Islamic State Watch

[Satchmo Distel]

Islamic State Watch

The US are going to help keep Assad in place while pretending to want the opposite. From their narrow POV it's hard to see an alternative: topple Assad and you get a far weaker state than Iraq, in large parts of which ISIS seem to have a lot of autonomy despite Iraq probably having a stronger army that whatever a post-Assad regime could stitch together.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Islamic State Watch

Mark Boothroyd of Syria Solidarity UK gives a run-down of armed opposition groupsrun-down of armed opposition groups

[Antepli Ejderha]

Islamic State Watch

As the war between Saudi Arabia and Iran escalates on all fronts, diplomatically and through their proxies across the Middle East the Islamic State release another gruesome video showing the murder of 5 Syrians they allege are British spies. The video features another British accented man and a child who I'm sure will be quickly identified.

[ad hoc]

Islamic State Watch

Bomb in that square in Sultanahmet (Istanbul) between the Blue Mosque and Ayia Sophia which everybody who has been to Istanbul will have been to. 10 confirmed killed so far

[Antepli Ejderha]

Islamic State Watch

Live Updates Here while Erdogan has imposed a news blackout across all media in Turkey.

[ursus arctos]

Islamic State Watch

Most of the victims are German nationals, which should at least guarantee some international oversight of the investigation.

Early reports that it was a 28 year old suicide bomber of Syrian nationality.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Islamic State Watch

9 of the victims were German, the tenth may have been the bomber.

Some agencies are reporting that the bomber was not a Syrian but a Saudi.

[ursus arctos]

Islamic State Watch

Recent events have demonstrated that any early identification is to be taken with a huge grain of salt, particularly given the large quantity of false identity documents at large.

[ursus arctos]

Islamic State Watch

Shit

Early reports from Jakarta are bad

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Islamic State Watch

Grim

[Incandenza]

Islamic State Watch

Apparently three suicide bombers in one Starbucks, and armed attackers elsewhere. Terrible.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Islamic State Watch

Chomsky's a dick, mind. Kurdish people need better supporters than wankers who tar all opposition to Assad as "al-Qaeda".

[Antepli Ejderha]

Islamic State Watch

A huge car bomb in the centre of Ankara targeting the military, possibly a dormitory, has killed at least ten.

There's a news blackout in Turkey at the moment.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Islamic State Watch

It appears to have targeted a service bus carrying military personnel in the central part of Ankara.

Turkey has blamed three potential suspects, the PKK, DHKCP or IS. Based on pervious attacks this looks much more likely to be IS.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Islamic State Watch

Turkey now appears to be blaming IS for this attack, at least 20 reported dead so far.

The media blackout does not allow for the broadcasting of images of the scene.

No mention of this on Channel 4 but it's the lead story on Aljazeera. They are saying that it's likely to be PKK.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Islamic State Watch

It's just been on Channel 4, they've also said that Turkey is pointing the finger at the PKK but said it could also be IS.

The death toll has already reached 28.

[ad hoc]

Islamic State Watch

I was in Turkey last week, and one guy I know, a fairly left wing, very anti-Erdogan colleague, said "You know what we're doing down there in the South East? It's genocide. It's literally genocide, and nobody gives a shit. We're doing to the Kurds what we did to the Armenians 100 years ago"

[ursus arctos]

Islamic State Watch

Are non-Turkish news organisations ignoring the odious reporting ban?

[Antepli Ejderha]

Islamic State Watch

ursus arctos wrote: Are non-Turkish news organisations ignoring the odious reporting ban?

The ban is different than previous ones UA, I believe that in Turkey the media isn't allowed to show what's happening but can talk about it.

[ursus arctos]

Islamic State Watch

That's different from what I've seen on Twitter (ban on all reporting from "non-official sources"), but the situation is clearly very fluid.

[ursus arctos]

Islamic State Watch

Latest from Twitter

Istanbul gov's office blames PKK. Other security sources blame IS. Davutoglu's visit 2 Brussels 2mo for refugee resettlement talks cancelled

[Antepli Ejderha]

Islamic State Watch

ursus arctos wrote: Latest from Twitter

Istanbul gov's office blames PKK. Other security sources blame IS. Davutoglu's visit 2 Brussels 2mo for refugee resettlement talks cancelled

That's a first, for them to be openly contradicting each other. The other sources are apparently based in the SE so would have better intelligence.

Iirc the PKK has never conducted an attack like this, the only time they've ever killed a similar number of soldiers was when they massacred a bus load of conscripts.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Islamic State Watch

By whom are the YPG "seen as being the most effective force against IS"?

[Antepli Ejderha]

Islamic State Watch

The US and most of the west. That's the rhetoric we're fed.

I take it you disagree TonTon.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Islamic State Watch

Well yeah I'd certainly disagree. Don't see any evidence for it at all. Do the US and most of the west offer any evidence?