Russian Fighter Jet Shot Down By Turkey

Germany has reportedly drawn up plans to prevent sharing intelligence with its Nato ally Turkey as it prepares to support international air strikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

German Tornado aircraft are to commence reconnaissance flights over Syria and Iraq after the country’s parliament on Friday voted to deploy up to 1,200 military personnel.

Highly unsual measures have been ordered to prevent Turkey getting access to intelligence from the flights, according to Spiegel magazine.

The aircaft are expected to operate from Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey, and as Nato allies, the two countries would normally expect to share intelligence.

But German commanders are concerned Turkey may use surveillance information from the flights to direct attacks against Kurdish forces allied to the West.

Ankara has been carrying out its own air strikes against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in south-east Turkey and Iraq as well as People’s Defence Units (YPG) in Syria.

Two German officers have been given the sole task of ensuring no intelligence is shared with Turkey that could be used to target these groups, according to Spiegel.

Wanna make this thread a general Syrian-Iraqi war thread?(specifically related to the war and not terrorism) A lot of countries are making moves now, could be interesting to keep the news on that in one thread?

Iraq has told Turkey to “immediately” withdraw forces, including tanks and artillery, it has deployed in the country’s north without Baghdad’s consent, the office of the prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said on Saturday.

“The Iraqi authorities call on Turkey to ... immediately withdraw from Iraqi territory,” the statement said.

“We have confirmation that Turkish forces, numbering about one armoured regiment with a number of tanks and artillery, entered Iraqi territory ... allegedly to train Iraqi groups, without a request or authorisation from Iraqi federal authorities,” it said.

The deployment “is considered a serious violation of Iraqi sovereignty”, it added.

Turkish media reported that about 150 Turkish soldiers backed by 20 to 25 tanks had been sent by road to the Bashiqa area north-east of Mosul, the city that is Islamic State’s main hub in Iraq.

Peshmerga forces from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region are deployed in the area, and Turkey’s Anatolia news agency said the troops were there to train them.

Isis overran swaths of territory north and west of Baghdad in 2014, and Iraqi forces backed by US-led airstrikes are battling to push back the jihadis.

The peshmerga are one of the most effective Iraqi forces in the fight against Isis, but coordination between them and the federal government in Baghdad has generally been poor.

good Kurds

Turkey training Kurdish forces?

That doesn't sound like something they would ever do.

The target for the initial Turkish air strike was the headquarters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a radical leftist group located in northern Iraq which has carried out a 30-year insurgency against Turkey, killing, by some estimates, as many as 40,000 people.

...

The Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, as this Syrian Kurdish force is called, has enabled U.S. warplanes to effectively strike ISIS in Syria. In Iraq, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, separate from the PKK and YPG, have been praised by many U.S. lawmakers for their success in fighting ISIS.

there are good Kurds and bad Kurds.

Turkey accused Russia of a "provocation" on Sunday after a serviceman on the deck of a Russian naval ship allegedly held a rocket launcher on his shoulder while the vessel passed through Istanbul.

Relations have deteriorated sharply since Turkey last week became the first NATO member in more than half a century to down a Russian plane, which it said had violated its airspace while flying sorties over Syria. The pilot was killed.

The NTV news channel broadcast photographs that it said showed a serviceman brandishing a rocket launcher on the deck of the landing ship Caesar Kunikov as it passed on Saturday through the Bosphorus Strait, which bisects the city of Istanbul. It said the ship was believed to be en route to Syria.

"For a Russian soldier to display a rocket launcher or something similar while passing on a Russian warship is a provocation," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters, according to the Hurriyet news site. "If we perceive a threatening situation, we will give the necessary response."

The Bosphorus offers the only passage to the world's oceans for the Russian Black Sea fleet. A World War One-era treaty obliges Turkey to allow all ships to pass during peacetime.

Turkey had considered Russia a strategic partner as its main energy supplier, despite deep differences over Syria. But since Turkey shot the plane down, Moscow has introduced economic sanctions including a ban on Turkish foods and other products worth as much as $1 billion.NTV said three NATO frigates with Canadian, Spanish and Portuguese flags had been moored in Istanbul as the Caesar Kunikov passed through.

Syria said Monday that U.S. airstrikes had killed three Syrian military personnel in Deir Ezzor province, and condemned the alleged attack as a "blatant aggression" and obstacle to the government's fight against "terrorism."

The U.S. government did not announce any strikes targeting Syrian state forces, and the U.S.-led coalition, focused on eliminating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in those two countries, has not previously done so.

