Iraq & Syrian Civil Wars - Page 366

Islamic State fighters killed a US navy Seal in northern Iraq on Tuesday, when the militants pushed through a forward line of Iraqi Kurdish forces, officials said.

He is the third American killed in direct combat since a US-led coalition launched a campaign against the jihadist group in 2014.

“It is a combat death, of course, and a very sad loss. I don’t know all the circumstances of it,” US Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters during a trip to Germany.

Turkey is prepared to take unilateral actions against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria to protect its southern border town Kilis from IS attacks, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.

"We are making necessary preparations in order to clear across the border," he said.

Erdogan complained that the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition has not provided Turkey with the desired support.

"Turkey will not wait... while we have martyrs every day," Erdogan said. "I'd like to say that we will not hesitate to take unilateral steps on this issue.

An NGO that gets tens of millions in U.S. taxpayer money to resettle foreign refugees into dozens of U.S. cities is being investigated for corruption involving contracts with Turkish companies.

The International Rescue Committee is one of the nine volunteer aid agencies, also called VOLAGs, that contract with the federal government to resettle refugees into the United States from Syria, Somalia, Burma, Iraq, Bhutan, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

New York-based IRC, headed by former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, is being investigated by the Office of the Inspector General within the U.S. Agency for International Development for bid rigging and bribery that allegedly took place among its staff members lining up supplies and services for displaced Syrians in Turkey, according to government documents turned over to WND from the Inspector General’s Office.

In November 2013, Miliband’s organization gave billionaire George Soros its highest award, the Freedom Award, and Soros responded by donating $1 million to the IRC.

Miliband is also a close friend of Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the same time he was foreign secretary.

But his organization is now under the microscope for its alleged involvement in a corruption scandal that so far has not been reported in the establishment media.

As of May 15, 2016, according to Save the Children and an assortment of UN agencies and NGO’s, nearly 7 million people are displaced within Syria, half of them are children and more than two million of the youngsters are at risk of becoming ill, malnourished, abused, or exploited. In rural areas of Damascus one in 20 children is severely malnourished with 14 per cent classed as acutely malnourished.

One inexcusable action that is today targeting Syria’s children, even if inadvertently, are the US economic sanctions against the country’s leadership by the US Treasury Department and its enforcement arm, the Office of Financial Assets Control (OFAC).

A couple of examples.

In southern Turkey, Islamic Relief has delivered 150 million dollars of aid to 6.5 million Syrian refugees, most of them children. Even though it had previously partnered with the United Nations and Western countries in providing aid to more than 30 countries over the past 32 years, it is experiencing repeated delays in getting food to Syria children after banks refused to transfer funds to pay for any supplies that might be sent to Syria.

Last year, former UK Ambassador to Lebanon, Ms. Frances Guy was close starting a major program to feed hundreds of displaced children and others in war-torn Syria. Guy, the Middle East head of Christian Aid, had secured funds and found partners. But there was one obstacle she couldn’t overcome: The charity’s bank, Standard Chartered Plc, refused to transfer $50,000 to put the project in motion. According to Ms. Guy “The unintended consequence here is that aid is being denied to people in desperate need of assistance. If this continues, it is possible to see a situation where Syria children and those most in need of humanitarian aid are least able to access it.”

Dozens of other charities wanting to help vulnerable Syrians are also being blocked. After U.S. authorities levied billions of dollars in fines against Standard Chartered, HSBC Holdings Plc and BNP Paribas SA for violating sanctions on Syria, banks have been unwilling to send money and have even shut accounts. Charity Finance Group, a London-based trade association with 1,350 members, says 200 to 300 charitable organizations have had their accounts canceled or faced long delays and rejections of money transfers.

An idea to somehow lessen some of the harsher OFAC regulations seen as targeting charities was offered recently by some industry lawyers that represent major lending institutions. The plan would be to create a sort of safe harbor where banks could avoid punishment if any money inadvertently ended up in the wrong hands, as long as prescribed due diligence measures were followed. OFAC quickly rejected this idea. Jennifer Fowler, assistant secretary for terrorist financing, affirms that the US government is not going to roll back any restrictions, insisting that “We have these rules in place to protect our financial system.”

One solution could perhaps be for the UN and its specialized agencies to get involved and take advantage of an OFAC regulation exemption. But this idea is complicated by OFAC’s refusal to permit humanitarian funds transfers to Syria except those made, pursuant to section 5420513, and done by United Nations organizations or its contractors. Even then, the general license prohibits any blocked entity from touching the funds, setting up additional compliance fears for the banks involved and their unwillingness to risk yet another mega-fine from OFAC.

The Obama administration acknowledges that closing the accounts of clean charitable organizations is a problem. The US Treasury Department has been informally passing the word to U.S. and foreign banks that they won’t be indicted for innocent mistakes.

But few if any financial institutions are likely to be much convinced given OFAC’s record.

Consequently, much needed food aid for Syria’s most vulnerable will likely continue to be blocked.

Moscow on Friday proposed that Russia and United States, which have been flying separate bombing campaigns in Syria, launch joint air strikes against jihadists from next week, a proposal the Pentagon swiftly rejected.

Shoigu said Friday that Russia would reserve its right to unilaterally strike "international terrorist and illegal armed groups that have not adhered to the cessation of hostilities" starting from May 25.

Political rivalry between Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and President Erdogan has culminated in the resignation of Davutoglu, prompting fears that Erdogan will be able to grab even more power.

Prime Minister Davutoglu resigned from his role on Thursday amid reports of growing tensions with Turkey's president, however he told a press conference that he bore "no grudges" as his party leadership came to an end, Reuters reported.

A Syrian national who arrived on the Greek island of Lesvos has won an appeal against a decision that would have led to his forcible return to Turkey, underscoring the fundamental flaws in the migration deal agreed in March between the European Union and Turkey, Amnesty International said today.

In the first such decision Amnesty International has seen since the deal, an appeals committee in Athens overturned an initial decision considering Turkey a safe third country on the grounds that Turkey does not afford refugees the full protection required under the Refugee Convention. The committee also ruled that Turkey does not guarantee the principle of non-refoulement, which forbids returning someone to a country where he or she is at risk of serious human rights violations.

“This decision goes to the heart of why the EU-Turkey deal was so deeply flawed to begin with,” said Gauri van Gulik, Deputy Europe Director at Amnesty International.

DEVESELU, Romania — The United States switched on an $800 million missile shield in Romania on Thursday that it sees as vital to defend itself and Europe from so-called rogue states but the Kremlin says is aimed at blunting its own nuclear arsenal.

To the music of military bands at the remote Deveselu air base, senior U.S. and NATO officials declared operational the ballistic missile defense site, which is capable of shooting down rockets from countries such as Iran that Washington says could one day reach major European cities.

On May 25 2016 17:35 AssyrianKing wrote:
s. God forbid the Kurds have any autonomy, they aren't even native to that land, all of them are from Turkey -.-

On May 25 2016 17:35 AssyrianKing wrote: God forbid the Kurds have any autonomy, they aren't even native to that land, all of them are from Turkey -.-