Showing posts with label Ashton Carter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ashton Carter. Show all posts

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Saudi Arabia wants its boots on the ground to tackle ISIS threats


Saudi Arabia has indicated its willingness to have its boots on the ground and is ready to join any ground operation that the US-led coalition would launch against Islamic State (IS) fighters in Syria. This has been committed by Brigadier General Ahmed al Assiri in the Saudi-owned al Arabiya TV.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 4 February 2016.
The Brigadier is a spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab coalition that is battling Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen. The Kingdom is an active member of the coalition that is at present fighting IS in Syria, and had carried out more than 190 bombing raids there since 2014.
However, in his opinion, the only way to defeat the extremist group is to put boots on the ground because aerial operations are not the ideal solution and a twin mix of aerial and ground operations could be a better option.
On this subject, US State Department spokesman John Kirby has remarked that the coalition is supportive of partners contributing more in the fight against IS, but he had not yet seen the Saudi proposal and cannot pass any comment on the subject.
Interestingly, only last month, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter had commented that several members of the coalition are doing "nothing at all" to help destroy the jihadis.
The USA has carried out the bulk of the 9,800 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since the summer of 2014. Later, in November, the United Arab Emirates, which is carrying out airstrikes against IS in Syria and Iraq, had indicated that it was willing to send ground troops to Syria. A couple of US senators have called for 100,000 soldiers, preferably from Sunni states apart from Americans, to fight IS in Syria.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Sunday, January 24, 2016

Jordanian border guards kill 12 Syrian smugglerrs who had 2 million narcotics pills


Jordanian border guards opened fire on a group of three dozen suspected infiltrators from Syria, killing 12 and wounding several others. These were smugglers and the border guards confiscated more than 2 million narcotics pills during the incident. Some of these people were armed and several of them returned to Syria.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 24 January 2016.
The border command has informed that it frequently intercepts smugglers who are trying to cross into Jordan and this latest incident was the deadliest in the border area in recent memory. Jordan shares much of the border with Syria and it runs through remote desert. The eastern part is the main crossing route for Syrian refugees.
Incidentally, nearly 17,000 Syrians are stranded in the border area, waiting to enter Jordan.
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has remarked that Turkey has a porous border and foreign fighters going in both directions take advantage of that.

Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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