens, the truce will collapse,” he said.

“CRITICAL ISSUE”

Since intervening with air strikes in support of Assad in September, Russia has helped pave the way for significant advances by government forces in a conflict that has sucked in a host of world and regional powers.

The Syrian army is backed by Moscow, Iran and fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah; ranged against them are rebels supported by the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

A joint U.S.-Russian statement said the two countries and others would work together to delineate the territory held by Islamic State, Nusra Front and the other militant groups excluded from the truce.

But rebel officials said it was impossible to pinpoint positions held by Nusra.

“For us, al-Nusra is a problematic point, because al-Nusra is not only present in Idlib, but also in Aleppo, in Damascus and in the south. The critical issue here is that civilians or the Free Syrian Army could be targeted under the pretext of targeting al-Nusra,” said a senior opposition figure, Khaled Khoja.

He said the cessation would be for an initial two weeks and “could be extended indefinitely if the parties commit to it.”

The main opposition body, the High Negotiations Committee, was convening a meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Monday to discuss the truce.

Assad said on Saturday he was ready for a ceasefire, on condition that opposition forces he describes as terrorists did not use a lull in fighting to their advantage, and that countries backing insurgents halted support for them.

In a sign of confidence, reflecting his growing momentum on the battlefield, Assad on Monday called a parliamentary election for April 13. The timing was not a surprise as elections are held every four years and the last one was in 2012.

A U.N. Security Council resolution in December called for elections within 18 months under a new constitution, and administered by the United Nations.

TALKS “VERY SOON”

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon welcomed the U.S.-Russian announcement, which follows a failed attempt by his Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura last month to restart peace talks in Geneva.

“The Secretary-General strongly urges the parties to abide by the terms of the agreement,” Ban’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “Much work now lies ahead to ensure its implementation.”

De Mistura told Reuters the cessation accord could allow a resumption of negotiations. “We can now relaunch very soon the political process which is needed to end this conflict,” he said.

In a guarded reaction, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told Reuters he was “not pessimistic”.

Under the terms of the cessation, parties would indicate their agreement to the United States and Russia by noon on Friday Damascus time (1000 GMT), and the truce would go into effect at midnight, the two countries said.

Syrian government and allied forces will cease attacks against armed opposition forces, and vice versa, with any weapons including rockets, mortars, anti-tank guided missiles.

The agreement does not spell out in detail how the truce will be monitored, let alone enforced. While the United States and Russia will establish a communication “hotline” and encourage others to share information about violations, they have yet to make explicit how they plan to do so.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said there were “significant challenges ahead”. He urged all parties to accept the terms of the deal, which he said could reduce the violence and help get aid to besieged areas.

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, in a speech aboard a U.S. navy ship visiting Israel as part of a joint military drill, said: “It is difficult to see a stable ceasefire in actuality, with all players agreeing to it.”

NO LET-UP

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said fighting and air strikes continued unabated across Syria on Monday.

Islamic State attacked the Syrian government’s main supply route from Damascus to the northern city of Aleppo, a day after the group targeted Damascus and Homs in some of the bloodiest car bomb attacks of the war.

A rebel fighting government forces and Kurdish militia in the Aleppo area said there was no sign of a let-up. “The battles are in full force,” he told Reuters.

Fred Hof, a former State Department Syria specialist now at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, said the proposed timetable gave Russia, Iran and Syria five more days to complete the encirclement of rebels in Aleppo.

“Indeed, success of this initiative – including widespread humanitarian relief for Syrian civilians – requires good faith and decency by three parties who have shown little or none during the duration of this crisis,” Hof said. “Let’s hope they change their spots.”

In a report published on Monday, a U.N.-backed panel said war crimes were widespread, and Syrian government forces and Islamic State militants continued to commit crimes against humanity in the face of inaction by the international community.

“Flagrant violations of human rights and international humanitarian law continue unabated, aggravated by blatant impunity,” the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry said.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Jonathan Landay, Dasha Afanasieva, Jason Bush, Lisa Barrington, Omar Fahmy, Louis Charbonneau and Dan Williams; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Study finds Islamic State using more child soldiers, 89 die in 13 months

At least 89 children have died in the past 13 months while acting on behalf of the Islamic State, according to a new study suggesting the group has more child soldiers than previously thought.

