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Footage released by the Turkish government of the attacks by its F-16 against ISIL targets in Syria.

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  Syria's Assad Admits War Is Taking Toll on Government Forces

 Shortage In manpower due to desertions and defections,  says Syrian president  

  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33669069

  http://www.wsj.com/articles/syrias-assa ... 1437926464

Syrian president Basher al-Assad said his regime's recent battlefield setbacks were caused both by a shortage of manpower and the need to defend areas deemed to be more strategic and vital than others, in a rare public admission Sunday.(...)  

Mr Assad said the shortage in manpower was largely due to desertions and defections, and that many people were evading calls for reservists and mandatory military service.

Syria's armed forces have been hollowed out by a conflict that killed close to a quarter million people, displaced millions and fractured the country. (...)

  What remains of the country has been buttressed by tens of thousands of security force members and militias both local and foreign. Iran and its main regional proxy the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah have being key in coordinating and managing this effort.

The regime and its allies are currently focused  on shoring up the defenses of Damascus and preserving a vital corridor that runs along the Lebanese border and via the central city of Homs to the country's western region on the Mediterranean coast.

  This reality was echoed by Mr Assad in his speech.

 "We must specify key areas that the armed forces must hold on to prevent the collapse of other regions", he said. "And the priority is based on a number of criteria, including military, political, economic and service".

[HSMW]

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 Syrian Kurds accuse Turkey of attacking their forces

  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33675760
 

Kurdish forces in Syria have accused Turkey of repeatedly attacking their units across the border.  Turkey said it was investigating the claims, but insisted the Syrian Kurdish units were "outside the scope of the current military effort". (...)

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the main Syrian Kurdish party (PYD), said that Turkish tanks had shelled the Kurdish-held village of Zormikhar inside Syria late on Sunday evening. (...)

In a statement on Monday the YPG said: "Instead of targeting IS terrorists' occupied positions, Turkish forces attack our defenders'  positions. This is not the right attitude" (...)

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«Turquia não pediu ajuda militar da NATO», diz Stoltenberg


A Turquia não pediu qualquer ajuda substancial à NATO para avançar com a campanha contra o grupo autodenominado Estado Islâmico e os militantes curdos, disse o secretário-geral da NATO, frisando ainda as fortes capacidades militares de Ancara.

   
Jens Stoltenberg falava à BBC, numa entrevista divulgada no domingo, dois dias antes de uma reunião da Aliança Atlântica, solicitada pela Turquia, para debater a crescente tensão entre Ancara e os rebeldes curdos e o grupo extremista Estado Islâmico (EI).

A reunião dos embaixadores dos 28 países-membros da NATO vai decorrer na terça-feira em Bruxelas.

"A Turquia tem um exército muito forte e forças de segurança muito fortes", disse Stoltenberg, numa entrevista via telefone à estação pública britânica. "Não houve um pedido para qualquer apoio militar substancial da NATO", indicou o secretário-geral, que recordou que, no início de 2013, a Aliança Atlântica colocou mísseis Patriot na região sudeste da Turquia, com o objetivo de reforçar a defesa antiaérea daquele país.

Em declarações hoje em Lisboa, o ministro dos Negócios Estrangeiros da Turquia, Mevlut Çavusoglu, referiu-se ao recente aumento das ameaças à segurança da Turquia para justificar as ações militares no norte da Síria e Iraque, que estão a atingir indiscriminadamente posições 'jihadistas' do EI e dos rebeldes curdos.

Numa conferência de imprensa conjunta com o homólogo português Rui Machete, Mevlut Çavusoglu considerou que "não existem diferenças" entre o EI e os rebeldes curdos do Partido dos Trabalhadores do Curdistão (PKK) e que ambos devem ser "eliminados". Sobre a reunião de terça-feira em Bruxelas, Mevlut Çavusoglu, que realizou hoje uma visita oficial de um dia a Lisboa, indicou que Ancara pretende informar os aliados "sobre o que a Turquia está a fazer face às ameaças à segurança".

Apesar de saudar o compromisso de Ancara na luta contra os 'jihadistas' do EI, Jens Stoltenberg advertiu, em outra entrevista, que "a autodefesa deve ser proporcional", numa referência aos bombardeamentos turcos contra as posições do PKK no norte do Iraque. "Durante anos, existiram progressos para tentar encontrar uma solução política pacífica" entre a Turquia e os rebeldes curdos, disse o secretário-geral da NATO, numa entrevista à televisão norueguesa NRK, também transmitida no domingo.

"É importante não desistir desse trabalho (...) porque a força nunca vai resolver um conflito a longo prazo", reforçou. Na sexta-feira, e na sequência de diversos incidentes armados que se seguiram ao mortífero atentado suicida de 20 de julho em Suruç (sul) atribuído por Ancara aos 'jihadistas' do EI e que vitimou mais de 30 ativistas curdos, a Turquia desencadeou ataques contra posições do PKK no norte do Iraque, e ainda contra posições dos radicais islâmicos na Síria.

Em retaliação, o PKK reivindicou no domingo um atentado que matou dois soldados turcos.