"Four U.S.-led coalition jetfighters targeted last night one Syrian army camp in Deir Ezzor with nine missiles, where three soldiers were martyred and 13 others wounded," the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Syria strongly condemns this blatant aggression which uncompromisingly contradicts the goals and aims of the United Nations," the statement said, calling on the Security Council to "immediately intervene to take necessary measures in order to prevent any other recurrence."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group which relies on a network of sources on the ground in Syria, also said there was a strike by multiple jets in Deir Ezzor that killed Syrian army personnel, but it did not specify which nation it believed to be in control of the flights.

A source told CBS News' George Baghdadi in Damascus that two vehicles and two weapons caches were destroyed in the alleged attack on a military camp near the town of Ayyash, on the northern edge of Deir Ezzor, an area where ISIS holds significant territory.

Deir Ezzor province links ISIS' self-declared capital in Raqqa, Syria, with the group's territory in neigboring Iraq.

The province is also home to major oilfields, which have been a major source of revenue for ISIS.

Recent U.S.-led and Russian airstrikes have targeted the oil infrastructure in the area in an effort to cut the terror group's cash supply.

Saudi Arabia will host a meeting of Syrian opposition groups in Riyadh from Dec. 8-10 aimed at choosing representatives for future international talks on Syria, the official Saudi Press Agency said on Sunday.

The Saudi conference marks an attempt to bring together disparate groups whose disunity has long been an obstacle to reaching a peaceful solution to the nearly five-year conflict.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent an invitation to all the moderate portions of the Syrian opposition of different types and trends, and from its ethnic, sectarian and political spectrum inside and outside Syria," SPA reported, citing an official source at the foreign ministry.

Saudi Arabia is a strong supporter of opposition groups seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose future has been a sticking point in attempts at a peace agreement.

The conference will not include Islamic State, the jihadist group that has taken over swathes of eastern Syria and northwest Iraq and declared them as part of a cross-border caliphate. The United States and its allies are waging air strikes against the group in both countries.

Many of the Syrian opposition groups are fighting IS at the same time as Assad. The al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, listed as a terrorist group by the United States and United Nations, will not be part of the conference either.

The rebel group, Islam Army, and two other groups confirmed they had received invitations to attend the Riyadh meeting though Islam Army did not say whether it would go.

Members of the exiled political opposition say the meeting will bring together at least 65 representatives of political and armed groups.

Saudi rival Iran has criticized the opposition conference, saying it would cause the failure of international talks. Tehran said on Sunday Assad's fate should only be decided by the Syrian people.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday that the next round of international talks on the Syrian crisis would take place in New York this month.

Last month, Russia, the United States and powers from Europe and the Middle East met in Vienna and outlined a plan for a political process in Syria leading to elections within two years.

Monzer Akbik, a member of the Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition, said a delegation of 20 SNC members had been invited to the Riyadh gathering. The SNC is the main Western-backed political opposition, although it has only tenuous links with rebels on the ground and is seen as out of touch with the general population.

Uhhhh Putin said "we could use nuclear weapons against ISIS", really P? Really? -.-

/rolleyes

Vladimir Putin has said he hopes nuclear warheads will not be needed to deal with terrorists or anyone else, after Russia launched cruise missiles from its submarine at Syria

Air and missile strikes on a school district and other areas in insurgent-held Damascus suburbs have killed at least 28 people, including two children and a school principal, a group monitoring the Syrian war says.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said unidentified war planes hit the town of Douma, 15 kilometres north-east of the capital, and surface-to-surface missiles fired by the Syrian army also hit the surrounding areas, including Eastern Ghouta.

The areas have been under heavy bombardment in recent months. The Syrian army has said its strikes target insurgents that have launched attacks on government-held areas.

The Observatory, which gathers information from a network of contacts on the ground, said at least 40 mortar bombs fired by insurgents in the eastern suburbs hit Damascus on Sunday, killing at least one child and wounding several.

State news agency SANA said three civilians had been killed and at least 30 wounded in mortar attacks targeting residential neighbourhoods of Damascus.

Most of the victims were school students, it said, citing its reporter in the area.

Syrian president Basher al-Assad said he would not negotiate with armed groups, appearing to scupper peace talks that Russia and the United States hope to bring about next month.

Washington helped broker an agreement reached on Thursday by more than 100 members of Syria's opposition parties and more than a dozen rebel fighting groups to send a joint team to meet the government under UN auspices in January.

Many of Douma's residents have fled the nearly five-year conflict, moving to nearby rural areas.

Syria's civil war has killed more than 250,000 people and driven more than 10 million from their homes.