Amid the Tikrit offensive and my general level of cr*pness I've noticed that I've somewhat neglected the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Kurdish cantons in northern Syria.
Although it's still quite difficult to get accurate information out of what is a poorly mapped area it seems that the situation in the Cizire Canton which is right on the border with Iraq in Syria's Al-Haskah province has remained largely unchanged.
The city of Haskah which sits at the southern border of the canton remains disputed between ISIL and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). On March 7th (7/4/15) ISIL launched an operation to capture the city of Tel Tamr which functions as the YPG's main logistics hub supplying the fight in Haskah. This operation has continued with daily attacks being repelled by the YPG although the intensity of the ISIL operation has reduced in recent weeks. On the western border of the Cizire Canton ISIL have continued to launch attacks on the city of Serekanyie/Ras al-Ayn which is directly adjacent to the city of Ceylanpinar which sits on the Turkish side of the border. These attacks are largely being launched from the ISIL controlled town of Tel Abayd which sits around 70km (42 miles) to the west.
In both areas the US-led coalition continues to carry out roughly a dozen air-strikes per day across both areas. However these air-strikes seem intent on maintaining the status quo rather then assisting the YPG in forcing ISIL from positions they hold.
The situation in the central Kobane Canton has been more positive. On March 5th (5/3/15) the YPG succeeded in liberating the villages of Shiukh and Nasiri which sit on the Euphrates River right on the western border of the canton. From there the YPG have continued to push south liberating village after village. Although there are still ISIL held pockets such as the town of Sarrin the YPG are now within 2km (1.2 miles) of pushing ISIL entirely out of the south and west of the canton. Despite having to repel daily attacks from Tel Abayd it has been a similar story on the eastern front of the Kobane Canton. There the YPG have pushed south from the town of Bredirxane again liberating small village after small village. Although there are still ISIL held pockets around the towns Qertel and Shash the YPG are now within 5km (3 miles) of pushing ISIL entirely out of the south and east of the canton. Once the town of Jile is fully liberated ISIL will have been expelled entirely from the canton's central southern border.
While this has been going on the UK has been experiencing the Easter school holidays in the last week of March and the first week of April although it varies slightly from district to district. During this time all those under 18 years of age are given two weeks off school while their parents continue to work. As a result British teenagers get a lot of freedom during this time and many families use the two public holidays that bookend the Easter weekend to take short family breaks often on the European continent. The increased volume in people travelling from the UK and the increased freedom given to teenagers led to concerns that more Britons would try and make the journey via Turkey to join ISIL and there was a small spike in the number of people being stopped by the British authorities.
At the start of this period (April 1st) it was announced that Turkish/British dual national Erol Incedal had been jailed for 42 months for possessing a bomb making manual despite being cleared of a more serious but unspecified terrorism charge. That seems to have got the attention of the Turkish authorities because later that same day the arrested a group of 9 British Muslims (5 adults, 4 children) at a border crossing in Ogulpinar, Hatay province where they were suspected of being about to cross into Syria. Although I don't think the Turkish authorities were aware of it at the time one of the men arrested - Waheed Ahmed - is the son of Shakil Ahmed, a low-level local councillor for the Labour Party in Rochdale and the other members of the group were members of his extended family.
Since then the Turkish authorities seem to have been much more compliant with requests from the British authorities to help stop specific individuals suspected of trying to join ISIL. For example just on Monday (19/4/15) they managed to stop a British couple and their four children after the UK publicly appealed for their help. This change in Turkey's position I think helps to highlight Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's style of leadership. Although I don't want to racially stereotype the Turks have a reputation for having quite aggressive and confrontational personalities. Erdogan takes great pride in living up to this national stereotype so will just push and push at people until they give him what he wants. I'd stop short of describing this as bullying because the expectation is that if he starts to go too far the person he's pushing against will simply push back in a similar fashion. The nearest comparison I can think of from US politics is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who I think we can all agree is incompatible with US President Barack Obama's style of leadership.
Although everyone else who was arrested during the Easter period has been charged with terrorism offences I noticed on Monday (19/4/15) the Ahmed group were not charged. Contrary to what ISIL recruiters may say in the UK we don't put people in prison simply for being Muslim. Instead we first have to prove that they have committed a specific criminal offence - travelling to join a listed terrorist group seems to be the most applicable here. On its own simply travelling to Turkey's border with Syria would not be enough to prove that offence. However here in the UK we are in the middle of a General Election campaign with election laws demanding political impartiality from all public bodies.
Once the party of the working class the Labour Party have recently re-invented themselves as the party of the tithed immigrant. Where I live in south London this means that they appeal mainly to recent immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. However in places such as Rochdale the north of England this means that they appeal mainly to Muslim immigrants from Pakistan. George Galloway's Bradford West is probably the most extreme case study. This policy of agreeing with the immigrants no matter what has led to the Labour Party supporting some very extreme Islamist causes. For examples they were big friends with CAGE UK - the group that helped "Jihadi John" join ISIL.
Rochdale was recently hit very hard by the Labour Party's 'tolerance' when it emerged that a gang of Muslim men of Pakistani descent had been abducting children from the streets, raping them and trafficking them around the country for the purposes of child prostitution. This was done with the assistance of the local police and the local council. As a result I can see why the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in Rochdale would be extremely hesitant to charge the family of a local Labour councillor with terrorism offences during an election campaign.
However today the High Court overturned the result of the 2014 Mayoral Election in the London borough of Tower Hamlets after finding the Mayor - Lutfur Rahman - guilty of fraud and corruption during the campaign. Although Rahman is a Bangladeshi Muslim who led a splinter group away from the Labour Party Tower Hamlets has long been considered the most extreme example of Labour's dodgy election practises. Therefore the timing of the conviction seems to be the national authorities indicating that the Ahmed case may well be looked at again following the election.
17:45 on 23/4/15 (UK date).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment