39 people found dead in truck in southeast England were Chinese nationals: report - Fox News

The 39 people who were found inside the back of a semi-truck in England were identified on Thursday as Chinese nationals, according to reports.

The bodies were found near an industrial estate near London. Details about the victims have not been officially released except that one was a teenager.

The 25-year-old driver from Northern Ireland has been arrested on suspicion of murder. While Essex police have not identified him, several U.K. media outlets have named him as Mo Robinson, from Portadown, County Armagh. British police raided two sites in Northern Ireland.

TRUCK WITH 39 BODIES ENTERED ENGLAND FROM BELGIUM VIA FERRY, POLICE SAY

"This is a tragic incident where a large number of people have lost their lives. Our inquiries are ongoing to establish what has happened," Essex Police Chief Superintendent Andrew Mariner told reporters at a press conference. "We are in the process of identifying the victims; however, I anticipate that this could be a lengthy process."

Belgium's federal prosecutor's office says it is clear that the container in which 39 people were found dead had come through the North Sea port of Zeebrugge.

ARIZONA OFFICIAL CHARGED WITH HUMAN SMUGGLING AFTER BRINGING MORE THAN 40 PREGNANT WOMEN TO THE US

Police escort the truck, that was found to contain a large number of dead bodies, as they move it from an industrial estate in Thurrock, south England, Wednesday Oct. 23, 2019. (AP)

Britain remains an attractive destination for immigrants, even as the U.K. is negotiating its divorce from the European Union. In Parliament, Prime Minister Boris Johnson put aside the Brexit crisis and vowed that human traffickers would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

"All such traders in human beings should be hunted down and brought to justice," he said.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

In 2000, 58 Chinese nationals suffocated to death in a truck trailer in Dover. In 2004, 21 illegal immigrants from China who had entered the country via shipping containers perished while harvesting shellfish in northern England

Fox News' Lucia I. Suarez Sang, Brie Stimson and the Associated Press contributed  to this report

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.foxnews.com/world/39-people-found-dead-in-truck-in-southeast-england-were-chinese-nationals-report

2019-10-24 10:14:22Z
CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZveG5ld3MuY29tL3dvcmxkLzM5LXBlb3BsZS1mb3VuZC1kZWFkLWluLXRydWNrLWluLXNvdXRoZWFzdC1lbmdsYW5kLXdlcmUtY2hpbmVzZS1uYXRpb25hbHMtcmVwb3J00gFyaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm94bmV3cy5jb20vd29ybGQvMzktcGVvcGxlLWZvdW5kLWRlYWQtaW4tdHJ1Y2staW4tc291dGhlYXN0LWVuZ2xhbmQtd2VyZS1jaGluZXNlLW5hdGlvbmFscy1yZXBvcnQuYW1w

Defense Secretary Esper has sharp words for Turkey over Syria invasion - Fox News

BRUSSELS — U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper is lashing out at Turkey for its military assault on Syrian Kurdish fighters across the border into Syria.

His remarks in Brussels Thursday came after spending four tumultuous days engulfed in the chaotic ramifications of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria.

TURKEY, RUSSIA ANNOUNCE JOINT PATROLS ALONG SYRIA BORDER IN LATEST MOVE AGAINST KURDS

Esper says Turkey's unwarranted invasion into Syria jeopardizes security gains made in recent years as the U.S.-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled the Islamic State group. His comments came at the German Marshall Fund.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the U.S. is lifting sanctions on Turkey after the NATO ally agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria. Esper was in Iraq Wednesday to discuss the withdrawal and the Islamic State threat with Iraqi leaders and his military commanders.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.foxnews.com/world/defense-secretary-esper-has-sharp-words-for-turkey-over-syria-invasion

2019-10-24 08:47:27Z
52780417512262

Israel's gridlock continues as Gantz attempts to form government - NBC News

TEL AVIV, Israel — After failing to form a government for the second time in two consecutive elections, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister now has to watch as for the first time in a decade someone not named Benjamin Netanyahu attempts to form a government.

In a ceremony Wednesday evening, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin passed the political torch to Netanyahu’s chief rival, former military chief of staff Benny Gantz, who will have 28 days to form a government, after which if there is still no government a complex process could lead to an unprecedented third election in the span of a year.

And while it is astonishing for a leader like Netanyahu to fail twice at forming a government — a first in Israeli history — anyone celebrating Gantz’s victory may be doing so prematurely. After all, the obstacles Netanyahu faced will be no less a challenge for Gantz, a three-star general with no political experience prior to his entry into politics ahead of the April election, which also ended in stalemate.

Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party surpassed Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party in the September election — but his bloc of center-left parties was smaller than Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc, giving Netanyahu the first chance to form a government.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem.Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images

Returning that undelivered mandate to the president was probably not how Netanyahu imagined celebrating his 70th birthday Monday. Yet, it came as no surprise in Israel, where the news cycle has focused for the last month on his lack of progress in establishing a government.

Analysts say the era of “King Bibi” the invincible leader may be coming to an end.

“Netanyahu’s image as a magician, as the man who always wins elections, and who controls Israeli politics, is severely wounded,” Gayil Talshir, a political science professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University said. “It’s clear that this is the end of the Netanyahu era. The question is how soon it’s going to come.”

Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.

While Israel is divided, analysts say polarization is not driving this gridlock. “When it comes to issues of great concern to Israelis, there really isn’t a big ideological divide,” Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a leading Israeli research center, says.

Israel’s political paralysis is more a manifestation of the unique situation facing Israel’s leader.

“Netanyahu is about to be indicted on allegations of severe crimes on the one hand, but on the other hand he is still very popular among his political base and is committed to holding on to his power,” Plesner says. “Without the Netanyahu factor, it’s quite clear we would have seen today a functioning government.”

According to a recent IDI poll, a majority of Israelis want a unity government between Likud and Blue and White. This is what Gantz and Netanyahu both claim to be working toward, yet their shared end does not reflect shared means.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews line up to vote in Bnei Brak on Sept. 17. Oded Balilty / AP

Netanyahu failed to form a coalition because he insisted on negotiating as a bloc, representing his party and several ultrareligious parties. Gantz refused to negotiate under those conditions, as his party campaigned on forming a liberal government that would reduce the control of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox minority over its secular majority.

For example, Israeli Jews can only marry through the ultra-Orthodox rabbinate, there is no public transportation from Friday afternoon through Saturday night, and most businesses are closed on Shabbat. Most Israelis are not ultra-Orthodox, and polls have repeatedly shown a desire to loosen these restrictions.

“Blue and White is determined to form the liberal unity government, headed by Gantz, that the nation chose a month ago,” the party declared Monday night.

Another crucial obstacle to a unity government is Gantz’s refusal to share power with a prime minister facing indictment. When Gantz refers to a unity government with Likud, he means a Likud that is not led by Netanyahu.

To accomplish that, he needs an unlikely rebellion from within the Likud to replace Netanyahu as party leader. But Netanyahu has forced his party and its right-wing partners to sign several loyalty pledges vowing only to support him as their leader.

According to a new IDI survey released Tuesday, a majority of Israelis believe Netanyahu should resign. "This is obviously a message accepted by a broad majority of Israelis, but not yet internalized by the political system," Plesner says.

While a second election seemed unlikely back in April, Israelis are already dreading the possibility of a third. But according to Talshir and Plesner, this is what Netanyahu and the Likud are hoping for.

On Monday Netanyahu released a campaign video blaming Blue and White for leading Israel to a third election. “Gantz’s chances at forming a government are not great because Netanyahu believes his best chance is a third election,” Talshir says.

According to Plesner, the Israeli public has “no appetite for a third election campaign, especially since we know not much will change in a third election. At the same time, there’s no particular expectation that Gantz or Netanyahu or someone else will be able to form a government. So the public is in a state of confusion.”

Gantz now has 28 days to form a coalition, and if anything or anyone will give, it will likely happen toward the end of that time period, Plesner says. It's not impossible that Netanyahu could even have another chance to form a government if Gantz fails.

After 38 years in the Israeli military, commanding soldiers in two Lebanon wars, every Palestinian uprising and all three wars with Hamas, Gantz is now about to face what may be his toughest battle yet.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-s-gridlock-continues-gantz-attempts-form-government-n1070381

2019-10-24 07:47:00Z
52780416421535

Trump impeachment inquiry: Bill Taylor's opening statement reveals details of Ukraine pressure campaign — live updates - CBS News

Top diplomat in Ukraine gives "damning" testimony

---

Key facts and latest news

• William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, testified before lawmakers behind closed doors for more than nine hours on Tuesday.
• In a 15-page opening statement, Taylor testified that he grew increasingly alarmed over efforts by U.S. officials to pressure Ukraine into investigating President Trump's rivals.
• Lawmakers who heard the closed-door testimony were stunned, audibly gasping at points.
• On the July 25 call between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. Trump urged Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.

