https://themilitant.com/2020/03/07/syrian-turkish-forces-clash-in-idlib-as-9-year-civil-war-widens/
Syrian, Turkish forces clash in Idlib as 9-year civil war widens
article
BY TERRY EVANS
Vol. 84/No. 10
March 16, 2020
The Syrian and Turkish governments are intensifying airstrikes on each
other’s forces as they fight over control of Syria’s Idlib province, a
region held
by armed groups opposed to the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Alongside the two fighting forces, Moscow, Tehran and Washington also
deploy their military in Syria to advance their own interests, all with
deadly consequences
for working people. Close to 1 million people have fled the regime’s
merciless pounding and are pinned near the Turkish border, while the
government in
Ankara won’t allow them to cross.
Some 33 Turkish soldiers were killed Feb. 27 when Assad’s forces
unleashed airstrikes in an ongoing offensive. The Turkish government
recently doubled
to 10,000 the number of troops it has in northwest Syria as well as
amassing 30,000 more along the border.
The Turkish rulers fund, arm and command the National Liberation Front,
one of several opposition groups operating in Idlib. The best armed of
Assad’s
opponents is the reactionary jihadi outfit Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which
runs the civilian administration of the province and has about 15,000
fighters.
Some 40% of the 3 million residents now in Idlib fled there to escape
earlier assaults by Assad and his allies.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had signed a deal with his
Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that allowed Syrian rebels to
settle in Idlib under
Ankara’s protection. Assad tossed that aside to launch his offensive,
backed by Putin’s air power, and troops from Hezbollah and other
Tehran-backed militias.
Ankara retaliated against the killing of Turkish soldiers. Airstrikes on
Assad’s troops killed 26 on Feb. 29, including 10 from Hezbollah and
four from
other Tehran-organized militias, as well as an officer from the Iranian
rulers’ Revolutionary Guard. The next day Turkish warplanes shot down
two Syrian
aircraft and launched airstrikes on a military airport in Aleppo. The
Ankara-controlled media claims the Turkish forces have “neutralized”
hundreds of
Syrian troops.
The Iranian rulers and their allied militias have helped prop up the
Syrian regime, while creating bases there and routes for shipping
missiles to Hezbollah
in Lebanon within range of Israel. Opposition to Tehran’s military
actions and interference in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East
was a target
of protests by workers and youth across Iran last November.
Erdogan and Putin have met several times since Ankara used its military
to intervene in the fighting in Idlib, but continue to sharply disagree.
So far
they haven’t targeted each other’s forces. In addition to their air
power, the Russian rulers also have special forces, military advisers
and mercenary
groups aiding Assad.
Washington deploys 500 troops in the Kurdish-held area of northeastern
Syria and wields vast firepower across the Middle East. It seeks to use
the current
conflict to draw the Turkish government away from Moscow and back into
its orbit.
Ankara’s deal for a Russian-made S-400 missile defense system angered
the U.S. rulers, who suspended selling F-35 fighter jets to the Turkish
government.
Ankara has requested Washington send them the rival U.S.-made Patriot
system, but it’s on hold.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham pressed Washington to intervene, using
its clout to establish a no-fly zone over Idlib together with U.S.
allies, and to
push “back against Iran, Russia and Assad.”
U.S., all foreign troops out of Syria!
“Working people here can offer solidarity to fellow workers in Syria by
demanding the U.S. and the other intervening forces get out of the
country,” Socialist
Workers Party vice presidential candidate Malcolm Jarrett told the
Militant. “Working people in Syria need space and time to organize to
fight for their
own interests, free of foreign military intervention.”
A powerful uprising for political rights and for the overthrow of the
Assad regime, involving millions of working people, unfolded in 2011,
but was brutally
repressed. In the civil war that ensued, Assad lost control of much of
the country. Moscow’s intervention with its air power in 2015 changed
the relationship
of forces, and the regime began to retake territory.
To pressure governments in Europe to support Turkish military
intervention in Syria, Erdogan opened the borders with Europe to allow
refugees from Syria,
Afghanistan and elsewhere to head there. The government in Greece
responded by massing troops and cops on the border and attacked
thousands of immigrants
attempting to cross into the country March 2.
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Neil deGrasse Tyson
“God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.”
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