MESOP FOCUS : OBAMA’S MIDDLE EAST POLICY GOES UP & DOWN / WITHOUT REASON & KNOWLEDGE

Turkey attacking Syrian Kurds to prevent Raqqa recapture, PYD says

26 Oct 2016 – MESOP / AP – PARIS,— A Syrian Kurd leader in France on Tuesday accused Turkey of “massively attacking” Kurdish forces in Syrian Kurdistan (northern Syria) trying to recapture Raqqa, the Islamic State group stronghold in Syria.“With its artillery and aircraft, the Turkish army is taking advantage of the media and international community’s focus on Mosul to massively attack Syrian Kurds to stop them taking Raqqa,” Khalen Issa told a news conference in Paris.

Iraq announced the launch of the operation to retake Mosul from IS on October 17, and has since been advancing towards the city from the south, east and north. Issa, the representative of Syrian Kurds in France, said that in their preparations to retake Raqqa, the US-backed Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) “have liberated several villages occupied by Daesh (an alternative name for IS) to the northeast of Aleppo.”

“If Turkish artillery and aircraft are heavily bombing SDF positions in this zone and in the Afrin district it is partly to stop them (SDF) cutting Daesh supply lines to Raqqa and partly to allow Turkey to keep control of 70 kilometres (43 miles) of its border with Syria,” he said.

“We cannot go and fight in Raqqa when the Turkish army is bombing us… Conditions are not in place to take Raqqa,” he said.Accusing the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of “rushing to Daesh’s rescue,” Issa called on France and other permanent members of the UN Security Council “to put an end to Erdogan’s irresponsible actions which hamper the fight against Daesh.”On Saturday, the Turkish military said it had hit Kurdish militia targets in Syrian Kurdistan for the second time in less than 72 hours. www.mesop.de