SUMMARY: American and Kurdish forces raided an Islamic State prison in Northern Iraq after learning that captives there were facing imminent execution. In all, 70 were freed, but one American soldier was killed -- the first U.S. military casualty since 2011. To learn more about the operation, Gwen Ifill speaks with Michael Gordon of The New York Times.
SUMMARY: For the first time, Turkey is joining United States-led airstrikes in Syria, targeting Islamic State extremists. The U.S. and NATO have pressured Turkey for months to join the military coalition against ISIS, and the country's prime minister says both military operations in Syria and Iraq will continue. Reuters reporter Ayla Jean Yackley joins Hari Sreenivasan from Istanbul to discuss Turkey's new military actions.
HARI SREENIVASAN, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR: The U.S. and NATO have pressured Turkey for months to join the military coalition against ISIS. So what does Turkey’s new military action mean?
“Reuters” reporter Ayla Jean Yackley joins me from Istanbul to discuss that.
So, what was it that pushed Turkey into this fight?
AYLA JEAN YACKLEY, REUTERS: Well, as you mentioned, earlier this week, there was a suicide bomb attack in a town called Suruc, across the border from Syria, and that sent shock waves throughout the country. That was not the first attack by Islamic State on Turkish territory, but it was by far the most significant and deadliest, and it had to be a factor in Turkey’s decision to move closer in alliance with its ally, the United States.
HARI SREENIVASAN: We talked about two set of targets here that Turkey is focusing on — ISIS and Kurdish separatists. They called them a terrorist organization. You know, one person’s terrorist organization is another person’s freedom fighter, right?
So, what’s happening across that front?
AYLA JEAN YACKLEY: The PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) is also deemed a terrorist organization by the United States, as well as the European Union.
But the PKK, or at least forces allied with the PKK, in northern Syria have been coordinating with the United States in its campaign against Islamic State.
But Turkey’s never changed its stance towards the PKK. It has been involved in a peace process with the PPK, in which there’s been very slow-moving talks between the two sides since late 2012. However, it’s still very much considers them a threat to [Turkish] national security.
SUMMARY: The State Department estimates that more than 150 Americans, including some U.S. military veterans, have packed their bags and flown to Iraq and Syria to volunteer with forces fighting against the Islamic State militant group. Special correspondent Marcia Biggs reports on what’s driving these soldiers.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Tonight, an exclusive story from Iraq on American citizens, civilians, fighting the Islamic State group. Many are former U.S. military, but some have never seen a battle before.
Special correspondent Marcia Biggs reports.
MARCIA BIGGS (NewsHour): American boots are back on the ground in Iraq. This time, they’re volunteers, U.S. military veterans on the front lines against the Islamic State, and among them, one woman; 25-year-old Samantha Johnston was a private in the Army for two years before, she left to be a stay-at-home mom to her three children.
When the Islamic State dominating the news last year, she says she sat in her North Carolina home, watching videos of their atrocities and felt compelled to join the fight.
SAMANTHA JOHNSTON, American volunteer:Something inside of me just snapped, and I couldn’t allow myself to sit down and do nothing, when all of these children here are in trouble, and I, and me and my family are just living happily in America.
MARCIA BIGGS: She made contact with other volunteers through social media sites. And three months ago, she packed her bags and flew to Iraq, where she volunteered with the Kurdish army, the Peshmerga, in the fight against I.S. She says she’s become close to the Kurdish soldiers in her unit, even listing herself on Facebook by a Kurdish name.
SAMANTHA JOHNSTON: They became my family. And I plan to stay here for as long as I can, as long as they need me to be here.
MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour): Talabani’s visit comes as Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Iraqi government forces and Shiite militias battle to roll back Islamic State gains.
The militants moved into Northern and Western Iraq in June, sending Iraqi troops fleeing. In August, U.S. warplanes joined the fray, targeting Islamic State units. Yesterday, on a visit by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Iraq’s new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, asked for more U.S. airpower and weapons.
But Hagel warned that U.S. firepower is not the solution.
CHUCK HAGEL, Secretary of Defense: As Iraqi leaders and the people of Iraq know, only they can bring lasting peace to their country.
MARGARET WARNER: Baghdad did take a step to reconcile with the alienated Kurds last week with a deal to share the country’s oil revenues between them.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is deploying 3,000 trainers and advisers to Iraqi forces and may join them in the field if and when they try to recapture the large northern city of Mosul.
I spoke today with Deputy Prime Minister Talabani in Washington, where he’s urging U.S. leaders to remain engaged in Iraq.
Deputy Prime Minister Talabani, thank you for joining us.
MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour): Racing south on the highway between Iraq’s Kurdish capital, Irbil, and Baghdad, miles of open desert unfold, dotted by villages and towns. But just a quarter of the way down, Iraq’s most vital commercial lifeline becomes the frontline.
The Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has advanced to within 650 yards of the road. Kurdish forces Colonel Wria Hasan took us to one of many well-manned Kurdish Peshmerga outposts guarding the new frontier to show us just how close the militants’ forbidding flag flew.
What keeps the ISIS forces from just moving across this road?
COL. WRIA HASAN, Peshmerga (through interpreter): If they came closer, we could stop them, and we could move their way, but there are a lot Arabs living there.
MARGARET WARNER: So you’re saying it will be a very bloody battle if you tried to advance that way?
COL. WRIA HASAN (through interpreter): Yes it would be bloody, and many civilians would die.
MARGARET WARNER: Colonel Hasan was escorting us in his armored SUV to the town of Jalawla, 100 miles northeast of Baghdad, in southern Diyala Province. The province is now partly controlled by the Kurds since the Iraqi army collapsed before the Islamic extremists’ onslaught in mid-June.
We’d come to explore why, over the past month, the famed Peshmerga army, considered one of the best in the region, had also fallen back at several points along its internal frontier against the Islamist group.
General Mahmoud Sengawi commands this southern region, and on our way to the front, I asked him why he was now fighting to take back the strategically located town of Jalawla. ---- GEN. HUSSEIN MANSOUR (through interpreter): There, we have problems larger than weapons. Arabs in those towns support ISIS. Jalawla has always been a bastion of Baathist support. There are 1,200 former high-ranking Baathist officers there. It’s always been a bastion of terrorists, even when the Americans were here.
MARGARET WARNER: To test that notion, we had Mohammed Mala Hassan, mayor of Khanaqin, where the Peshmerga are based, take us in his convoy of heavily armed men to meet one of the many Sunni Arabs he said have fled to Khanaqin from Jalawla.
Amer Yusef, a successful contractor, left with his family of 13 in June as the Islamic State began infiltrating Jalawla. He has a decidedly negative view of the Islamist group.
He said it’s true some Sunnis are with them, but often the extremists are more brutal with Sunnis.
AMER YUSEF, Contractor: (through interpreter):They are a terrorist organization that wants to harm us. They have harmed most of the families who have stayed in the town.
MARGARET WARNER: Many people say all Arabs here support the Islamic State. Is that true?
AMER YUSEF (through interpreter): I have a close friend who was a member of the municipality, my neighbor, and he is a Sunni Arab. They killed him few days ago. After taking him and his brother to their Sharia court, his brother said they killed them.
MARGARET WARNER: The Islamic State says they’re doing all of this in the name of pure Islam.
AMER YUSEF (through interpreter):No. They everyone’s enemy. Who are they killing the most? Christians or Muslims? They have killed mostly Muslims, both Sunnis and Shiites.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
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