---

Washington -- Democrats in the House said testimony from the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine before the committees leading the impeachment probe provided a "damning" and "devastating" account of the Trump administration's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the president's political rivals.

Trending News

William Taylor, the U.S. chargé d'affaires in Kiev, delivered a 15-page opening statement on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, alleging a direct link between a delay in U.S. military aid for Ukraine and the country's willingness to investigate President Trump's political foes.

Taylor testified for more than nine hours behind closed doors, and Democrats emerging from the hearing room expressed shock at his deposition. CBS News obtained a copy of his opening statement later in the day.

In the statement, Taylor described a concerted effort to use U.S. leverage to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to commit to opening investigations into debunked allegations of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, as well as the gas company Burisma, which had hired former Vice President Joe Biden's son in 2014.

Taylor said these efforts came via an "irregular, informal channel of U.S. policy-making" consisting of Rudy Giuliani, then-special envoy Kurt Volker, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland.

Taylor said an official on the National Security Council told him about a call between Mr. Trump and Sondland in early September.

"President Trump did insist that President Zelenskyy go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of Biden and 2016 election interference, and that President Zelenskyy should want to do this himself," Taylor wrote.

William Taylor departs the Capitol after testifying in the Democrats' impeachment investigation of President Trump on Tuesday, October 22, 2019. J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Representative Andy Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, said the U.S. diplomat's account was "very troubling."

"All I have to say is that in my 10 short months in Congress ... this is my most disturbing day in Congress so far," Levin said.

"He was a meticulous note keeper, which made his testimony, I believe, all the more credible," said Congressman Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia. "That was his lifelong habit. When a phone conversation or meeting occurred, he would go to his notebook, record it or memorialize it."

At least one House Republican said the testimony did nothing to advance the Democratic theory that Mr. Trump withheld foreign aid or a meeting with the Ukrainian president in an attempt to get the country to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

"I don't see anything that has advanced, the quid pro quo or the promise of anything with foreign aid," said Congressman Mark Meadows, Republican from North Carolina. "There's no one who can be intellectually honest and come out of that deposition and suggest otherwise."

---

Mike Pence blames Washington "swamp" for State officials stepping forward with testimony

Vice President Mike Pence suggested that some career diplomats who have chosen to ignore White House orders to not comply with House subpoenas as part of their ongoing impeachment probe show the depths of the so-called "swamp" in Washington.

"We have some extraordinary men and women in our diplomatic corps who know their work and who are strong and are out fighting for America's interest. But there's no question that when President Trump said we're going to drain the swamp, that an awful lot of the swamp has been caught up in the State Department bureaucracy, and we're just -- we're just going to keep fighting it. And we're going to fight it with the truth," Pence told Fox News' Laura Ingraham Tuesday night.

Pence was adamant that the Trump administraiton was doing more than its predecessor was in providing Ukraine with the military aid they need to fend off Russian aggression, despite withholding necessary funds for that aid.

"The explanation made no sense"

Wednesday, 6:00 a.m.: In his statement, Taylor recounted conversations in September with Sondland and Volker, who both deployed similar anecdotes to explain the president's behavior.

"Ambassador Sondland tried to explain to me that President Trump is a businessman. When a businessman is about to sign a check to someone who owes him something, he said, the businessman asks that person to pay up before signing the check," Taylor said, adding that Volker said something similar several days later. "I argued to both that the explanation made no sense: the Ukrainians did not 'owe' President Trump anything, and holding up security assistance for domestic political gain was 'crazy.'"

The delay in aid was eventually lifted, and the money was released on September 11. Taylor received assurances from Zelensky's office that he would not give CNN an interview to announce the investigations.

He did not learn details of the president's July 25 phone call with Zelensky until September 25, when the White House released a summary of the call.

"Although this was the first time I had seen the details of President Trump's July 25 call with President Zelenskyy, in which he mentioned Vice President Biden, I had come to understand well before then that 'investigations' was a term that Ambassadors Volker and Sondland used to mean matters related to the 2016 elections, and to investigations of Burisma and the Bidens," Taylor wrote.

Read the full statement here.

White House denounces "triple hearsay"

Tuesday, 7 p.m.: White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham issued a statement blasting Taylor's testimony and House Democrats.

"President Trump has done nothing wrong -- this is a coordinated smear campaign from far-left lawmakers and radical unelected bureaucrats waging war on the Constitution," the statement said. "There was no quid pro quo.

"Today was just more triple hearsay and selective leaks from the Democrats' politically-motivated, closed door, secretive hearings.

