ISIS in Iraq and Syria

It has to be said, Kobane is looking like the Stalingrad of this generation. Brave Kurdish men and women fighting for every inch of the city.

Air strikes still doing bugger all apparently.
 
sun_tzu said:
Would turkey prefer to deal with ISIS than the Kurds as an independent Kurdish state on their boarder could potentially cause internal factions wanting to split off?

I dont know enough about the internal political workings of Turkey to be sure of this but I know it has been suggested by several commentators and I cant recall hearing a logical counter argument as to why they wouldn't have major issues with ISIS controlling large sections of their boarders?
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Turkey most likely will prefer to deal with ISIS rather than an indipendent Kurdish state. They can easily deal with ISIS if they start attacking Turkey. Turkey has an extremely powerful army that can defeat ISIS very fast. However an uprising of Kurdish people on Turkey will cause more problems to Turkey.

For Erdogan (the current Sultan of Turkey) I think it is even more straight forward. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a sympathy for IS.
 
Revan said:
For Erdogan (the current Sultan of Turkey) I think it is even more straight forward. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a sympathy for IS.
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Its a bit of a clusterf*ck isn't it

Assad vs the free syria army vs isis vs the kurds with turkey, iran and many other states in the region having their own agendas / concerns. - and who knows what will happen if ISIS expand to the other side of Syria and join with Palestinian militants and / or decide to wage war on Isreal... plus a lot of oil as well that will ultimately have to belong to someone and I am sure countries like the USA, Russia, and China have at least given that a momentary passing thought (if not more).

I just cant see anything getting better until it has got a lot worse which is pretty sad but unfortunately I don't see how such a fragmented picture will easily resolve its self or how external pressure / forces / intervention will be able to do so either because with so may agendas most people are going to be very unhappy whatever the outcome
 
Pexbo said:
Where do Russia fit into all this? They must be aligning themseleves with someone?
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Their interests are strongly with the Assad regime who they've have good relations with over the years. Syria is Russia's biggest ally in the region and also has a naval base located there, which they plan to expand. They are also Syria's main supplier of arms and facilitated weapon deals to help Assad's troops against the uprising.
 
fergosaurus said:
Their interests are strongly with the Assad regime who they've have good relations with over the years. Syria is Russia's biggest ally in the region and also has a naval base located there, which they plan to expand. They are also Syria's main supplier of arms and facilitated weapon deals to help Assad's troops against the uprising.
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So they are anti-ISIS in that they are allied with their enemies however the ISIS enemies they are allied with are generally also enemies of the coalition?
 
Pexbo said:
So they are anti-ISIS in that they are allied with their enemies however the ISIS enemies they are allied with are generally also enemies of the coalition?
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This is where it gets confusing.

The 'Anti-IS coalition' is anti-Assad, and have been instrumental in funding and arming Syrian Rebels fighting Assad, but who themselves are allied to ISIS.

I'd argue the whole 'Anti-IS coalition' is actually a sham and not really anti-IS, its just IMO a red herring and mission creep to justify the real mission objective - regime change.
 
Turkey has a shit load of ISIS supporters apparently. It won't be as easy as 'turkey can wipe isis out really fast'. There will be real damage done. Everyone always thinks ISIS is weak as shit, thats the main reason they're doing so much damage. No one expected them to come so far.
 
Turkey is a country with population of some 75 million people, making it one of the largest Sunni nations on the planet. Its hardly a surprise they're going have a sizeable ISIS support base, especially considering how Erdogan's Islamist party was democratically elected.
 
Serious question - why aren't the US flying drones over Syria? I mean instead of accidentally blowing up Afghan and Pakistani kids, they could actually be of good use against advancing ISIS forces - they're cheaper than airstrikes and can be just as effective with the added benefit of no casualties should they be shot down. And if they do get shot down, its not like ISIS have the cognitive ability to reverse engineer them.
 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that a ground operation is now necessary to defeat Isis (now known as the Islamic State).

"The terror will not be over... unless we cooperate for a ground operation," he said in a televised speech in the eastern Turkish city of Gaziantep.

"Months have passed but no results have been achieved. Kobani is about to fall [to IS]."

Erdogan confirmed at the United Nations Summit in New York that Turkey would provide the "necessary support" to the operation in a "military or logistical" capacity to tackle the jihadists.
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Needs to happen.
 
Turkey doesn't need to do anything militarily. It just needs to open the border, allow Kurds in Iraq and Turkey to transport heavy weapons to Kobane, and stop supporting ISIS.
 