The study, published Thursday by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, says that the Islamic State “is mobilizing children and youth at an increasing and unprecedented rate.”

It focuses on the 89 children and teenagers who the Islamic State has publicly eulogized as martyrs since January 1, 2015, shining a light on how the group uses children in its operations.

The study found children are largely being given the same roles as their adult counterparts and “are fighting alongside, rather than in lieu of” men. The findings suggest the Islamic State’s “systematic use of children is more widespread than previously imagined,” the report states.

The Islamic State does not publicize the ages of the deceased children, so the researchers had to rely on photographs to determine their approximate ages. They found 60 percent of the child soldiers were believed to be adolescents (ages 12 to 16), 6 percent appeared to be pre-adolescent (ages 8 to 12) and the remaining 34 percent seemed to be older adolescents (ages 16 to 21).

Many of the children died setting off vehicle bombs (39 percent) or as soldiers on the battlefield (33 percent). Another 18 percent died in “inghimasi” attacks, where a mix of adult and child soldiers shoot their way into enemy territory before blowing themselves up. The others were killed while working as propagandists among Islamic State units or in attacks against civilians.

The study found that 87 percent of the children were purportedly killed in Iraq or Syria, where the group controls large portions of land, while the others died in Libya, Nigeria and Yemen.

Researchers acknowledge the data isn’t all-encompassing — they noted the Islamic State did not publicly release photographic propaganda about every one of its suicide attacks last month, for example — but they maintain the report is the most comprehensive analysis of its kind to date.

They also warned that the Islamic State utilization of child soldiers appears to be on the rise, saying 11 were killed in suicide missions last month compared to just six during January 2015.

A spokesman for the United States-led coalition against the Islamic State has said Iraqi forces have regained significant amounts of territory the insurgency once held in Iraq and Syria, and airstrikes recently destroyed “significant amounts” of cash the group used to fund its operations.

The report suggests a potential link between recent military pressure and the uptick in deaths.

“It seems plausible that, as military pressure against the Islamic State has increased in recent months, such operations — especially those of the inghimasi variety — are becoming more tactically attractive,” it states. “They represent an effective form of psychological warfare. … We can expect that as their implementation increases, so too will the reported rate of child and youth deaths.”

Violence rages in Syria as Kerry, Lavrov reach provisional deal on ceasefire

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday he and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, had reached a provisional agreement on terms of a cessation of hostilities in Syria and the sides were closer to a ceasefire than ever before.

Meanwhile, violence continued to rage in Syria. Multiple bomb blasts in a southern district of Damascus killed at least 87 people on Sunday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and twin car bombs killed at least 59 people in Homs, the monitoring group said.

Russian air strikes launched in September against rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad have exacerbated suffering and destruction in Syria, where a five-year-old civil war has killed more than a quarter of a million people.

Assad said on Saturday he was ready for a ceasefire on condition “terrorists” did not use a lull in fighting to their advantage and that countries backing the insurgents stopped supporting them.

The Syrian opposition had earlier said it had agreed to the “possibility” of a temporary truce, provided there were guarantees Damascus’s allies, including Russia, would cease fire, sieges were lifted and aid deliveries were allowed country-wide.

“We have reached a provisional agreement in principle on the terms of a cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days,” Kerry told a news conference in Amman with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.

“The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed. In fact, we are closer to a ceasefire today than we have been,” said Kerry, who was also to meet King Abdullah.

He declined to go into detail about the unresolved issues, saying the two sides were “filling out the details” of the agreement. And he indicated issues remained to be resolved and he did not expect any immediate change on the ground.

He repeated the U.S. position that Assad had to step down. “With Assad there, this war cannot and will not end,” he said.

Assad’s fate has been one of the main points of difference between Washington and Russia, the Syrian leader’s main international backer. Russia recently has begun to say Syrians should decide on whether Assad should stay or not, but it continues to support Damascus with air strikes.

OBAMA AND PUTIN TO TALK

Kerry said he had spoken to Lavrov on several occasions, including earlier on Sunday, and that he anticipated U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk in the coming days to complete the provisional agreement in principle.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed Lavrov and Kerry had spoken by phone on Sunday about conditions for a ceasefire. It said the discussions were on conditions that would exclude operations against organizations “recognized as terrorist by U.N. Security Council”.