"Every day this nonsense continues more taxpayer time and money is wasted. President Trump is leading the way for the American people by delivering a safer, stronger, and more secure country - the do-nothing Democrats should consider doing the same."

​Graham to introduce resolution condemning "illegitimate" House practices

Tuesday, 5:08 p.m.: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Tuesday that he would introduce a resolution condemning "illegitimate" practices in the House impeachment inquiry, calling the process a "sham." Graham also said he would not comment on Taylor's testimony because he condemned the House's process.

"I will not comment on anything coming out of the House until they do it the right way. This is a sham. This is un-American," Graham said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Graham said that he agreed with Mr. Trump's characterization that the impeachment inquiry was a "lynching." -- Grace Segers

---

​McConnell denies telling Trump his Ukraine call was "innocent"

Tuesday, 3:29 p.m.: McConnell denied telling Mr. Trump his July phone call with the Ukrainian president was "innocent," as the president indicated earlier this month.

Asked on Tuesday whether he believes the president has handled the U.S. relationship with Ukraine "perfectly," McConnell told CBS News he had not spoken to the president about the July 25 call.

When CBS News asked on Tuesday if the president was lying about the supposed interaction, McConnell replied, "You'd have to ask him. I don't recall any conversations with the president about that phone call." -- Nancy Cordes

Read the full story here.

​Taylor's testimony was "damning" and elicited gasps from both parties

Tuesday, 1:32 p.m.: Taylor's opening statement was "lengthy," and his testimony was "very dramatic" and "detailed," according to members of the House committees conducting the impeachment inquiry. Another source said that Taylor's testimony was "damning."

A source who was in the room confirmed to CBS News that there were sighs and gasps -- from both Democrats and Republicans -- in reaction to Taylor's opening statement. -- Rebecca Kaplan, Olivia Gazis and Nancy Cordes

---

White House spokesman defends Trump's "lynching" comment

White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley speaks with reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, October 22, 2019, in Washington. Evan Vucci / AP

12:16 p.m.: Hogan Gidley, the principal deputy White House press secretary, claimed the president was not equating the impeachment inquiry with the brutal killing during Jim Crow.

"The president is not comparing what's happened to him with one of our darkest moments in American history," Gidley told reporters on the White House driveway. "What he is explaining clearly is the way he has been treated by the media since he announced for president."

"What the president has done for the African American community is something no president has ever done in my lifetime," Gidley claimed. -- Stefan Becket

---

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/trump-impeachment-inquiry-latest-bill-taylor-statement-ukraine-2019-10-23/

2019-10-23 11:24:00Z
52780416960402

Russia urges Kurdish fighters to withdraw from Syria's border - Al Jazeera English

Russia has warned Kurdish forces to quickly withdraw from the Turkey-Syria border - after a deal between Moscow and Ankara - or be crushed by the Turkish army, adding that they United States had "betrayed and abandoned" the Syrian fighters.

Wednesday's comments by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov followed a deal agreed on Tuesday between Turkey and Russia that will see Syrian and Russian forces deploy to northeast Syria to remove Kurdish fighters and their weapons from the border.

Peskov, reportedly reacting to comments by US President Donald Trump's special envoy for Syria James Jeffrey, complained that it appeared the Americans were encouraging the Kurds to stay close to the Syrian border to fight the Turkish army.

More:

"The United States has been the Kurds' closest ally in recent years. [But] in the end it abandoned the Kurds and, in essence, betrayed them," Peskov was cited as saying. "Now they [the US] prefer to leave the Kurds at the border [with Turkey] and almost force them to fight the Turks."

If the Kurds did not withdraw as per the deal, Peskov said Syrian borders guards and Russian military police would have to withdraw, leaving the Kurds to be dealt with by the Turkish army.

The Kurdish fighters would be "steamrolled" by the Turks, he said.

A column of Russian military police arrived in the city of Kobani in northern Syria, Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday, according to the TASS news agency.

The military police will help facilitate the withdrawal of Kurdish forces.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin assured him that Kurdish fighters will not be allowed to remain in Syria along the Turkish border wearing "regime clothes". 

Twice betrayed

Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford, reporting from Turkey's Akcakale at the border with Syria, said there was no word yet from the Kurdish fighters about the Russia-Turkey agreement.

"The fact of the matter is though the Kurdish forces are in a very difficult position, they accuse the Americans of letting them down, of being stabbed in the back, withdrawing their forces for the Turks to attack," he said.

Turkey, Russia reach deal for YPG move out of Syria border area (02:25)

"They were then forced to turn to the Syrian regime and the Russians for help. And now we have this agreement between the Russians and the Turks demanding that the remaining Kurdish forces withdraw," he added.

Turkey's defence ministry is signaling it will not resume its offensive in northeast Syria, saying: "At this stage, there is no further need to conduct a new operation outside the present operation area."

But the country's foreign minister later said Turkish forces would "neutralise" any remaining Syrian Kurdish fighter they come across in areas now under Turkish control in northeastern Syria.

"If there are terrorist remnants, we would clear them," Mevlut Cavusoglu told Turkey's Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

Cavusoglu said the deal with Russia - which foresees joint Turkish-Russian patrols after the withdrawal of Kurdish forces - would continue until a lasting political solution for Syria is reached.

He said the border areas would be locally administered, mostly by Arabs.

Cavusoglu also said Turkey agreed not to conduct joint patrols in the city of Qamishli, because of Russian concerns that such a move could lead to a confrontation between Turkish troops and the Syrian government forces who have long been present in the area.

Turkish operation

On October 9, Turkey launched an offensive aimed at carving out a "safe zone" cleared of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Ankara considers "terrorists", as well as at repatriating some of the 3.6 million refugees it was hosting.

According to the deal with Russia announced at a joint news conference in Sochi, Ankara will control a 32km-wide (20 miles) area between the towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain, which covers 120km (75 miles) of the Turkish-Syrian border.

Erdogan: Turkey's military operation in Syria not land grab (04:05)

Beginning at noon on Wednesday, Russian military police and Syrian border guards will start removing the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which spearhead the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and their weapons 30km (19 miles) from the border area. The agreement said the move should be completed in 150 hours.

Following that, Turkish and Russian forces will run joint patrols 10km (six miles) to the east and west of the zone.

Ankara and Moscow, which have backed opposing sides in Syria's long-running war, also reiterated to their commitment to the preservation of the political unity and territorial integrity of Syria and the protection of national security of Turkey.

The Sochi memorandum also said the YPG and their weapons would be removed from Manbij and Tal Rifat, where Syrian government forces moved in after the Kurdish-led fighters struck a deal with Damascus to fend off a Turkish assault. 

Russia is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main military ally.

Turkey had long said it wanted to establish a 444km long (276 miles) and 32km wide (20 miles) "safe zone". However, during the ceasefire, the US and the SDF said the withdrawal would only cover an area of about 120km (75 miles) between the towns of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad - something that was also confirmed by the agreement reached in Sochi.

US withdrawal

The US and the European Union consider the PKK a "terrorist" group, but not the SDF and the YPG, which was Washington's main ground ally in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) armed group.

In early October,  President Trump announced a decision to withdraw approximately 1,000 US troops from northeast Syria, created a power vacuum in the region and paving the way for Turkey's long-threatened operation.

After days of fighting, the Kurdish fighters reached an 11th-hour agreement with Damascus which saw Syrian government troops move into some of the area's towns and villages, including the flashpoint city of Manbij, for the first time in years.

Officials in Ankara have said that Turkey did not object to Syrian government forces deploying in some of the YPG-held areas as long as the "terrorists" were removed from the region.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/russia-urges-kurdish-fighters-withdraw-syria-border-191023073358905.html

2019-10-23 11:20:00Z
52780401824835

Iraq gives U.S. troops from Syria four weeks in the country before they must leave - The Washington Post

Hadi Mizban AP U.S. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, left, and Iraqi Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari, right, stand for their countries’ national anthems during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Baghdad, Oct. 23, 2019.

ISTANBUL — U.S. troops leaving Syria are only “transiting” through Iraqi territory and will depart within four weeks, Iraq’s defense minister said Wednesday.

Najah al-Shammari spoke with the Associated Press following a meeting with Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper in Baghdad.

Esper arrived in Iraq for talks amid an apparent disagreement over whether U.S. troops withdrawing from northeastern Syria could now stay in Iraq.

The Pentagon chief said earlier this week that the troops leaving Syria would reposition to western Iraq to continue fighting the Islamic State. But on Tuesday, he appeared to backtrack, saying that American forces would stay only temporarily. 

Iraq’s military opposed the move, saying in a statement that the newly arrived U.S. forces would have to leave. 

“There is no agreement for these forces to stay in Iraq,” the statement said. 

[Russia and Turkey reach deal to push Kurdish forces out of zone in northern Syria]

The dispute added to the turmoil of a rapid U.S. withdrawal from northeastern Syria, where American forces had been allied with Syrian Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State. 