Lusa

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 US, Turkey working to establish IS-free zone in northern Syria

 http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articl ... hern-syria
 

The United States and Turkey are finalising plans for a military campaign to push the Islamic State group out of a strip of Syrian territory along the Turkish border, a move that would further embroil Turkey in Syria's civil war and set up a potential conflict with US-backed Kurdish forces.

 A US official said on Monday that the creation of a "Islamic State-free zone" would ensure greater security and stability in the Turkish-Syrian border region. However the official said any military effort with Turkey would not include the imposition of a no-fly zone. (...)

The US has long rejected Turkish and other's requests for a no-fly zone to halt Syrian government's air raids, fearing it would draw U.S. forces further into the civil war.

In a series of cross-border strikes since Friday Turkey has not only targeted the IS group but also Kurdish fighters affiliated with forces battling the extremists in Syria and Iraq. The Syrian Kurds are among the most effective ground forces battling the IS and have been aided by US-led airstrikes, but Turkey fears they could revive an insurgency against Ankara in pursuit of an independent state. (...)

In a reflection of the complexities involved Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu refused on Monday to establish a distinction between the Islamic State and the PKK. (...)

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Milícias curdas capturam ao EI a estratégica cidade de Sarrin, no norte da Síria

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y  NATO backs Turkey on Islamic State, some urge peace witk Kurds

 http://reuters.com/article/idINKCN0Q11W ... 8?irpc=932
 

NATO gave Turkey its full political support in fighting militants in Syria and Iraq at an emergency meeting on Tuesday but several nations urged Ankara not to undermine the Kurdish peace process by using excessive military force.

Following a 90-minute meeting in Brussels, Turkey won the backing it sought for stepping up its its role in the US-led fight with Islamic State with air strikes.

Ankara made no request  to its 27 allies for help, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg noted that it had the second-largest army in the alliance.

Instead the meeting heard how Turkey was carrying out President Tayyip Erdogan's sudden change in strategy against Islamic State -an al Qaeda breakaway that controls swathes of Syria and Iraq - and Kurdish militants  based in Iraq. (...)

Some European nations worry that Erdogan is using the opportunity to bomb Kurdish groups he brands a threat to the integrity of Turkish state but which enjoy some sympathy in the West. (...)

 German chancellor Angela Merkel urged Turkish Prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a telephone call on Sunday to respect the principle of proportionality and not to give up on the Kurdish peace process. (...)

While the NATO meeting was in session, Erdogan told a news conference it was impossible to continue the peace process with Kurdish militants who claimed responsibility for the killing of two police officers after the students' massacre.

NATO ambassadors were said not to have been aware of Erdogan's remarks, and they did not feature in tha discussions. (...)

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Syria: counting the humanitarian cost

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  Syrian forces, Kurds push ISIL out of Hasakah: monitor

 http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-t ... ds-n398961

ISIS fighters forced out of Hasahah, northeastern Syria, have left "thousands" of land mines in their wake, according to the Kurdish fighters battling to unseat.

 The Kurds and forces loyal to Syria's president have been targeting ISIS hideouts to flush out the militants. (...)

 Hasakah, a provincial capital around a two-hours from ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, is a case study in the plethora of armed actors involved in Syria's civil war.

 The conflict -now in its fourth year-  birthed a rash of rebel groups, from the moderate Free Syrian Army to the Islamic Jabhat al Nusra and now ISIS, fighting to unseat Syria's President Basher Assad. (...)

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  UN struggling to get  aid to Syrians  

 UN emergency relief co-ordinator says he is "shocked  and outraged"

 http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/world/un-strug ... -1.3170593  

The Syrian government is preventing aid workers from reaching people who need help in the war-torn country , United Nations emergency relief co-ordinator, Stephen O'Brien, told the UN Security Council Tuesday.

  Calling Syria "the most acute, unrelenting and shameful blot on the world's humanitarian conscience", O'Brien outlined how government forces and no-state militias continue to defy humanitarian laws and launch attacks against civilian populations, making it  almost impossible for humanitarian workers to keep up with the growing needs.(...)

About 420,000 people live in besieged areas, where aid workers are almost entirely cut off by either Syrian forces or rebel militias, O'Brien said. (...)

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  Kurdish militia in Syria accuses Turkey of  'provocative' attacks  

 http://reuters.com/article/idUKKCN0Q632 ... 1?irpc=932
 

Kurdish militia fighting Islamic State in Syria accused Turkey on Saturday of targeting it at least four times in the past week, calling the attacks provocative and hostile.(...)  

The president of Iraq's Kurdistan region on Saturday condemned Turkey's bombardment of a village there which he said had killed civilians, and called for a return to the peace process between Ankara and the PKK. Ankara said it would investigate.

The Syrian Kurdish YPG said in a statement on its website that it came under cross-border fire on four occasions in the past week and described sightings of Turkish jets over northern Syria.  

The militia, which regularly coordinates with US-led air forces bombing Islamic State, said it had nothing to do with conflict between the PKK and Turkey. (...)

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British schoolgirls leave their homes to join the Islamic State in Syria

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How many people have gone to Syria to fight?

    http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33715636