ISIS/ISIL conflict in Syria/Iraq (No OpEd, No Politics)

Ankara blast: Turkey PM says Syria Kurds to blame

Turkey's prime minister says the deadly bombing in Ankara was carried out by Kurdish YPG militia based in Syria, and nine people have been arrested.

Ahmet Davutoglu said the fighters worked in co-operation with militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey.

The YPG has denied any involvement in the attack.

Meanwhile, a military convoy in south-east Turkey has been hit by a bomb, killing at least six troops.

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Mourning Ankara's dead
Wednesday's bombing in Ankara targeted a military convoy as it passed close to key government buildings. Twenty-eight people were killed and 61 injured.

Mr Davutoglu said 26 of the dead were soldiers. The funerals will be held later on Thursday.

Image copyrightEPA
Image captionA Syrian national has been blamed for the Ankara attack

Image copyrightEPA
Image captionFunerals of those killed in ANkara will take place on Thursday
Mr Davutoglu named the Ankara bomber as Salih Necar, a Syrian national and member of the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

"A direct link between the attack and the YPG has been established," he said. He went on to say the attack was carried out with logistical support from PKK militants inside Turkey.

Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group, but its allies, including the United States, back the YPG, in its fight against so-called Islamic State (IS).

Mr Davutoglu said the bombing in Ankara proved the YPG is a terrorist group, and said he expects co-operation from Turkey's allies in tackling them.

The Syrian Kurdish PYD party, to whom the YPG is affiliated, said it "completely refuted" the claims of its involvement.

Saleh Muslim, co-chair of the party, also denied claims the YPG was firing into Turkey. "They don't consider Turkey as an enemy," he told Reuters news agency.

Fresh attack on Turkish military
On Thursday morning, reports emerged of a similar attack on a military convoy in the mainly Kurdish south-east of Turkey.

The convoy was travelling between the cities of Diyarbakir and Bingol when it was hit. Reports in Turkey said at least six members of the security forces were killed by a bomb detonated by remote control.

Last month, at least six people died in Diyarbakir

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. Authorities blamed PKK fighters for the explosion.

Turkish warplanes strike PKK in Iraq
Turkey has been targeting Kurdish militia groups in both Syria and Iraq for some time now.

But the military said it carried out targeted strikes overnight on around 70 PKK militants, some of them senior commanders, based in the Haftanin region of northern Iraq.

The PKK has been fighting for more autonomy for Kurds within Turkey for more than three decades. A ceasefire in 2013 ended last July when Turkey launched air strikes against PKK camps in northern Iraq.

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plawolf said:

Well that didn't take long at all. Turkey blame Ankara bombing on YPG Syrian Kurds.

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plawolf said:

Well that didn't take long at all. Turkey blame Ankara bombing on YPG Syrian Kurds.

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I can't imagine anyone is surprised by the Turkish accusation or Kurdish denial.

All those Turkish troops who had been massing for weeks along the boarder now have an excuse, sorry I mean reason, to cross into Syria.

Its all so depressingly predictable.

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Janiz said:

You can give your head that it wasn't Turkish Kurds work since you know everything...

Well, I wouldn't. Knowing that Kurds made those kind of attacks earlier and that's one of the biggest difference between Iraq/Syrian Kurds who don't like this way of fighting and Turkish who have no problem killing people in

Rightly or otherwise, Kurdish elements will be suspected of involvement. But even if they weren't involved they would probably be blamed to Justify another cross border adventure... or to lend credibility to such action. It doesn't have to be true... just has to sound convincing.

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dingyibvs said:

Nobody launches a terrorist attack and then deny it, it defeats the whole purpose of a terrorist attack!

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IS increases use of child soldiers, says US report

The number of children who have died fighting for so-called Islamic State (IS) in the last year is nearly twice the previous estimate, a report says.

Researchers at Georgia State University tracked IS propaganda and eulogies over 13 months.

The propaganda claimed 89 boys aged eight to 18 had been killed fighting in a number of different combat roles.

The researchers also found that three times as many children were involved in operations than during 2014.