President Trump ordered the departure of U.S. troops ahead of a Turkish military offensive targeting the Kurdish-led militias, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Turkey views as a threat to its national security. 

The Turkish campaign displaced nearly 180,000 people and prompted the SDF to strike a bargain with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, allowing for the return of some pro-Assad forces to areas once under Kurdish control.

The United States helped broker a cease-fire between the SDF and Turkey and its proxies. On Tuesday, Russia and Turkey agreed on a plan to push the Syrian Kurdish fighters from a wide swath of territory just south of Turkey’s border. 

Once they were gone, the plan stipulated, Turkey and Russia would begin jointly patrolling the border region. Syrian Kurdish officials did not comment on the initiative.

Lefteris Pitarakis

AP

A Turkish soldier mans an outpost at the border with Syria in southeastern Turkey, Oct. 23, 2019.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters following the agreements with the United States and Russia meant that there was “no further need to conduct a new operation.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-owned Anadolu News agency, however, that Turkish forces would “clear” any “terrorist remnants” from areas now under Turkish control in northeastern Syria. 

The move by Russia, a key ally of Assad, to negotiate the deal cemented President Vladi­mir Putin’s preeminent role in Syria as U.S. troops depart and America’s influence wanes.

The Kremlin said Wednesday that the United States had betrayed and abandoned the Kurds in Syria. 

“The United States has been the Kurds’ closest ally in recent years. . . . [But] in the end, it abandoned the Kurds and, in essence, betrayed them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies. 

[Trump claims he has ‘secured the Oil’ in Syria. Here’s what’s really going on.]

Peskov added that if the SDF did not withdraw from the border, Syrian government forces and Russian military police would have to depart, leaving the Kurdish fighters exposed to the Turkish army. 

Russia hopes that the deal will lead to Turkey’s eventual recognition of Assad’s government, analysts said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been one of Assad’s most vocal adversaries during Syria’s war, would have to prepare Turkey’s public for such recognition, according to Aaron Stein, the director of the Middle East program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. “He has already started to do that,” Stein added. 

Delil Souleiman

AFP/Getty Images

Syrian Kurdish and Arab families flee the town of Darbasiyah, on the border between Syria and Turkey, Oct. 22, 2019.

Turkey’s primary objective “was to push the U.S. out and to break the SDF as the governing entity and as the legitimate political and military actor in the Syrian space. And they did that,” he said.

“For Ankara, this is a rational decision. This may take Americans by surprise,” but the final deal was always going to be made with the Russians, he said.

Read more

Trump says a limited number of troops will remain in Syria after ordering a complete withdrawal

Trump calls for cease-fire in northern Syria and imposes sanctions on Turkey

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/u-s-defense-chief-arrives-in-baghdad-for-talks-on-us-troops-leaving-syria/2019/10/23/b81ee6e6-f502-11e9-b2d2-1f37c9d82dbb_story.html

2019-10-23 09:40:00Z
52780416782980

39 bodies found in back of truck in southeastern England, suspect arrested - Fox News

Police in the United Kingdom on Wednesday arrested a 25-year-old driver from Northern Ireland on suspicion of murder after 39 bodies were found in the back of a semi-truck in Essex, which is east of London.

Essex police said that 38 of the bodies, which were found at the Waterglade Industrial Park in Greys, Essex, were adults and one was a teenager. The area has been cordoned off by police.

"This is a tragic incident where a large number of people have lost their lives. Our enquiries are ongoing to establish what has happened," Chief Superintendent Andrew Mariner said. "We are in the process of identifying the victims, however I anticipate that this could be a lengthy process."

"We have arrested the lorry driver in connection with the incident, who remains in police custody as our inquiries continue," he added.

BODY FOUND ENCASED IN CONCRETE IN NEVADA DESERT BELIEVED TO BE MISSING WOMAN: REPORTS

Waterglade Industrial Park (Google Maps)

The truck came from Bulgaria through the Welsh town of Holyhead, police said according to the BBC.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that he was "appalled" by the incident. "My thoughts are with all those who lost their lives & their loved ones," he said in the statement.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

In 2000, 58 Chinese immigrants were found dead in the back of a truck in Dover, the BBC reported. The driver was found guilty of manslaughter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.foxnews.com/world/uk-polcie-arrest-murder-suspect-after-39-bodies-found-in-back-of-truck

2019-10-23 09:16:25Z
52780417140138