Russian
intelligence claims that Turkey is cooperating with ISIS in the terrorist
group’s profitable oil smuggling operation. Russian intelligence captured
footage just a few days ago showing nearly 12,000 oil tankers at the
Iraq-Turkey border making their way into Turkey. The video also shows the
convoy as it is attacked via air strike.
“The
[aerial] imagery was made in the vicinity of Zakho (a city in Iraqi Kurdistan),
there were 11,775 tankers and trucks on both sides of the Turkish-Iraqi border.
As many as 4,530 of them were on the territory of Turkey and 7,245 in Iraq,”
says Lt. Gen Sergey Rudskoy.
Russia’s
claim has been disputed, especially by Iraqi Kurds who maintain the oil tankers
contained Kurdish oil. “Turkey closed border with Iraq during the past few days
due to war with Kurdish militants, causing the long lines of oil tankers,”
explains Kifah Mahmoud, an adviser to President Barzani of Kurdistan.
“It
must be noted that oil from both Iraq and Syria come through this [Zakho]
checkpoint,” suggests Rudskoy, hinting that Russia doubts its own claim.
Indeed, Zakho is located firmly within Kurdish territory and it seems
unbelievable that such a huge convoy of ISIS oil could slip past Kurdistan’s
Peshmerga forces.
However,
Russia added that the oil tankers seemed to be coming from Deiz-ez-Zour, a town
in Syrian known to be an ISIS stronghold. It appeared as if the convoy was
traversing what locals know as the "eastern route" – a path that is
commonly used by ISIS to smuggle oil from Syria to Turkey.
The
caliphate’s oil smuggling program is running far less smoothly in the wake of a
Special Forces raid against Abu Sayyaf (a former oil chief) that revealed vital
information to ISIS enemies. Coalition airstrikes have demolished much of the
terrorist organization’s logistical ability to produce oil and the resulting
shortage has caused a spike in the price of oil within ISIS territories.
“The
northern and western routes which we previously revealed continue to be used.
In order to avoid losses to Russian aviation, the terrorists move [the oil
convoys] mainly at night. Moreover, their tanker trucks are disguised as
ordinary lorries, and move in small columns of several dozen vehicles at a
time,” says Rudskoy.
Russia’s
accusation against Turkey comes in the middle of feud between the two countries
that began when a Russian plane was shot down by a Turkish missile.
President
Recep Tayyip of Turkey has vowed to resign if Russia can somehow prove his
country to be involved in the ISIS oil smuggling operation.
Comments
Many of
us agree that ISIS is shipping Syrian oil into Turkey to black marketers. It is
probably going out a number of routes. Turkish
authorities may be involved or not. That
might account for Turkish forces shooting down the Russian plane or not. Russia appears to be on our side on this one
or not. Russia is a Christian
country with a history of European culture and they are inching slowly to add a
private economy or not. The Turks are
mostly Muslims and don’t seem to fit in NATO these days. Obama is a Muslim and
he has made a mess of things. Putin makes more sense than Obama and so does
Trump. They both admit that global warming is a hoax and carbon tax is a scam.
With
Obama in office we won’t be much help, so it’s up to the Russians, Assad’s
troops and whoever else shows up to fight ISIS. We desperately need alternative
refugee camps over there, but they are coming here unless we impeach Obama now.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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