Greater Middle East
US sells Turkey ‘smart bombs’ (to use against Kurds)
The Pentagon announces the sale of 900 "smart bombs" to Turkey just as Ankara is preparing to move against US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria.
Tag: Turkey
Iraq
US ground troops to Iraq, Syria: Pentagon
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in a statement to Congress that the US will begin ground operations against ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria.
Greater Middle East
Turkey attacks Kurdish positions on Syrian border
Turkish military forces attacked Kurdish positions on the Syrian border, raising fears that Turkey is moving to establish its "buffer zone."
Greater Middle East
Turkey: lawyer arrested for comments on PKK
A Kurdish lawyer in Turkey will face trial for comments he made about the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), saying the group is not a terrorist organization but a political movement.
Greater Middle East
AKP-ISIS collaboration in Ankara massacre?
Several PKK sympathizers have been arrested in connection with the Ankara suicide blasts—but the Turkish left charges that the ruling AKP collaborated with ISIS in the attack.
Greater Middle East
Lines drawn in imperial scramble for Syria
The US and Russia each groom their own rival proxy forces to fight ISIS and the Nusra Front—which in turn pledge to turn Syria into "another Afghanistan."
Greater Middle East
Amnesty charges Syrian Kurds with ethnic cleansing
Amnesty International accuses Syrian Kurdish forces of ethnic cleansing against Arabs and Turks in areas liberated from ISIS, raising pressure on Kurdish authorities for an accounting.
Greater Middle East
Peace demands unbowed by Ankara massacre
Kurdish and Turkish activists are continuing to demand "peace despite everything" after twin suicide blasts at an Ankara anti-war rally killed at least 100 and injured twice as many.
Greater Middle East
Syrian Kurds as pawns in Turko-Russian game?
With tensions high between Turkey and Russia, Moscow's intervention risks drawing the Kurds into the geopolitical game and escalating divisions within the Syrian resistance.
Greater Middle East
Kurds punished for success against ISIS —again
With the Rojava Kurds mounting an offensive on the last ISIS-held border town in northern Syria, Turkey has launched a new propaganda push to brand them as "terrorists."
Southeast Asia
Uighur militants named in Bangkok blast
Thailand's national police say that last month's deadly Erawan Shrine attack was carried out by Uighur militants angered over Bangkok's deportation of Uighur refugees back to China.
Greater Middle East
Turkey: Kurdish left resists ‘political genocide’
With much of Turkey's east under a state of emergency and pro-government mobs sacking offices of the left-opposition HDP, Kurdish leaders charge a campaign of "political genocide."