Kaos said:
Empty rhetoric, Erdogan has no interest in defeating ISIS, quite the contrary actually.
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I know he's been helping ISIS, but is there a chance he has seen the Kurds protesting across Europe and reevaluated whether it's a good idea to let ISIS freely slaughter a couple of thousand Kurds so close to the Turkish border when they could be doing a lot more to at least slow them down? It's perhaps a long shot but could he be more concerned with the backlash that would cause from the Kurdish people?
 
fergosaurus said:
I know he's been helping ISIS, but is there a chance he has seen the Kurds protesting across Europe and reevaluated whether it's a good idea to let ISIS freely slaughter a couple of thousand Kurds so close to the Turkish border? It's perhaps a long shot but could he be more concerned with the backlash that would cause from the Kurdish people?
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I don't think a Kurdish backlash is going to concern Erdogan. Let's not forget that he basically violently shut down protests by 7million Turks last year over his urban development plans, essentially dismissing them all as looters and proudly masquerading himself as the Sultan-elect.

If in doubt, he'll just tar all Kurds with the PKK brush.
 
Kaos said:
I don't think a Kurdish backlash is going to concern Erdogan. Let's not forget that he basically violently shut down protests by 7million Turks last year over his urban development plans, essentially dismissing them all as looters and proudly masquerading himself as the Sultan-elect.
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You're most likely right, but let's say Turkey do decide to put boots on the ground, how long do you reckon the process would take before they can go in?
 
fergosaurus said:
You're most likely right, but let's say Turkey do decide to put boots on the ground, how long do you reckon the process would take before they can go in?
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Depends how they intend to use those boots on the ground. Theoretically they can go in immediately since they've got their troops mobilised on the border, merely a few miles away from Kobane. Heck if they wanted to they could blow ISIS out of the water in Kobane today and be home in time for tea this evening. But I stand by my opinion that they have no interest in doing so.

If in some strange parallel universes Turkish troops go in and lay waste to ISIS, there's no chance they're conceding the city to the Kurds. So either way, the Kurds are getting fecked. Turkey are an obstacle not a potential solution, the solution is to shower the Kurds with some serious heavy weaponry, continue a surgical bombardment and hope they turn the tide of the battle. Then for lols fire a stray missile at a Turkish troop regiment on the border.
 
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Kaos said:
Depends how they intend to use those boots on the ground. Theoretically they can go in immediately since they've got their troops mobilised on the border, merely a few miles away from Kobane. Heck if they wanted to they could blow ISIS out of the water in Kobane today and be home in time for tea this evening. But I stand by my opinion that they have no interest in doing so.

If in some strange parallel universes Turkish troops go in and lay waste to ISIS, there's no chance they're conceding the city to the Kurds. So either way, the Kurds are getting fecked. Turkey are an obstacle not a potential solution, the solution is to shower the Kurds with some serious heavy weaponry, continue a surgical bombardment and hope they turn the tide of the battle. Then for lols fire a stray missile at a Turkish troop regiment on the border.
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Ah, I thought there would have to be some kind of parliamentary vote before going in.
 
I expect Turkey to begin military ground operations in Kobane in next 48 hours.

Then you'll see the buffer zone and the breakdown of the peace process, all in less than a week.
 
fergosaurus said:
Ah, I thought there would have to be some kind of parliamentary vote before going in.
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Their government already passed a motion a few days ago permitting their troops to take part in the 'anti-IS' effort in Syria and Iraq, whatever that means.
 
Suli said:
I expect Turkey to begin military ground operations in Kobane in next 48 hours.

Then you'll see the buffer zone and the breakdown of the peace process, all in less than a week.
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Which is a bit weird, isn't it? If Turkey is really serious about anti-IS operations, it would put them on the same side. I also do not understand why Turkey would prevent Turk-Kurds from corssing over to fight in Kobane!
 
They're so bad at street to street combat. They're dying in the dozens whenever they make an attempt to move forward, silly rats.
 
There are comments on that video saying that it´s old footage from Eastern Aleppo.
 
Hardly surprising, war footage gets frequently recycled in social media coverage of fighting in Iraq, Libya and Syria. Same with photos too.
 
I'll show some photos of the clashes in Turkey and stuff once I've had some dinner and sifted through all the crap too. There have been curfews in cities (not being obeyed) and many police stations have been overrun.
 
@Kaos

Thanks for the reply. I think you're overstating the figures of fighters. I don't really think Saudi or any Kingdom has much to gain from the likes of ISIS on their doorstep. I would think your posts would be a lot more insightful if they were not always directed towards blaming predominantly Sunni nations, and USA/Alliances for problems in that part of the world. Syria, Iraq, Iran have not been paragons of virtue.
 
Relevated said:
do you think Osama bin bieber is fighting in kobane, suli
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Rel, I mean with all my heart, everyday I hope I see his face in one of the videos of dead ISIS. One day I'll see his shitty face in a YPG video and I'll show you, stupid boy.

Then again, he's too stupid to know how to fight, he's probably involved in media and the like.
 
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