Those groups include Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

Despite the provisional agreement, Kerry did not see an imminent change in fighting on the ground.

“I do not believe that in the next few days, during which time we try to bring this into effect, there is somehow going to be a tipping point with respect to what is happening on the ground … The opposition has made clear their determination to fight back,” he said.

The car bombs and suicide attacks on Sunday in the Sayeda Zeinab district of Damascus, where Syria’s holiest Shi’ite shrine is located, were claimed by Islamic State. Suicide attacks last month in the same district, also claimed by Islamic State, killed 60 people.

The car bombings on Sunday in Homs, in which at least 100 were also wounded, were among the deadliest in the city in five years of fighting, the Syrian Observatory said.

Kerry said any deal would take a few days to come together, while the two sides consulted with other countries and the Syrian opposition. Russia had to speak to the Syrian government and Iran, and the United States had to speak to the Syrian opposition and its partners, Kerry said.

Russia’s RIA news agency said on Sunday that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had arrived in Tehran, quoting a source in the Russian Embassy in Iran. It did not give a reason for the visit.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi, Kinda Makieh and Katya Golubkova; Editing by Richard Balmforth, Larry King)

Russia presses U.N. Security Council on Syria’s sovereignty

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia asked the United Nations Security Council on Friday to call for Syria’s sovereignty to be respected, for cross-border shellings and incursions to be halted and for “attempts or plans for foreign ground intervention” to be abandoned.

Russia circulated a short draft resolution to the 15-member council over concerns about an escalation in hostilities on the Turkey/Syria border and possible plans for a Turkish ground operation. The document does not name Turkey.

The Security Council was meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss the draft.

The draft, seen by Reuters, would have the council express “its grave alarm at the reports of military buildup and preparatory activities aimed at launching foreign ground intervention into the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic.”

On the way into the council meeting, veto powers U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, and French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre both said the Russian draft resolution has no future.

The draft also demands that states “refrain from provocative rhetoric and inflammatory statements inciting further violence and interference into internal affairs of the Syrian Arab Republic.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Reuters this week that his country, Saudi Arabia and some European powers wanted ground troops in Syria, though no serious plan had been debated.

Russia’s relations with Turkey hit a low in November when Turkish warplanes downed a Russian bomber near the Syrian-Turkish border, a move described by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “dastardly stab in the back.”

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler)

Turkey says Obama shares Syria concerns with Erdogan, affirms support

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s presidency said U.S. President Barack Obama had shared his concerns over the Syrian conflict and promised his support on Friday, hours after a tense exchange between the two NATO allies over the role of Kurdish militants.

In a phone conversation that lasted one hour and twenty minutes, Ankara said Obama had told his counterpart President Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey had a right to self defense, and expressed worries over advances by Syrian Kurdish militias near Turkey’s border.

Washington did not immediately comment on the call, beyond saying Obama has given his condolences over Wednesday’s bombing in the Turkish capital..

Earlier on Friday, Erdogan had said U.S.-supplied weapons had been used against civilians by a Syrian Kurdish militia group that Ankara blames for the deadly suicide bombing this week.

The State Department, which sees the Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters as useful allies against Islamic State, said the United States had “not provided any weapons of any kind” to the group.

The issue risks driving a wedge between the NATO allies at a critical point in Syria’s civil war, as the United States pursues intensive talks with Syria’s ally Russia to bring about a ‘cessation of hostilities’.

Turkey has blamed the YPG for the suicide car bomb attack two days ago that killed 28 people, most of them soldiers. But a Turkey-based Kurdish splinter group has claimed responsibility for the bombing and threatened more attacks.

Before the call with Obama, Erdogan said he was saddened by the West’s refusal to call the Syrian Kurdish militia terrorists, and would explain to the U.S. president how weapons provided by the United States had aided them.

“I will tell him, ‘Look at how and where those weapons you provided were fired’,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul.

“Months ago in my meeting with him I told him the U.S. was supplying weapons. Three plane loads arrived, half of them ended up in the hands of Daesh (Islamic State), and half of them in the hands of the PYD,” he said.

“Against whom were these weapons used? They were used against civilians there and caused their deaths.”

He appeared to be referring to a U.S. air drop of 28 bundles of military supplies in late 2014 meant for Iraqi Kurdish fighters near the Syrian city of Kobani. Pentagon officials said at the time one had fallen into the hands of Islamic State. The Pentagon later said it had targeted the missing bundle in an air strike and destroyed it.

The United States has said it does not consider the YPG a terrorist group. A spokesman for the State Department said on Thursday that Washington was not in a position to confirm or deny Turkey’s charge that the YPG was behind the Ankara bombing.

The spokesman also called on Turkey to stop its recent shelling of the YPG. The YPG’s political arm has denied the group was behind the Ankara attack and said Turkey was using it to justify an escalation in fighting in northern Syria.

“CONFLICTING AND CONFUSED”

The Turkish government has said the Ankara attack, in which a car laden with explosives was detonated next to military buses as they waited at traffic lights, was carried out by a YPG member from northern Syria working with Kurdish militants inside Turkey.

But the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), a group that once had links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement on its website. It said the bomber was a 26-year old Turkish national.

The claim of responsibility by TAK is unlikely to make a difference to Turkey’s demand that Washington stop its support of the Syrian Kurdish fighters.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu earlier accused the United States of making conflicting statements about the Syrian Kurdish militia.

He said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had told him the Kurdish insurgents could not be trusted, in what Cavusoglu said was a departure from Washington’s official position.

“My friend Kerry said the YPG cannot be trusted,” Cavusoglu said at a news conference during a visit to Tbilisi.

“When you look at some statements coming from America, conflicting and confused statements are still coming…. We were glad to hear from John Kerry yesterday that his views on the YPG have partly changed.”

Within hours of the Ankara attack, Turkish warplanes bombed bases in northern Iraq of the PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency against Turkey and which Davutoglu accused of collaborating in the car bombing.

Violence between Turkish security forces and the PKK has been at its worst since the 1990s after a 2-1/2-year ceasefire collapsed last July.

Two soldiers and a police officer were killed on Friday in a PKK attack in the Sur district of the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, parts of which have been under round-the-clock curfew since December, the armed forces said.

Three other soldiers were killed as a building collapsed in the same district.

(Additional reporting by Daren Butler, Asli Kandemir, Lesley Wroughton, Roberta Rampton and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Writing by Nick Tattersall, David Dolan and Dasha Afanasieva; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Andrew Heavens)

Russia warns Assad not to snub Syria ceasefire plan

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad was out of step with the views of his main ally, Russia, when he said he planned to fight on until he re-established control over all of Syria, Russia’s envoy to the United Nations was quoted as saying on Thursday.

In the first public sign of cracks in the alliance between Moscow and Damascus, the envoy, Vitaly Churkin, said Russia had helped Assad turn the tide of the war so it was now incumbent on him to follow Russia’s line and commit to peace talks.

Churkin said Russia was working toward a peaceful settlement for Syria, and that attempting to take back control over the whole country would be a futile exercise which would allow the conflict to drag on indefinitely.

Asked in an interview with Kommersant newspaper about Assad’s comments that he would keep fighting until all rebels were defeated, Churkin said: “Russia has invested very seriously in this crisis, politically, diplomatically, and now also in the military sense.

“Therefore we of course would like that Bashar al Assad should take account of that.”

“I heard President Assad’s remarks on television… Of course they do not chime with the diplomatic efforts that Russia is undertaking…. The discussions are about a ceasefire, a cessation of hostilities in the foreseeable future. Work is underway on this.”

Moscow and Damascus have been in lock-step since the end of September last year, when Russia launched air strikes on Syria which focused on attacking rebels opposed to Assad’s rule.

The Russian strikes saved Assad’s forces from imminent collapse and turned the tide of the fighting in his favor, exasperating the United States and its allies which have been working for years to defeat him.

Western diplomats expressed hope that Russia could use its influence over Assad to persuade him to start talks with armed opposition groups and eventually agree to step down.

Unofficial reports have emerged of Assad refusing to meet opposition figures proposed by Moscow as potential negotiating partners, but Churkin’s remarks are the first public sign that Moscow is frustrated with Assad’s reluctance to compromise.

