Russia on Friday said it was sending two warships armed with cruise missiles to waters off the Syrian coast and blamed Ankara for the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria's Idlib region the previous day.
Russia at the moment is undergoing a delicate balancing act, trying to maintain relations with Turkey while at the same time trying to prevent them from invading Syria, where Russia is backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Turkish president Erdogan is now warning that a full-scale invasion of Syria could be right around the corner, something Russia is trying to prevent.
"Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:" Ezekiel 39:1,2 (KJB)
War is not exciting, nothing exciting about the planned death and destruction of other human beings, but watching the
Middle East preparing itself for the fulfillment of Bible prophecy is quite exciting. Think about it, every country mentioned in this story today - Russia, Turkey, Syria - are all mentioned in end times prophecy, because their greatest roles are yet future. Exciting times to be a Bible believing Christian, and
waiting for Flight #777.
Russia sends two warships armed with cruise missiles to Syria's coast
FROM THE JERUSALEM POST: The killing of the Turkish soldiers on Thursday and the wounding of 32 others, announced by the governor in Turkey's Hatay province bordering Syria, raised the Turkish military death toll in the region to 54 this month.
Turkey has sent thousands of troops and heavy military hardware into Syria and Erdogan has warned that Turkey will launch a full-scale offensive to repel Syrian forces unless they pull back from Turkish observation posts in the region.
Though trying to coordinate their efforts on Syria, Russia backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey backs rebel forces opposing Assad. Responding to Thursday's killings, a senior Turkish official said on Friday that Ankara would no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe. Turkey blamed an air strike by Syrian government forces for the deaths.
Russia's Defence Ministry was cited by the RIA news agency on Friday however as saying that the Turkish troops had been hit by artillery fire from Syrian government forces who were trying to repel an offensive by rebel forces.
It was quoted as saying that Ankara had failed to notify Moscow of the presence of Turkish troops in the area hit by shelling despite being in regular communication with the Russian military.
The Turkish troops had been deployed directly alongside anti-government rebels, the ministry was cited as saying. But according to information provided by Turkey there were no Turkish troops in the area and Russia said that Turkish forces "shouldn't have been there."
Russian war planes did not carry out any air strikes in the area at the time of the incident and Moscow did everything it could to help once it learnt of the Turkish troop presence, the ministry was cited as saying. That included ensuring Syrian forces stopped shelling to allow Turkey to evacuate its dead and wounded. Separately, and as tensions between Ankara and Damascus rose, Russia's Black Sea Fleet was cited by the Interfax news agency on Friday as saying it was sending two warships equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles to waters off the Syrian coast.
READ MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment