Russia on Wednesday said its planes will attack any tanker trucks travelling through territory belonging to the Islamic State group in Syria, as Moscow looks to ratchet up pressure on the jihadists.
“Today a decision was taken according to which Russian warplanes are now flying on a so-called ‘free hunt’ against tanker trucks carrying oil products belonging to terrorists in areas controlled by IS,” senior Russian military official Andrei Kartapolov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Russian news outlet RT reported online that Russian strikes “torched” more than 1,000 tankers delivering crude oil to ISIS over a five-day period, citing a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry. The Russian Air Force, according to the report, also hit 472 targets in two days in Syria.
The claims come as the U.S. also says its coalition is hitting a large number of tanker trucks – albeit nowhere near as many strikes as Moscow says it conducted.
This is bad for the entities in Turkey who are buying ISIS oil:
Syrian forces recently captured an Islamic State (Isis) oil tanker from Hasakah, which it claimed operated between Syria and Turkey. The development has once again fuelled speculations that Turkey has been aiding Isis.
Social media users from Syria are widely sharing the images of the tanker that was being used by Isis terrorists. According to reports, the Turkish oil truck was captured after Isis? withdrew from Base 121 ?in Hasakah?.
The oil tanker has “Serin” and “Turkey” written on it.
If the oil can’t go out through Turkey, it will head out through existing pathways in Iran and Jordan:
Islamic State has consolidated its grip on oil supplies in Iraq and now presides over a sophisticated smuggling empire with illegal exports going to Turkey, Jordan and Iran, according to smugglers and Iraqi officials.
That oil is making very powerful people in Turkey very rich, and helping to fund various groups seeking to unseat Assad in Syria:
Turkey provided refuge for Syrian dissidents. Syrian opposition activists convened in Istanbul in May to discuss regime change, and Turkey hosts the head of the Free Syrian Army, Colonel Riad al-Asaad. Turkey has become increasingly hostile to the Assad government’s policies and has encouraged reconciliation among dissident factions. Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has been trying to “cultivate a favorable relationship with whatever government would take the place of Assad.” Beginning in May 2012, some Syrian opposition fighters began being armed and trained by the Turkish Intelligence.
The question now is if Putin will take action, and risk triggering a NATO response to protect Turkey, or if Russia will simply allow Turkey to kill it’s troops, without consequence.
This may slide by now, but once the full global financial apocalypse goes down and everybody’s amygdala is in high gear, it is exactly actions like this that could trigger a world war – a world war that the rabbits will be all to happy to encourage to save themselves from being held responsible for the mess they created.
Apocalypse cometh™
[…] By Anonymous Conservative […]
I have no doubt that Putin is going to put a hurt on Turkey. They asked for it, and he’s the one to give it. He (rightly) considers NATO to be a paper tiger. The EU doesn’t spend enough to hold its end of NATO up, and Obama doesn’t have the backbone to hold his end up.
What I can’t figure out is how Turkey gains in this. This wasn’t Russia’s play — even if they were probing the border, Turkey is the one who hit the button. Short of a Bilderberg style international conspiracy telling Turkey “it’s your time to commit suicide” none of it makes any damned sense. I can think of TONS of angles for Putin to have provoked something like this — I just can’t for the life of me come up with a coherent (rational or irrational) reason for Erdogan to TAKE the provocation.
I wonder if the guys being made rich off ISIS oil were old hands in the Deep State, and Russia patrolling there was sending all the oil through Iran and Jordan. Maybe an old Deep State guy thought he could order one Russian jet downed, figuring it would provoke enough of an incident, and with NATO involved, cause pressure to be brought on Russia to back down and let the ISIS oil flow again. Maybe he calculated he had nothing to lose, and might make a few hundred million if it worked as he hoped. Maybe this guy knows that the government will take all the heat, and nobody will know he did it, so it was a no-cost option.
It will be interesting to see how many people drop dead of heart attacks, gastroenteritis, pancreatitis, strokes, accidents, suicides, and bad sushi as the months carry on. Putin won’t start WWIII, but he will drop bodies with gleeful abandon, and not get caught. If I were Putin, that is how I would roll.
If I were Turkish deep state, I would not be big on overseas travel for a while, and I would be very surveillance aware. ITZ coming.
Late entry.
Read what this guy says.
I go a step further to state that the PTB were possibly hoping to recover said device from this bomber.
Recall that it was a Russian Bomber which scared a frigate the hell out of the Black Sea by immobilizing their ultra-sophisticated Aeigis radar systems and strafing the ship on simulated attack runs twelve times before departing. The ship was said to be dark for 16 minutes during the bombers runs.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/11/26/guest-column-from-george-abert-formerly-of-air-force-intelligence/
“…PTB were possibly hoping to recover said device from this bomber…”
Good thinking. If the gadget does what is said it would actually make it worth the risk. Losing Aegis would be a huge detriment.