On Assad’s comments about fighting on in Syria, Churkin said in the interview: “In this case I think that we ought to be guided not by what he (Assad) says, with all my respect to the remarks of such a high-ranking person, but by what he does in the end.

“If the Syrian authorities… follow Russia’s lead in the resolution of this crisis, then they have a chance to get out of it with their dignity intact.”

“But if in some way they are knocked off that path — and this again is my personal opinion — then a very difficult situation could arise. Including for the Syrians themselves. Because whatever the capabilities of the Syrian army, it was the effective operations of Russian air forces that allowed them to push their opponents back from Damascus.”

“If they take the position that they don’t need any ceasefire, and they need to fight on to the end and to victory, then this conflict is going to carry on for a very long time. And it’s frightening to imagine that,” Churkin said.

(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Christian Lowe)

Snyder: Middle East developments put world at risk of WWIII

Recent developments in the Middle East have placed the world dangerously close to an event that could potentially ignite another world war, Michael Snyder said on Thursday morning.

Snyder made the comments during a taping of The Jim Bakker Show.

He was referring to a potential ground invasion of Syria, which he wrote about earlier this week on his blog “The Economic Collapse.” Snyder’s post cited a Saudi Arabia state media report that stated 20 nations would participate in a “military exercise” in the northern part of kingdom.

The Saudi Press Agency said the exercise would include troops, fighter jets, artillery, tanks, naval forces, and air defense systems, according to the announcement. The agency called it “the largest and most important military maneuver in the history of the region” and said it showed the 20 nations “stand united to face all challenges and to maintain peace and stability in the region.”

Snyder, though, noted in his post that “military exercises” are sometimes used as an excuse if governments are planning to prepare for a ground invasion. He argued that Saudi Arabia and Turkey could both benefit from invading Syria, though noted an invasion may lead to backlash from Russia and other nations with conflicting interests in Syria’s nearly five-year civil war.

“We could literally be looking at the spark that sets off World War 3,” he wrote.

Snyder went into more detail about the political, religious and economic sides of the conflict in Syria and the potential fallout of any ground invasion during Thursday morning’s taping.

“With interlocking relationships and alliances, they could draw in the entire world eventually — including the United States,” he said.

The show is scheduled to air on Feb. 23, but viewers can get exclusive early access through the PTL Television Network on Roku or the Video on Demand section of jimbakkershow.com.

The United Nations says 250,000 people have been killed and another 12 million are currently displaced as a result of the Syrian violence. The nation is the world’s largest source of refugees.

At a meeting last week, the International Syria Support Group agreed to try to implement a “nationwide cessation of hostilities” in Syria by this Friday. But violence and airstrikes have continued this week, and a medical charity known as Doctors Without Borders said at least 25 doctors and patients were killed on Monday when missiles targeted a hospital in Idlib Province.

During Thursday’s taping, Pastor Zach Drew asked Snyder if people should expect to see an invasion within the next 18 days, a reference to the reported length of the military exercise.

“We’re certainly in the danger zone, Zach, because this unprecedented military force has gathered right now,” Snyder replied. “If we get past a few weeks, well then, presumably, they would start to go home and go back to their countries. But they’re gathered right now in northern Saudi Arabia. It’s a real, real potential.”

During the taping, Pastor Jim Bakker said headlines from around the world are “crying out” that a world war could start in a matter of weeks or days, yet they were being largely ignored.

“We are in a moment where suddenly things will happen, and we’re not going to be able to do anything about it,” Pastor Bakker said. “Most people are not prepared for the world to come apart. We’re not prepared at all.”

Turkey blames Kurdish militants for Ankara bomb, vows reprisals

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed a Syrian Kurdish militia fighter working with Kurdish militants inside Turkey for a suicide car bombing that killed 28 people in the capital Ankara, and he vowed retaliation in both Syria and Iraq.

A car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses as they waited at traffic lights near Turkey’s armed forces’ headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara late on Wednesday.

Davutoglu said the attack was clear evidence that the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia that has been supported by the United States in the fight against Islamic State in northern Syria, was a terrorist organization and that Turkey, a NATO member, expected cooperation from its allies in combating the group.

Within hours, Turkish warplanes bombed bases in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state and which Davutoglu accused of collaborating in the car bombing.

