Kurdish militants reportedly shoot down Turkish security forces helicopter
Source: Washington Post
On Saturday, media affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a leftist militant group battling the Turkish state, posted a video purporting to show a fighter downing a Cobra attack helicopter with a man-portable air-defense system or MANPADS in the mountains of southeastern Turkey on Friday morning. Arms observers said this is the first time they have seen PKK fighters successfully using MANPADS in their four-decade fight against the Turks.
But the use of a surface-to-air missile which arms experts said is likely a Russian-made 9K38 Igla is a new and troubling development. It's unclear where the militants, who maintain bases in both Turkey and Iraq, would have obtained the weapon system. But former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was known to have acquired the same Russian-made system in the 1980s, as did Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddafi.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/14/kurdish-militants-just-challenged-turkish-air-power-in-a-major-way/
Putin is stirring the pot.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)Last edited Sun May 15, 2016, 03:11 AM - Edit history (1)
The fascist sociopathic KGBer is playing around with WW3.
Update: And I see the Putin Online Defense--POD people--are now swamping the thread
bemildred
(90,061 posts)ISTANBUL They were used to stalk Russian helicopters in Afghanistan, and the United States has worked hard to keep them out of chaotic Syria. But now Kurdish guerrillas battling Turkey's security forces may now have shoulder-fired missiles an acquisition analysts say will seriously challenge Turkish air power and potentially intensify fighting in the region.
On Saturday, media affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a leftist militant group battling the Turkish state, posted a video purporting to show a fighter downing a Cobra attack helicopter with a man-portable air-defense system or MANPADS in the mountains of southeastern Turkey on Friday morning. Arms observers said this is the first time they have seen PKK fighters successfully using MANPADS in their four-decade fight against the Turks.
About four minutes into the video, the fighter, clad in camouflage fatigues, crouches on a verdant hillside with the weapons system on his shoulder. When the launcher locks on its target a helicopter whirring noisily on the horizon the fighter stands to fire. The heat-seeking missile swoops through the air and strikes the Cobra's tail, sending the aircraft spinning and eventually crashing into the mountainside.
Turkish authorities on Friday had attributed the helicopter crash in Hakkari province to an unknown technical failure. The chopper had been dispatched, however, after the militants staged an attack that killed six Turkish soldiers in the area.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/14/kurdish-militants-just-challenged-turkish-air-power-in-a-major-way/
Redwoods Red
(137 posts)From the article:
"It's unclear where the militants, who maintain bases in both Turkey and Iraq, would have obtained the weapon system. But former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was known to have acquired the same Russian-made system in the 1980s, as did Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddafi."
Hell, maybe they're from the arms bazaar that Libya has become in the last few years.
If you have any evidence that Putin is involved, please produce it.
Igel
(35,320 posts)Left out another good source would be the Ukraine. (Note the article, it's intentional there.)
Lots dumped into the Donbas. Some captured in the Donbas. Put into the hands of ardent pro-Russians, who probably wouldn't mind helping the enemy of a country that downed a Russian plane.
Most of the ones in Iraq would probably have fallen to the Islamists. Unlikes the DNRniki the Islamists wouldn't much want to help the PKK because any help given to the Kurds could be turned against the Islamists, whom the Kurds are fighting. (Then again, perhaps the Kurds captured some MANPADs from the Islamists.)
Thing about the Igla, they, like Stingers, require batteries. The Stinger batteries aren't off the shelf. Don't know about the Igla batteries.
Depaysement
(1,835 posts). . . is something we all want to get right behind.
Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)U.N. slams Turkey for alarming reports of human rights abuses
The United Nations and Human Rights Watch accused Turkish security forces Tuesday of committing serious human rights violations against Turkish civilians and Syrian refugees in recent months.
The allegations come as Europe has pushed Turkey to help stem the flow of migrants to Europe while also calling on Turkish authorities to soften anti-terrorism laws to limit rights abuses.
Turkish security forces may have deliberately shot civilians, destroyed infrastructure, carried out arbitrary arrests and triggered a wave of displacement in an ongoing military campaign against ethnic Kurdish separatists in the countrys southeast, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein said Tuesday. He urged Turkish authorities to allow independent investigators to probe the alleged attacks, which he called extremely alarming.
A separate report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Turkish border guards of shooting at and beating Syrian asylum seekers along Turkeys frontier with the war-ravaged nation. At least five people have been killed in the past two months, the rights group said. Turkish officials have previously denied reports that border guards have fired at refugees or forced them back into Syria.
UN deplores Turkish military abuses in Kurdish areas
A top UN official has voiced alarm about violence against civilians by Turkish government forces in Kurdish-majority south-eastern Turkey.
The UN says it has reports that more than 100 people were burned to death while sheltering in basements in Cizre.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Raad al-Hussein urged Turkey to grant the UN unimpeded access to the affected areas.
'Mass killings' of Kurds in Cizre reported to UN
Turkeys Human Rights Association says it has submitted a report to the United Nations detailing the mass killing of Kurds in the city of Cizre. The documents were sent to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate.
...
It was Russian journalists who reported mass killings and leveling of city blocks in Kurish areas. Maybe that's why some people are blaming Putin.
Still these are facts.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)lol, yes it's all a conspiracy to get at poor little Dear Leader. It must be, RT said so!
Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)If you have the stomach for it search twitter and youtube you can watch Turkey's human rights violations against their own citizens, Kurdish civilians, all day long.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)Redwoods Red
(137 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)I responded directly to another DUer's mention of Putin. What's your big problem with that? You seem to want to keep a limit on the subject of the biggest fascist threat in the world, or any criticism of the Russian war machine at all. Now why would that be?
Redwoods Red
(137 posts)By the way, has the State Department confirmed that Assad or the Russians actually did that "airstrike" you were so quick to try to pin on them? Seems like that went mighty quiet after the initial propaganda blast.
Look, I'm not that fond of the Russians, but, unlike you, I don't see them as the root of all evil in the world. You, my friend, are just a one-trick pony propagandist.
yourpaljoey
(2,166 posts)Here we see the mark and paw print of Ergodan the crazy.
Redwoods Red
(137 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)Hmm.