The data, published by the US military's Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, suggested that between January 2015 and January 2016, 39% of the boys were killed in suicide car bombings and 33% in battle.

"There are almost certainly many more who have died," Charlie Winter, one of the report's co-authors, told the Victoria Derbyshire programme. "This is just what IS has made public over the last year."

Nationalities
Although IS itself did not provide real names and biographical details for those killed, the researchers were able to estimate the ages and nationalities of those killed.

They believe 60% were aged between 12 and 16, while 6% aged between eight and 12.

Some 18% of the boys died in attacks in which they did not have any intention of survival - so-called "inghimasis" - derived from the Arabic "to plunge". This infers these boys "plunged" behind enemy lines firing openly on the enemy until they themselves were killed.

One of the youngest suicide bombers was classed as "pre-adolescent," between the ages of eight and 12. He was killed last month in Aleppo province, in a suicide attack on a rebel target. IS published a photograph of him saying goodbye to his father.

The report also sheds some light on the amount of movement by children between Iraq and Syria - the two countries where IS predominates. More than half of all the deaths were in Iraq - but many of those killed were Syrian. This suggests IS is able to train child fighters in Syria and deploy them to Iraq.

Others killed were from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Libya, and a small number from the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and Nigeria.

The research also seems to suggest that IS uses children alongside adults, rather than for specialist operations.

Mr Winter said it was striking that IS's children and youth operated in ways similar to the adults.

"In other conflicts, the use of child soldiers may represent a strategy of last resort, as a way to rapidly replace battlefield losses, or in specialised operations for which adults may be less effective. However, in the context of IS, children are used in much the same ways as their elders," he said.

Mr Winter said the number of children being recruited by IS was worrying.

"There is no way that we can envisage a post-IS world, unless we can really think carefully about how we are going to demobilise, disarm and reintegrate these children into normal life. There aren't really any good precedents for a violent extremist organisation like IS indoctrinating children on such a wide scale.

"As the military pressure against IS increases, I would expect that there would be an acceleration of the amount that it is using children."

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plawolf said:

As I have predicted for some time now, ISIS is building up its child armies.

The situation will only get worse the longer ISIS is allowed to openly control such vast amounts of territory and populations that they can prey upon.

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Depressingly, Western analysts still seem blissfully oblivious to the true dangers and risks this presents to the world, and think ISIS is being pushed or pressured into this, as opposed it being a deliberate strategy.

ISIS is fighting for more than just territory or resources like a conventional foe, their struggle is as much ideological as it is material.

They want to impose their perverted and abhorrent beliefs and values on the entire world, so of course they are going to systematically indoctrinate children in the territories they hold, because those children represents the future.

Apart from arming the children, the far more insidious, and longer term damage is being done to the entire new generation of people living under their tyrannical rule, because they are proactively and systematically teaching and enforcing their views, values and beliefs on the people they control. Children are the most precious part of that population, yet are sadly also the most susceptible to indoctrination because the poison ISIS is feeding them is all many, if not most of them, have ever and will ever know under ISIS rule and control.

If that rule and control is allowed to go on for long enough, even after you drive ISIS out later and liberate those territories and people, you may find to your horror that you are too late.

The minds of the people who were controlled by ISIS have already been irrevocably tainted by their indoctrination, and the civilians you liberate share the values and views of ISIS fighters you drove out, and view you as the oppressors rather than liberators.

ISIS is prepared to commit wholesale slaughter and atrocities unmentionable to squash views and values they don't approve of and install their views and values on people.

Unless you are prepared to go just as far, it may prove nearly impossible to erase their tainted views and ideology once it has been allowed to be branded on a population, especially the young.

This is the key reason I take such an exceptionally dime view to Turkish political adventurism and territorial expansionism.

This is no time for their petty BS power plays. The world needs to be united against the threat ISIS represents. Yet Turkey is pitching allies who should be fighting together against ISIS against each other, all to make some shamelessly selfish gains.

That is the worst kind of war profiteering in my book, absolutely unacceptable and should one roundly opposed and condemned by all.

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