Regional

US shoots down Turkish drone over Syria

Published

7 months ago

October 6, 2023

(Last Updated On: October 6, 2023)

The Pentagon said Thursday the U.S. military shot down an armed Turkish drone that came within 500 meters (yards) of American troops in northeastern Syria, in a rare use of force by one NATO member against another.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, called it a “regrettable incident” and said U.S. troops were forced to go to bunkers for safety as Turkey bombed targets nearby, the Associated Press reported.

Both Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the new Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. CQ Brown, spoke with their Turkish counterparts quickly after the incident to emphasize the value they place on their relationship with Turkey — but also the need to avoid any similar incidents in the future and ensure the safety of U.S. personnel.

The decision to shoot down an ally’s armed drone “was made out due diligence and the inherent right of self-defense to take appropriate action to protect U.S. forces,” Ryder said, adding that “we have no indication that Turkey was intentionally targeting U.S. forces.”

U.S. officials earlier told The Associated Press the shootdown was ordered after more than a dozen calls to Turkish military officials stating that U.S. forces were on the ground in the area and that the U.S. military would take action to protect them if the drone didn’t leave. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of a sensitive military incident.

Ryder said U.S. forces observed Turkish drones doing airstrikes around Hassakeh at about 7:30 a.m. local time, and some strikes were inside a so-called American “restricted operating zone” just a kilometer (about a half mile) from U.S. troops. He said a bit later a Turkish drone re-entered the restricted area “on a heading toward where U.S. forces were located.”

Commanders determined it was a threat and U.S. F-16 fighter jets shot it down around 11:40 a.m., Ryder said, adding that no U.S. forces were injured.

The incident occurred on the same day as a drone attack killed at least 80 peoplein government-controlled Homs, Syria, where explosive-laden drones were detonated during a military graduation ceremony attended by young officers and their families. An additional 240 people were injured, according to Syria’s health ministry.

Syria’s military blamed insurgents “backed by known international forces,” without naming any particular group, and threatened to respond with “full force.”

Syria has been in a civil war for more than a decade, and the country is split into areas controlled by the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad; al-Qaida-linked militants and Turkish-backed opposition fighters in the northwest; and Kurdish forces in the northeast that the U.S. partners with to conduct missions against the Islamic State group. So far, the war has killed half a million people, wounded hundreds of thousands and left many parts of the country destroyed.

Typically, the U.S. and Turkish militaries, which are NATO allies, work in close coordination in conducting air maneuvers. But Turkey considers the Kurdish forces that work with the American troops to be aligned with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

The U.S. has about 900 troops in Syria conducting missions to counter Islamic State group militants.

There was no immediate comment from Turkey on the shooting of the drone.

Regional

UN says Gaza death toll still over 35,000 but not all bodies identified

Published

14 hours ago

May 14, 2024

Ariana News

(Last Updated On: May 14, 2024)

The death toll in the Gaza Strip from the Israel-Hamas war is still more than 35,000, but the enclave’s Ministry of Health has updated its breakdown of the fatalities, the United Nations said on Monday after Israel questioned a sudden change in numbers, Reuters reported.

U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said the ministry’s figures – cited regularly by the U.N. its reporting on the seven-month-long conflict – now reflected a breakdown of the 24,686 deaths of “people who have been fully identified.”

“There’s about another 10,000 plus bodies who still have to be fully identified, and so then the details of those – which of those are children, which of those are women – that will be re-established once the full identification process is complete,” Haq told reporters in New York.

Israel last week questioned why the figures for the deaths of women and children has suddenly halved, read the report.

Haq said those figures were for identified bodies – 7,797 children, 4,959 women, 1,924 elderly, and 10,006 men – adding: “The Ministry of Health says that the documentation process of fully identifying details of the casualties is ongoing.”

Oren Marmorstein, spokesperson for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Monday accused Palestinian militants Hamas of manipulating the numbers, saying: “They are not accurate and they do not reflect the reality on the ground.”

“The parroting of Hamas’ propaganda messages without the use of any verification process has proven time and again to be methodologically flawed and unprofessional,” he said in a social media post.

Haq said U.N. teams in Gaza were not able to independently verify the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) figures given the ongoing war and sheer number of fatalities.

“Unfortunately we have the sad experience of coordinating with the Ministry of Health on casualty figures every few years for large mass casualty incidents in Gaza, and in past times their figures have proven to be generally accurate,” Haq said.

The World Health Organization “has a long-standing cooperation with the MoH in Gaza and we can attest that MoH has good capacity in data collection/analysis and its previous reporting has been considered credible,” said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris.

“Real numbers could be even higher,” she said.

Regional

Israeli forces step up attacks on Jabalia camp and Rafah in Gaza

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2024

Ariana News

(Last Updated On: May 13, 2024)

Israeli tanks, under cover of heavy fire from air and ground, pushed further into Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, residents and Hamas media said, while tanks and troops crossed a key highway on the outskirts of Rafah in the south.

In Jabalia, tanks were trying to advance towards the heart of the camp, the biggest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, Reuters reported Monday.

Residents said tank shells were landing at the center of the camp and that air strikes had destroyed clusters of houses.

Residents and medics said several people were killed and wounded in a series of air strikes on the camp overnight. Medics said they have been unable to send teams to some of the bombed areas because of the intensity of the Israeli bombardment but they have reports of fatalities.

In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, Israel stepped up aerial and ground bombardments on the eastern areas of the city, killing people in an airstrike on a house in the Brazil neighborhood.

Residents said Israeli tanks have cut off the Salahuddin Road that bisects the eastern part of the city, while the eastern part of Rafah remained a “ghost town”.

Intense fighting was reported and Israeli forces and tanks were seen in the southeast area of Rafah, residents said.

Hamas’ armed wing said its fighters were engaged in gun battles with Israeli forces in one of the streets east of Rafah, and in the east of Jabalia.

In Israel, the military sounded sirens several times in areas near Gaza, warning of potential Palestinian cross-border rocket and or mortar launches.

Regional

Turkey says it killed 17 Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, Syria

Published

4 days ago

May 10, 2024

Ariana News

(Last Updated On: May 10, 2024)

Turkish forces have killed 17 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) across various regions of northern Iraq and northern Syria, the defence ministry said on Friday.

In a post on social media platform X, the ministry said its forces had “neutralised” 10 PKK insurgents found in the Gara and Hakurk regions of northern Iraq, and in an area where the Turkish military frequently mounts cross-border raids under its “Claw-Lock Operation”.

It said another seven militants were “neutralised” in two regions of northern Syria, where Turkey has previously carried out cross-border incursions.

The ministry’s use of the term “neutralised” commonly means killed. The PKK, which has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Turkey’s cross-border attacks into northern Iraq have been a source of tension with its southeastern neighbour for years. Ankara has asked Iraq for more cooperation in combating the PKK, and Baghdad labelled the group a “banned organisation” in March.

Last month, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan held talks with officials in Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, about the continued presence of the PKK in northern Iraq, where it is based, and other issues. Erdogan later said he believed Iraq saw the need to eliminate the PKK as well.

Turkey has also staged military incursions in Syria’s north against the YPG militia, which it regards as a wing of the PKK.

Erdogan and his ministers have repeatedly said that while Ankara is working on repairing ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government after years of animosity, it will mount a new offensive into northern Syria to push the YPG away from its border.

(Reuters)