Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
TURKEY HAS SAID that one of its soldiers was killed in northern Syria, the first such fatality in its offensive against a Kurdish militia.
Three more soldiers were injured in the “operation region”, the defence ministry said in a statement after clashes with the militia yesterday. It gave no further details.
Fighting broke out in several locations along the roughly 120-kilometre wide front where operations are focused, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a Kurdish military official said.
The ministry’s statement comes after shelling from the militia into Turkey and Turkish military strikes in northern Syria, with casualties on both sides.
Seven civilians including a nine-month-old baby were killed in Turkish border towns in Sanliurfa and Mardin provinces. Nearly 70 were injured.
Turkey Wednesday began an air and ground offensive supporting Syrian rebels against the US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia.
Ankara has long opposed US support for the YPG in the fight against the Islamic State extremist group, arguing the militia is a “terrorist” offshoot of Kurdish insurgents inside Turkey.
According to the UK-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, at least 29 fighters and 10 civilians have been killed in the war-ravaged country since the start of the assault.
US President Donald Trump has suggested Washington could mediate between Turkey and Kurdish groups.
“We have one of three choices: Send in thousands of troops and win Militarily, hit Turkey very hard financially and with sanctions, or mediate a deal between Turkey and the Kurds!” he tweeted.
“I hope it’s going to be the last one,” he told reporters later.
This added third option was the latest twist in the president’s changing stance regarding the fate of Kurdish militias that until recently were fighting alongside US troops in Syria.
After coming under fierce criticism from his own party, Trump said he intended to limit Turkey’s offensive with the threat of economic sanctions.
However it is unclear what the limits for him would be other than that he wants the offensive deep into Syrian territory to be “humane.”
- © AFP 2019.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Meanwhile, the lapdog of Merkel (Enda Kenny) continues to sell Ireland’s sovereignty down the drain.
The question is: will people continue to vote for FG? I hope not. We need change in Ireland. It’s time to vote for SF or the Socialist party.
Rob, as much as I want to see change and the back of FG/LAB! My stomach could not hold if SF and co were to get into power. Sorry that is a step too far for my liking!!
So Jack, If its not SF then I guess the only other option is FF. Good Luck with them….
Jack Canon wrote: “Rob, as much as I want to see change and the back of FG/LAB! My stomach could not hold if SF and co were to get into power. Sorry that is a step too far for my liking!!”
Why?
What is your stigma with SF?
They represent an alternative to FG’s tax breaks to the mega-rich and a new way forward without having to pay the bondholders.
Whether we’re in the euro or not Irish sovereignty was always an illusion. Irrespective of our break with sterling in 1979, we’ve always been beholden to Germany as the biggest economy in Europe. In a perfect world we could leave the euro and devalue a new Irish currency. Unfortunately the banks would collapse over night as personal and mortgage debt will remain denominated in euros while the new punt would be worth a fraction of a euro. It’s a loose loose for us I’m afraid.
Maybe consider voting for individuals ideals rather than just because they are in a party you have always voted for
I’d have no problem with the Socialist getting a bigger slice of the vote, but Rob, SF’s only priority is power, not the country. They are only a different version of FF.
Unless the people rise up and take back the country, wipe the slate clean and start again – nothing is going to change.
So most likely nothing is going to change.
Greece needs more than an extension to an austerity plan, it needs a miracle at this stage.
And Ireland needs a write-down on our promissory note. Why can’t the politicians reward Ireland? We didn’t have a fiscal problem until we were sacrificed to save private investors.
Or a global catastrophe, end of days event would be just as helpful
Ireland needs some sort of write-down for it to be able to sustainably float on the stock market again. The problem at the moment is that Merkel & Co care so little about Ireland, because our economic figures in GDP are in slight growth. These people don’t see social impacts.
If Greece manage to successfully agree an ‘extension’ to it’s economic destruction, it would help the economy in the short term, possibly bringing contraction per year down to -3% instead of -6.5%, but it wouldn’t be doing anything useful for it in the long term. It would only prolong the obvious default that needs to happen. But, of course, I’m sure that if Greece’s contraction rate fell to -3% Europe and it’s elite would celebrate their great success in ‘helping Greece’.
“We didn’t have a fiscal problem until we were sacrificed to save private investors.”
Well thats not really true is it?
Look at the budget deficit even without the bank bailout costs.
@ Gagsy 99. The point is if we didn’t have to cover the bail out costs there would have been a good chance we would not have been driven out of the bond markets. The & cost for our bonds only started to rise sharply after the bank bail out. Yes we would have need to address the budget deficit but we could have done it on our own terms rather then as directed by the Troika.
http://www.sli-nios-fearr.com is the way to vote next time. For a better way ,to get us out of this economic disaster and move on in peace
Not too long to go now before Greece are forced to leave this failed German sponsored EU/Euro experiment, the house of cards will start to crumble completely and we wll finally be back to some form of normality. With our own currencies, borders, and sovereignty. Bring it on…!!!
Buy beans!!
Beans? Not at all follow Noonan’s advice buy feta cheese.
Ireland is NOT broke.Far from it. Golden opportunities for employers are here up for grabs.Bad times for the working person.
IRELAND has money but its the elite that have it and the minister for justice is a millionaire as well as other ministers having big portfollios which explains their way of treating the rich and poor
have your say