Russia behind Turkish soldiers’ deaths: Pompeo US NAMES I.S. CHIEF ON TERROR BLACKLIST

Washington, March 18: The United States for the first time held Russia responsible for the deaths of dozens of Turkish troops in Syria as it vowed accountability.

An airstrike last month in the Idlib region killed 34 Turkish soldiers, although Ankara blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and reached a new ceasefire deal with Moscow. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, announcing new sanctions on Syrian officials on Tuesday, placed blame on Russia, which along with Iran has backed Assad in his bloody quest to crush rebels.

“We believe Russia has killed dozens of Turkish military personnel in the course of their military operation,” Pompeo told reporters, without naming a specific incident. “We stand with our NATO ally Turkey and will consider additional measures that support Turkey at the end of the violence,” he said.

Analysts widely doubted that Assad’s rundown air force could effectively hit Turkish forces but until now the United States had steered clear of blaming Russia, mindful of official statements by Ankara.

After the killings, Turkey killed dozens of Syrian government troops as retaliation but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to Moscow to negotiate a ceasefire with his counterpart Vladimir Putin that includes joint Russian-Turkish patrols.

Idlib has been the last major battleground between Assad’s forces against jihadists and their rebel allies, who are backed by Turkey. The offensive launched in December caused a new humanitarian crisis in Syria’s brutal nine-year civil war with close to one million people fleeing in the dead of winter.

Pompeo announced new sanctions against Syrian Defense Minister Ali Ayoub, accusing him of destroying an earlier truce through the offensive. —

Washington, March 18: The US has placed the new ISIS leader on its blacklist of terrorists, naming him as Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman alMawli. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that alMawli was named the group’s leader after an October raid by US commandos killed its chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The organization had earlier named Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi alQuraishi as its new head, but US officials acknowledged they knew little about him — and later came to believe that ISIS was using his nom de guerre.

Al-Mawli “was previously active in al-Qaeda in Iraq and is known for torturing innocent Yazidi religious minorities,” Pompeo said. —