High stakes in skies over Syria
Turkey confirms downing Russian plane as US urges speed on talks
With the attacks in Paris and threats in Brussels adding urgency to bids for Syrian peace talks, United States Secretary of State John Kerry says he wants to speed up efforts to move the conflict from the battlefield to the negotiating table.
As Kerry was pushing for action, Turkey last night confirmed it shot down a Russian warplane yesterday.
It said the plane had violated Turkish airspace and ignored repeated warnings.
Russia denies the plane crossed the Syrian border into Turkish skies.
It said the Su-24 was downed by artillery fire, but Turkey claimed its F-16s fired on the plane.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said the pilots had parachuted but Moscow had no contact with them. Turkish media said one pilot had been captured by rebel forces in Syria.
Kerry was in the Middle East trying to drum up support for the fight against Isis (Islamic State) as France stepped up its part in the aerial assault on the group in Iraq and Syria, with warplanes taking off from France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean.
Kerry said in Abu Dhabi, after meeting United Arab Emirates officials, that he was urging Middle East leaders to act faster in getting opposition and rebel groups together with the Damascus Government.
Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are strong backers of Syrian rebels seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Russia and Iran.
“The goal is to accelerate everything,” Kerry said after the talks about the campaign against Isis, known by various names including Daesh.
If we can get a ceasefire, if we can get a political process, that greatly facilitates what we can then talk to Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s military chief, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, its Foreign Minister. He was to meet later with Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Adel al-Jubeir.
Though critics have accused the Obama Administration of lacking a clear strategy to defeat Isis, Kerry has repeatedly insisted that strides have been made since a 65-nation coalition led by the US coalesced last year.
Kerry plans talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah today.
Yesterday’s French airstrikes came 10 days after the deadly attacks in Paris that left 130 dead.
President Francois Hollande said earlier in Paris: “We will intensify our strikes, choosing targets that will do the most damage possible to this army of terrorists.”
The Charles de Gaulle has 26 fighters, more than doubling France’s strike capacity in the US-led mission against Isis. France already has six Mirage and six Rafale jets stationed in the UAE and Jordan.
A military source said their missions would overfly Turkey or Jordan to avoid Syrian defences.
The US said yesterday that it had destroyed more than 238 oil tankers controlled by Isis in an airstrike in northeastern Syria after destroying 116 in an airstrike last week, while Russia said yesterday that it had hit 472 terrorist targets in 48 hours and 1000 Isis oil tankers in five days.
To avoid crossing paths with Russian planes, France is liaising with Moscow via the US coalition headquarters in Qatar. French and Russian naval commanders began exchanging information at the end of last week ahead of the deployment to the eastern Mediterranean. Iraqi army: The army counts 177,600 men, according to the IISS. After the United States invasion in 2003, the Americans dissolved the army, which was then 450,000 strong, and rebuilt a new force, which collapsed in June last year when faced with Isis. Washington and its allies then sought to train the Iraqi army and the Government to restructure it. Since September, it has had at its disposal American F-16 fighter jets. It depends on Shia militias, notably the Popular Mobilisation units (Hashed al-Shaabi) and Sunni tribes. Elsewhere in Syria, the armed opposition is fractured between a variety of moderate and Islamist rebel groups, including the powerful Ahrar al-Sham faction in north and northwestern Syria, the Army of Islam near Damascus, and the Southern Front in Daraa province. Some of those forces have at times allied with alQaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front, which is in turn a rival of Isis.
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