Turkish Defense Minister inspects troops near Iraqi border; checks military preparedness

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Nov 27 inspected the Turkish armed forces personnel tasked with the operation to wipe out the Syrian Kurd strongholds. He travelled to the southern border with Iraq on Sunday morning to inspect ground troops stationed in the Hakkari province, the Turkish defense ministry informed in a statement.  Akar spent the night at the Land Forces Command Operations Center and later flew to the Syrian-Turkish border to take stock of the situation and military preparedness. He arrived at the Hakkari public airport with the Turkish chief of the general staff and commanders of the land, naval, and air forces.

Turkey launches offensive in Kurdish autonomous regions in Syria, Iraq

Ankara launched an all-out offensive in the Kurdish autonomous regions in neighboring Syria and Iraq that hosts militants of the PKK and YPG group designated as "terrorist organizations" in the US, UK, and Europe. Turkish warplanes targeted the Asayesh security forces with five strikes in northern Syria who were guarding the exterior of the Al-Hol detention camp. 

Turkish air strikes in northern Syria threatened the safety of US military personnel and escalated the situation, jeopardizing years of progress against Islamic State [IS] militants, the Pentagon said in a release demanding an "immediate de-escalation" from the Turkish side. The air raids and ground offensive of Turkey hinder the US mission to defeat SIS and ensure the safety and security of personnel on the ground, Pentagon's spokesman, Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder, meanwhile noted at a briefing. 

Turkish airstrikes in Syria have also become a cause of concern for Russia, whose troops fight on side of Putin's ally Syria's President Bashar al-Assad's forces. At the latest round of talks in Kazakhstan, Moscow expressed its concern over Turkey's military activities in northern Syria, as the lead Russian negotiator, Alexander Lavrentyev, called on Turkey to refrain from large-scale land operations. A "serious escalation of violence can happen not only in northwestern Syria but in the whole of the Middle East", Lavrentyev warned. Turkey's Defense Ministry has been citing its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter for launching the air operation against the US-backed Kurdish forces. 

Turkey's recent strikes come after rockets were launched inside Ankara as a retaliatory response to Operation Claw-Sword in  Iraq and Syria by Turkish forces launched following the bombing in Istanbul on November 13 that killed six civilians. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Turkish airstrikes on bases of Kurdish militias are "just the beginning." Erdogan signaled that he will deploy tanks and heavy weaponry to northern Syria to attack Kurdish paramilitary forces.