Turkish tanks involved in the offensive

Thousands flee, dozens reported killed as Turkey pushes Syria assault

BY TEMISAN AMOYE

Turkey pounded Kurdish militia in northeast Syria for a second day on Thursday, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee and killing dozens, in a cross-border assault on U.S. allies that has turned the Washington establishment against Donald Trump.

The Turkish offensive against the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces, launched days after Trump pulled U.S. troops out of the way, opens one of the biggest new fronts in years in an eight-year-old civil war that has drawn in global powers.

At least 23 fighters with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and six fighters with a Turkish-backed Syrian rebel group had been killed, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria’s eight-year-old war.

The SDF said Turkey’s airstrikes and shelling had also killed nine civilians. In an apparent attempt by Kurdish-led forces to retaliate, mortar fire from Syria killed three people including a child in the Turkish border town of Akcakale, hospital and security sources said.


The International Rescue Committee said 64,000 people in Syria have fled since the campaign began, the Observatory said. The towns of Ras al-Ain and Darbasiya, some 60 km (37 miles) to the east, have been largely deserted as a result of the attack.

The Observatory said Turkish forces had seized two villages near Ras al-Ain and five near the town of Tel Abyad.

President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan told members of his AK Party in Ankara that 109 militants had been killed so far. Kurds said they were resisting the assault.

According to a senior Turkish security official, the armed forces struck weapons and ammunition depots, gun and sniper positions, tunnels and military bases.

Jets flew operations up to 30 km (18 miles) into Syria. A Reuters journalist saw shells exploding just outside Tel Abyad. “The operation is currently continuing with the involvement of all our units,” Erdogan said in a speech.

Trump, who has faced rare criticism from senior figures in his own Republican Party who accuse him of deserting loyal U.S. allies, said on Twitter he was talking to “both sides”. He warned Ankara it would be hit hard financially if it did not “play by the rules”.

The SDF have been the main allies of U.S. forces on the ground in the battle against Islamic State since 2014. They have been holding thousands of captured IS fighters and tens of thousands of their relatives in detention.

Thanks for reading. Follow the page and Share it.

He died while proposing to his girlfriend underwater

BY RASHEED SOBOWALE

An American man has drowned while proposing to his girlfriend underwater on holiday in Tanzania. 

Kenesha Antoine filmed Steven Weber’s romantic marriage proposal off Pemba Island, Tanzania.

 PHOTO: BBC/Kenesha Antoine 

Steven Weber and his girlfriend, Kenesha Antoine, were staying in a submerged cabin at the Manta Resort, off Pemba Island.

Footage shows Mr Weber diving underwater to ask Ms Antoine to marry him. In the video according to the BBC report, Mr Weber presses a hand-written proposal note against the cabin window as Ms Antoine films from inside.

Ms Antoine, confirming Mr Weber’s death in a Facebook post, said he “never emerged from those depths”. The Manta Resort told the BBC Mr Weber “tragically drowned while free diving alone outside the underwater room” on Thursday afternoon. “It is with the deepest regret that we inform that a fatal accident occurred at The Manta Resort on Thursday 19 September 2019,” the resort said in a statement.

Matthew Saus, CEO of the resort, said “everyone is shaken to the core” by Mr Weber’s death. Mr Weber and Ms Antoine had booked four nights at the resort’s underwater room, which lies approximately 250m (820ft) from the shore. Costing $1,700-a-night (£1,300), the cabin is anchored in water around 10m (32ft) deep. On the third day of their stay, Mr Weber, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, plunged into the water to make his proposal. Wearing goggles and flippers, he held a note against the cabin’s glass window as Ms Antoine watched on from within.

His note read: “I can’t hold my breath long enough to tell you everything I love about you. But… everything I love about you, I love more every day!” Later in the video, Mr Weber turns over the sheet of paper to reveal the proposal, before pulling an engagement ring from his shorts and swimming out of view.

Mr Saus told the BBC his staff responded to a “problem in the water”, but when they arrived “absolutely nothing could be done”. In her Facebook post, Ms Antoine said Mr Weber “never got to hear her answer” to his proposal, which would have been “a million times, yes”.

“We never got to embrace and celebrate the beginning of the rest of our lives together, as the best day of our lives turned into the worst, in the cruellest twist of fate imaginable,” she wrote. “I will try to take solace in the fact that we enjoyed the most amazing bucket list experiences these past few days, and that we both were so happy and absolutely giddy with excitement in our final moments together.”

The US Department of State said it is aware of the death of a US citizen in Tanzania, in East Africa. “We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” a spokesperson said. “We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance.”

Thanks for reading. Follow the page and Share it.