Turkey’s armed forces also shelled YPG positions in northern Syria on Thursday, a security source said. Davutoglu said the artillery fire would continue and promised that those responsible for the Ankara attack would “pay the price”.

“Yesterday’s attack was directly targeting Turkey and the perpetrator is the YPG and the divisive terrorist organization PKK. All necessary measures will be taken against them,” Davutoglu said in a televised speech.

President Tayyip Erdogan also said initial findings suggested the Syrian Kurdish militia and the PKK were behind the bombing and said that 14 people had been detained.

The political arm of the YPG, denied involvement in the bombing, while a senior member of the PKK said he did not know who was responsible.

The attack was the latest in a series of bombings in the past year mostly blamed on Islamic State militants.

Turkey is getting dragged ever deeper into the war in neighboring Syria and is trying to contain some of the fiercest violence in decades in its predominantly Kurdish southeast.

The YPG militia, regarded by Ankara as a hostile insurgent force deeply linked to the PKK, has taken advantage in recent weeks of a major Syrian army offensive around the northern city of Aleppo, backed by Russian air strikes, to seize ground from Syrian rebels near the Turkish border.

That has alarmed Turkey, which fears the advances will stoke Kurdish separatist ambitions at home. It has been bombarding YPG positions in an effort to stop them taking the town of Azaz, the last stronghold of Turkish-backed Syrian rebels north of Aleppo before the Turkish frontier.

Hundreds of Syrian rebels with weapons and vehicles have re-entered Syria from Turkey over the last week to reinforce insurgents fending off the Kurdish-led assault on Azaz, rebel sources said on Thursday.

TENSIONS WITH WASHINGTON

The co-leader of the YPG’s political wing denied that the affiliated YPG perpetrated the Ankara bombing and said Turkey was using the attack to justify an escalation in fighting in northern Syria.

“We are completely refuting that. …Davutoglu is preparing for something else because they are shelling us as you know for the past week,” Saleh Muslim told Reuters by telephone.

Washington’s support of the YPG – it views the group as a useful ally in the fight against Islamic State – has strained relations with Turkey. Both Erdogan and Davutoglu have called on the United States to cut ties with the insurgents.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Washington was not in a position to either confirm or deny Turkey’s charge the YPG was behind the attack. He also called on Turkey to stop shelling the YPG.

Turkey has said its shelling of YPG positions is a response, within its rules of engagement, to hostile fire coming across the border into Turkey, something Saleh Muslim also denied.

“I can assure you not even one bullet is fired by the YPG into Turkey … They don’t consider Turkey an enemy,” he said.

The co-leader of the PKK umbrella group, Cemil Bayik, was quoted by the Firat news agency as saying he did not know who was responsible for the Ankara bombing. But the attack, he said, could be an answer to “massacres in Kurdistan”, referring to the Kurdish region spanning parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

Turkey has been battling PKK militants in its own southeast, where a 2-1/2 year ceasefire collapsed last July and pitched the region into its worst bloodshed since the 1990s. Six soldiers were killed and one wounded on Thursday when a remote-controlled handmade bomb hit their vehicle, the military said.

WARNING TO RUSSIA

Davutoglu named the suicide bomber as Salih Necar, born in 1992 and from the Hasakah region of northern Syria, and said he was a member of the YPG.

A senior security official said the alleged bomber had entered Turkey from Syria in July 2014, although he may have crossed the border illegally multiple times before that, and said he had had contact with the PKK and Syrian intelligence.

Davutoglu also accused the Syrian government of a hand in the Ankara bombing and warned Russia, whose air strikes in northern Syria have helped the YPG to advance, against using the Kurdish militant group against Turkey.

“I’d like to warn Russia, which is giving air support to the YPG in its advance on Azaz, not to use this terrorist group against the innocent people of Syria and Turkey,” he said.

“Russia condemned yesterday’s attack, but it is not enough. All those who intend to use terrorist organizations as proxies should know that this game of terror will turn around like a boomerang and hit them first.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told a teleconference with reporters that the Kremlin condemned the bombing “in the strongest possible terms”.

(Additional reporting by Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir, Daren Butler and Ece Toksabay in Istanbul, Orhan Coskun in Ankara, Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Andrew Heavens and Andrew Hay)