Times: YPG, Minnağ hava üssünün adını ‘Serok Apo’ yaptı
18 Şubat 2016
Image copyright AP
Times gazetesi, Türkiye’nin PKK’nın Suriye’deki uzantısı olarak gördüğü YPG’nin Minnağ hava üssünün adını örgütün hapisteki lideri Abdullah Öcalan’a atfen “Serok Apo” (Önder Apo) olarak değiştirdiğini yazdı.
Gazeteye göre, Türkiye’nin beş gündür top ateşine tuttuğu grup, ele geçirdiği Tel Rıfat’ın adını da “Arpet” olarak değiştirdi.
Times’ın haberinde ‘Esad’la aynı safta olan YPG’nin’ muhalif grupların elindeki bölgeye giden son yolu da kesmesinden sonra ülkenin ikinci en büyük kenti Halep’in beş yıldır devam eden savaşta ilk kez tamamen kuşatılma riski altında kaldığı belirtildi.
Haberde özetle şöyle deniyor:
“YPG’nin, işbirliği yaptığı bir Arap grubuyla Halep’in kuzeyinden gelerek Castello yolunu bombaladığı ve kullanılmaz hale getirdiği haber veriliyor. Bu yol, muhaliflerin denetimindeki doğu mahallelerinde kalan 300 bin kişi için tek yardım hattı. Sukur el-Cebel Tugayı adlı muhalif gruptan Mustafa Halebi, ‘Aramızda ateşkes anlaşması vardı. Saldırganlıkları bizim için sürpriz oldu’ dedi.”
‘ABD de şaşırdı’
“Bu, YPG’nin Rusya ve Esad rejimi güçleriyle iş yaptığı işbirliği yaptığı en aleni saldırı oldu. Bu aynı zamanda, Halep için en acımasız savaşın ve muhalifler için yıkıcı bir yenilginin başlangıcı olabilir.”
Times’ın haberinde Suriyeli ılımlı muhalifleri ve Kürtleri IŞİD’i hedef almaları için silahlandıran ABD’nin Kürtlerin ilerleyişi karşısında şaşkınlığınıo ifade ettiğini belirtiyor.
Gazeteye göre, ABD öncülüğündeki koalisyonun sözcüsü Albay Steve Warren, “Onların birbirleriyle savaşmayı bırakıp Daeş’le savaşmasını istiyoruz. Eğit-donat’ın amacı IŞİD’le savaşmaktı. Ama biz kimseyi bir şey yapmaya zorlayacak durumda değiliz” dedi.
Residents flee Russian airstrikes in Aleppo Beha el Halebi/Getty Images
Hannah Lucinda Smith, Tom Coghlan and Catherine Philp
Last updated at 12:01AM, February 18 2016
Syria’s biggest city faces total siege for the first time in five years of conflict after Kurdish forces cut off the last road into rebel-held districts.
The Kurdish YPG is reported to have advanced from the north of Aleppo to take the Castello road – the last lifeline for the 300,000 people who remain in the city’s rebel-controlled eastern neighbourhoods.
Rebel fighters and activists said that the Kurdish forces and an allied Arab group, the al-Thwar army, were bombarding the road and had rendered it unusable during daylight. Video footage from the area showed intense fighting and rebel groups accused the Kurds of treachery.
“Their aggression was surprising to us as there had been a ceasefire deal between them and us,” said Mostafa al-Halabai, a spokesman for the Suqour al-Jabal Brigade in Aleppo.
The Kurdish attack is the YPG’s most overt assault yet in collusion with Russian and Assad regime forces.
It marks the start of what is expected to be a brutal final battle for Syria’s second city and a potentially devastating loss for the rebels.
Assad’s forces and loyalist paramilitary groups, including a Palestinian militia, are also advancing towards the Castello road to the west of the Kurdish front line, in the al-Layramoun and Bani Zaid neighbourhoods.
Bani Zaid is a residential area that was still being built when battles first broke out in Aleppo in the summer of 2012. It has been a rebel stronghold ever since, with fighters using it as a base to launch artillery strikes on targets in regime-held areas.
The fall of Aleppo would mark the completion of a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of the Assad regime and give the Syrian president the whip hand in any subsequent peace talks. Regime forces have been resurgent since Russia began an air campaign, ostensibly against Islamic State and the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra, in September. Most strikes have instead targeted western-backed moderate rebel groups fighting Assad.
Civilians carrying supplies in Aleppo, Syria, last week.
The Pentagon said that Russian and Syrian regime aircraft had intensified their airstrikes. US officials, who have variously backed moderate Syrian rebel groups and the Kurds with weapons to target Isis, also expressed consternation as the Kurds advanced.
“We want them to stop fighting each other and fight Daesh,” Colonel Steve Warren, the spokesman for the American-led coalition, told reporters.
“The purpose of train and equip was to fight Isis,” he said. But, he added: “We’re not on the ground to force anyone to do anything.”
The intensifying fighting around Aleppo came as:
– Russia accused Turkey of “absolute lawlessness” after the Ankara government ordered its forces to shell Kurdish positions inside Syria.
– The US called on Russia to “put up or shut up” on its promise to implement an internationally agreed ceasefire, which is due to begin tomorrow (Friday).
– The Syrian regime announced that it would allow aid convoys into seven besieged suburbs after agreement with the UN and allowed convoys into at least two rebel-held enclaves.
Since the beginning of this year the YPG has been working in ever-closer alliance with the Russians to seize rebel-controlled territory along the Turkish border. That relationship began to bear fruit for the Kurds last week, as they moved in on rebel-held territory in the north of Aleppo province, behind Russian airstrikes.
Over the past week, the Kurds have seized two rebel-held bastions – the Menagh military airbase and the Sunni Arab town of Tal Rifaat – and announced that they had been given Kurdish names.
Tal Rifaat is now called Arpet, while Menagh has become Serok Apo – or “Leader Apo”, in honour of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK Kurdish militia.
With the intense fighting around Aleppo, US officials conceded that the promised ceasefire was a remote possibility.
The Times
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