It doesn’t take long to learn the swipes and taps you need to get around your iPhone
. Its intuitiveness is a major selling point, but there are some lesser-known gestures that aren’t immediately obvious that can be useful too. Here are 14 gestures you can use on your iPhone that you might not know about.
Did you know that LG Electronics happens to be the world leader in LED projectors since 2008? Well, this might be a little known fact, but it is still a fact. In fact, LG has just announced plans to expand its Minibeam range of portable projectors, where a couple of these new projectors that hail from the LG Minibeam series would arrive in the form of models PH450U and PH150G. These two models will bolster screen sharing capabilities with Miracast and wireless display, where it comes with expanded brightness and superior portability in order to deliver flexible viewing regardless of the space in question.
The PH450U is touted to be one of the brightest battery-powered ultra short-throw projectors available in the market when released, where it will sport up to 450 lumens, letting users create a cinematic experience inside or outside of the home with the ability to display a sharp 80-inch HD (1280 x 720) image from a distance of a mere 13 inches from the screen. Not only that, the PH450U will also be able to be set upright so that it can render images on any flat, horizontal surface, letting users transform desks, tables and even floor surfaces into movie screens.
In terms of connectivity, users can seamlessly transfer content directly to the projector via an HDMI cable with MHL capability, or to do so via a USB drive, which would mean it offers the ultimate in viewing versatility. The rechargeable 2.5-hour battery will allow you to bring this 2.4-pound projector virtually anywhere, using it anytime without having to worry about plugging into a power source — unless you are going to watch Titanic or go through a Lord of the Rings trilogy marathon viewing session.
As for the new LG PH150G projector, it is even more compact at a mere 1.1 pounds, delivering up to 130 lumens of brightness and up to a 100-inch screen in clear HD resolution (1280 x 720) along with a rechargeable 2.5-hour battery built in. Regardless of which model you select, both will arrive with LG’s triple wire-free connectivity for a viewing experience free of wired connections for power, audio and video sources. The PH450UG and PH150G will retail for $649.99 and $349.99, respectively, as they arrive later this October.
Press Release
[ New LG Minibeam projector set to make a giant leap copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Teacher: Let’s say that you’re a high-school senior intent on going to college, but you learn from your doctor that you have only six months to live. [Pause] Four questions: How would you spend these last six months of your life? What would you do differently? What would no longer be important, and what would, suddenly, become very important? [Silence]
Student: I’d like to think that I’d just go on with my life the way I normally would. I’d tell my Mom and Dad, naturally, but not my younger brothers and sisters, and concentrate on one day at a time.
Student: I’d travel. See all the places I always wanted to visit. Try to pack as much living as I could into the time I had left. Bungee jumping! Lots of parties and crazy stuff!
Student: I don’t think I’d even tell my parents so as not to worry them. I’d just keep it to myself and try to find a way to cope. Probably go to church more.
Student: I couldn’t do that without exploding. I’d be too bottled up inside and have to get it out of my system by telling them.
Student: I’d only be making things worse by talking about it and getting myself and everyone else all worked up. I’d just want to have a quiet time those last remaining months.
Student: I’m not really sure what I’d do, probably do something different every day, play it by ear, but what’s important now definitely wouldn’t be important any longer. The whole college thing! SAT’s, AP exams, going to college, getting a job, getting married, having kids — nothing would matter anymore. It would all be different if I were older and could look back on a long life and say, “Been there, done that!” But, now, I’d never have a chance of doing any of these things! [Silence]
Teacher: What about things that presently don’t seem all that important, but now would be very important?
Student: I’d certainly take things more slowly and enjoy them. Things that up until now I took for granted.
Student: I think I’d make up with people I used to be friends with, tell them I was sorry. I wouldn’t want to die with bad feelings between us. When you have little time, what’s to be embarrassed about? Just do it, right?
Teacher: Now step back for a moment and make some generalizations about what you’ve just said.
Student: Everything looks different when you have little time left. You don’t play games any longer but become a real person. Also, live in the moment and don’t get side-tracked with things that don’t really matter. When you’re young, you’re all over the place, living in the future, making plans, dreaming about tomorrow — and forgetting today.
Student: If you think you’re going to have a long life, you say to yourself, I’ll start living in the moment after I’m settled, but, until then, it’s full-speed ahead because there’s so much to do, and you have to keep up. You can smell the roses tomorrow, but, now, there won’t be a tomorrow! [Silence]
Student: The less time you have, the more precious life gets. The more time you have, things can get trivial. Too much time makes you lazy; the air goes out of things; you need deadlines to live.
Student: Live intensely! Carpe diem! Seize the day! Here today and gone tomorrow, so make every second count! [Silence]
Teacher: Now, what does all this have to do with the Greeks? The Greeks had a belief in an afterlife, but not as we know it. It was a shadowy, gloomy, almost non-existent kind of existence, not in any way similar to how it’s pictured today. There’s a famous scene in The Odyssey where Odysseus visits the underworld and speaks to Achilles, who was killed in the Trojan War and tells him that he’d rather be someone’s slave on earth, a poor farmer trying to eke out a miserable existence than be ruler of the underworld, so horrible was it to be among the dead.
As far as ordinary Greeks were concerned, it’s not clear how they saw the afterlife since they didn’t leave any writings. We do know, however, that the afterlife inspired great fear among them. Moreover, the Greeks didn’t live as long as we do today. Assuming you survived childbirth and childhood, which many did not, you’d probably live into your 30’s or 40’s, and sometimes longer. And, of course, there was always the threat of war and disease.
The question I’d like to have you explore now is, if you were a Greek in view of what’s just been said, how would you have looked at this life? [Silence]
Student: Well, I think I would have appreciated this life much more than I presently do. Assuming I survived childhood, with death always around me, and the prospect of living until I was only 30 or 40, I’d look at things very differently. I think anyone would. I’d want to get as much out of this life as I possibly could, since I wouldn’t be sure about how much time I’d had left.
Student: I’d be much more curious about things, too. I’d figure, it was now or never. I wouldn’t waste time sitting around being a couch potato, but want to live more intensely, experience more things, and do as much as I could before I died.
Student: I once saw this old movie, Zorba the Greek. It was set in modern times about this middle-aged guy who really seemed to know the secret of life. No matter what happened to him, nothing seemed to get him down, and he always managed to bounce back. He lived in the moment, loved life no matter what, wasn’t afraid of whatever happened to him, but faced it head-on. What does he do after suffering one heartache after another? He does a Greek folk dance on the beach! The guy was unstoppable!
Student: I think I’d be very angry if I had only 30 or 40 years to live. I’d feel cheated. It just wouldn’t seem fair.
Student: But aren’t you reacting as a modern person, who already expects a long life, whereas living back then, you’d simply accept a short life as normal?
Student: I don’t know about anyone else, but if I thought I’d have only a short life to live, it would really be a downer and be very hard to motivate myself about anything. There’d be such an overwhelming sense of futility about everything that I wouldn’t even want to get up in the morning.
Student: I agree. I need a big canvas to work on. A short life just wouldn’t do it. I couldn’t see the point of beginning anything. [Silence]
Student: Sitting around moaning and groaning all day long pitying yourself? I don’t think so. Who’d want to be around someone like that? If you had family and friends, you’d have to keep it to yourself because no one would want to hear it since everyone was in the same boat. What would give you the right to feel you were so special to carry on with your own little pity party? [Silence]
Teacher: I’d like to bring this first part of our discussion to a close and move on to the next question, but before we do, a few observations. Since everyone was in the same predicament, they’d have to create some sort of humane life together lest an all-pervasive awareness of death undermine their will to live. It’s all in the attitude. You have people today, for instance, who have very real problems, and yet carry on with such composure, dignity, good humor, and grace that you’d never suspect that they had a problem. Well, you might say that, in this respect, these people resemble the Greeks.
How did they rise from the ashes to glory in life in all of its manifestations, whereas Egypt was obsessed only with death, exhausting itself by erecting the pyramids as monumental burial chambers? Did the Greeks first pity themselves only to finally realize, as has just been suggested, that self-pity wasn’t getting them anywhere, and simply embraced the horror of life and, in so doing, overcame it by exorcizing the demons of their despair? Did looking into the abyss so utterly transform them that they conceived a colossal contempt for death by defiantly living their all-too-brief lives all the more beautifully and grandly on the edge of extinction?
Surrounded by death, the Greeks somehow created a belief in themselves not just to survive, but also to revolutionize the ancient world. How explain their gargantuan gusto for living, their affirmation of life in all of its aspects, their exuberance and joy in saying yes to whatever befell them like our friend Zorba dancing on the beach, come what may?
Not only that, but what was the source of their volcanic explosion of creative energy and boundless curiosity in advancing the arts, the natural and social sciences, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, theater, literature, history, political theory, architecture, sculpture, the invention of philosophy as we know it, and the revolutionary idea of democracy itself – something unprecedented in antiquity?
But these aren’t the only mysteries about this singular people. When every culture at that time viewed human existence in religious terms, the Greeks alone stood apart and began to view life in a philosophical way. Not everyone, of course, but individuals like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, their predecessors, the pre-Socratic philosophers and the Sophists, and later the Epicureans, the Cynics, the Stoics, and the Skeptics, and those of the various philosophical brotherhoods and those in sympathy with them.
Where did these “philosophers” or “lovers of wisdom” come from, and how did they discover the power of the mind and the courage to use it in undertaking a philosophical analysis of human existence, an unheard of innovation in the ancient world? And how did they manage to free themselves from their cultural conditioning to re-create themselves in a way that changed the world forever?
Philosophy begins in wonder — about everything that has been handed down from past generations. Philosophy asks why, and wherever the Greeks looked they beheld mystery and felt an irrepressible need to explain it in ways that satisfied them, and not as their ancestors saw it. The traditional myths were to them mere fairy tales meant only for children and those content with “the unexamined life.”
Where did such startling audacity come from since nothing in Greek tradition or the surrounding cultures suggested any of this? If you begin to appreciate what little the Greeks found to work with, you begin to have some inkling about this truly remarkable people who brought something stunningly new into the ancient world, which found these Greeks terrifyingly fascinating. As we shall see later, they even influenced the latter books of the Old Testament, and some scholars even contend that they radically changed the original Christian message as it began to be preached to the Greek-speaking world.
But for now, let’s move on to our next two questions. So far we’ve been talking about how the Greeks looked at life in which they could expect a lifespan of only 30 to 40 years, or longer in some cases. We also saw that they didn’t look forward to an afterlife because only a dreary and fear-ridden existence awaited them. As a result, they embraced this life all the more deeply. What I’d like to explore now is whether the belief in an afterlife today affects one’s view of this life, and if you were someone who didn’t believe in an afterlife would you view this life the same as someone who did?
To be continued —
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
PHOTO COURTESY OF IRENE MICHAELS
Diet is a necessary component in both physical and mental health. It is what determines how physically and mentally fit you are for coping with the daily challenges of life. All of us want to feel (and look) young forever. While that may not be exactly possible, these age-defying foods will help you preserve energy levels and look younger.
Olive Oil:
Almost four decades ago, a group of researchers from Seven Countries Study stated that the monounsaturated fats found in olive oils were extremely beneficial for individuals suffering from heart diseases and cancer. Today, it is widely known that olive oil is a rich source of power antioxidants, polyphenols, that prevent age-related diseases and make you feel young and healthy.
Lemons:
The Vitamin C found in lemons is great for your skin, it promotes healing and nourishes the skin. When lemon juice is applied to the skin, it has a bleaching effect that reduces age spots, freckles, and wrinkles. It is also a wonderful alternative to skincare products such as cleansers and toners.
Blueberries:
As small as they may be, blueberries are packed with antioxidants and nutrients that are essential for the skin. The little fruits are rich in flavonols, anthocyanins, and vitamin C that reduce the aging process of skin cells. Daily consumption of blueberries also boosts memory and prevents the skin from wrinkling. It is important to mention here that the darker the color of the blueberries, the more beneficial they are. This is because the highest concentration of antioxidants is found in the darkest colored berries. My personal favorite…I love add to a yogurt shake or steel cut oatmeal.
Leafy Greens:
This is fairly obvious, green vegetables are wonderful for your physical and mental health. The dark leafy greens such as kale and spinach contain lutein and zeaxanthin, two powerful antioxidants that counter the negative effects of ultraviolet rays (from the sun) on the skin. When you go out in the sun, the ultraviolet rays cause inflammation, epidermal DNA damage, suppression of T-cell mediated immunity, and oxidative stress. This increases the risk of skin cancer and promotes aging. A higher intake of green vegetables, particular leafy ones, can reduce these adverse effects.
Tomatoes:
Tomatoes and watermelons have high amounts of lycopene that acts as a natural sunscreen for the skin. It protects the skin against the harmful UV radiation and prevents aging of the skin. It also diminishes sun spots and ageing spots. The Vitamin C in the tomatoes boosts collagen production that makes the skin firm and healthy.
Avocado:
A scrumptious fruit that is filled with fatty acids that are healthy for the skin. The fruit is well-known for its anti-aging properties. The vitamins, nutrients, and unsaturated fats in the fruit provide the skin with the nourishment it needs. An avocado a day will help you attain a natural glow to your skin while reducing the signs of aging at the same time.
Whole grains:
Daily intake of whole grains such as oats, barley, wheat, brown rice, and quinoa lowers the chance of heart diseases and type 2 diabetes. These whole grains are rich in fiber and help regulate the digestive system as well. Whole grains are an essential for any anti-aging diet because of their health benefits.
Yogurt:
It was reported in the 1970s that Soviet Georgia had the highest number of centenarians per capita than every other country in the world. Studies showed that the reason behind the long lives was yogurt. While there are no scientific evidences to support the anti-aging properties of yogurt, the food is rich in calcium. Calcium helps maintain strong bone health and improves gut health preventing several age-related illnesses (such as weak bones and intestinal diseases.
Dark Chocolate:
High quality, dark cocoa is rich in flavanols, a powerful antioxidant that reduces inflammation and improves blood circulation. It also promotes the skin’s ability to retain moisture making it less prone to wrinkles and other age-related skin deformations.
Try to incorporate these great foods to fight the aging process naturally…check back next month for more healthy living tips.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
While free-to-play games, often supported by in-game purchases with real money, have become the norm on mobile, developer Ubisoft has decided that the format just isn’t working for some of its PC series. Ubisoft has announced that it will be shutting down the multiplayer shooter Ghost Recon Phantoms, along with three other free-to-play PC titles, before the end of this … Continue reading
If you love to spend the evening in the outdoors or in your backyard (front yard will do as well) for a BBQ session with family and friends, surely the BBQ grills is one indispensable piece of equipment that you should look out for. A decent BBQ grill is definitely something to have beforehand, but what was available for pre-order not too long ago is now reality — behold, the £69.99 BBQ Toolbox!
Small enough to tote with you wherever you go, the BBQ Toolbox certainly lives up to its name. It arrives in a compact and portable red colored toolbox shape, where you can then lay it on the ground before you fold it out to begin your BBQ sessions. Opening it will definitely excite whichever assigned chef there is for the night, as it reveals a slew of handy BBQ features, accompanied by a generously-sized stainless steel grill. Not only that, the BBQ Toolbox has been ruggedly built, where it has carrying handles that flip down in order to transform into sturdy legs. There is also a warming rack and storage tray for sauces and buns, and no longer do you need to fall back on those dreadful disposable barbecues out there.
[ BBQ Toolbox is now a reality copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Nicole Scherzinger does one helluva awesome impression of Britney Spears.
The former Pussycat Doll channeled the pop queen while judging auditions for the United Kingdom version of “The X Factor,” in footage broadcast Saturday night.
She busted out a few bars of Spears’ 2000 smash hit “Oops, I Did It Again” — leaving the usually snarky head judge Simon Cowell amazed.
Scherzinger then did equally impressive impersonations of Rihanna, Shakira and Kermit the Frog singing Adele’s “Hello.”
Check out all the fun in the clip above.
type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related Coverage + articlesList=57bf65c6e4b02673444f57ef,571e654be4b0f309baee2104,565f270ae4b079b2818cc814
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
The Healthiest Food You’re (Probably) Not Eating
There are a plenty of fish in the sea, but not all of them pack as much of a nutritional punch as the tiny sardine. Although small in size, sardines are packed to the gills (literally!) with essential vitamins and minerals that sharpen the mind, keep the heart healthy, and bring your energy up, up, up! Plus, their bones are easy to digest, which makes these scaly superstars one of the most calcium-rich, non-dairy foods out there.
Best Food for Weight Loss
Peter, Peter pumpkin eater may have been on to something. Pumpkin is more than just a delicious pie filling. It’s low in calories (only 80 per cup) and high in dietary fiber with a side of protein to boot, which means it’s a great tool for weight loss. What’s more, it’s also a nutritional powerhouse that’s chock full of beta-carotene – key for healthy eyes and a strong immune system.
Suggested recipes: Pumpkin Soup with Ginger,Pumpkin Turkey Pasta, Pumpkin-Apple Casserole
Most Underrated Health Food
Almonds and walnuts may be the hippest nuts on the block, but the peanut deserves some respect. This lowly legume contains just as many heart-healthy fats as its tree-hugging brethren and boasts more protein than any other nut. What’s more, the peanut has one of the highest concentrations of biotin, which may help boost keratin production to strengthen hair and nails.
Learn more about the health benefits of nuts.
Best Food to Help You Win a Beauty Contest
Sure, they’re slimy and can be moderately dubious if you don’t get them from a trusted source, but the high zinc content in oysters may help keep hair full, nails strong, and skin clear.
Best Food for a Good Night’s Sleep
Just because Thanksgiving turkey feast only happens once a year, it doesn’t mean you can’t sleep like a baby every night. Next to turkey, seaweed has one of the highest levels of the amino acid tryptophan compared to any other food. What’s more, it contains high levels of iodine, which helps keeps the thyroid functioning properly and hormones in check.
Best Food to Beat Disease
Move over blueberries. Blackcurrants have the highest levels of the disease-fighting antioxidant anthocyanin (the pigment that makes berries dark blue and red) compared to any other fruit. What’s more, this unassuming berry contains more than three times the amount of vitamin C found in oranges, making it an immunity-boosting powerhouse.
The Healthiest Food You’ve Never Heard Of
This smallest, ancient grain (teff seeds were found in a pyramid dating to 3359 BC!) proves that big things do come in small packages. With as much calcium as cooked spinach, high levels of vitamin C and a new kind of dietary fiber that helps maintain blood sugar and healthy weight, teff is poised to be the next superfood.
Also From Grandparents.com:
5 Easy Exercises For People Who Hate Working Out
8 Surprising Ways To Lower Your Diabetes Risk
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
By Nancy Kiernan, InternationalLiving.com
On any Sunday afternoon during football season, you can find Patrick’s Irish Pub full of people wearing NFL shirts rooting for their favorite teams. At first sight, you might think you’re in one of the many Irish bars scattered throughout the U.S. But you’re actually in the thriving metropolis of Medellín, high in the Andes Mountains of Colombia.
Downtown Medellin, Colombia
Medellín has long since shed its troublesome past to become one of South America’s most prosperous cities. Expats now flock here to take advantage of the many business opportunities it offers. And Patrick Dwyer is one of them.
“How many people say, ‘I have a dream to own a bar?'” asks Patrick, owner of the Irish bar that bears his name. “Well, I actually did it.” Patrick, now 53, bought the bar in 2007 as a way to plan for his retirement. He has since transformed it into one of the most popular expat hangouts in the city.
Patrick began exploring Latin America in the late 1990s, making his way to Medellín when it was much less safe than it is now.
“After my divorce in 1997, I began traveling to places like Costa Rica with friends,” says the California native. “In 2000, I convinced a friend to go on an adventure with me and head to Medellín.”
As an architect, general contractor, and property investor back in California’s San Fernando Valley, Patrick had the background to recognize the huge business potential in Medellín. “Back then, Medellín was not the safe, thriving city it is now,” he says. “Also, the area where the bar is located was mostly upscale homes–not many businesses and practically no tourists. I was really looking toward the future. Colombia was considered the new frontier.
“Maybe it was luck, maybe it was foresight, but Patrick successfully managed to make an early entry into the now-growing business market in Medellín.
Medellin Skyline, Colombia
Patrick had no experience in the food and beverage industry except for a part-time stint as a bartender in college. But he saw the bar not only as a great business opportunity, but also as a way to reconnect with his heritage. “My father was from Dublin, Ireland,” he says. “It just seemed like the thing to do.”
Patrick planned to build his dream bar himself, but instead ended up buying.
“Originally, I was going to buy a lot and build from scratch,” he says of his decision to invest in Medellín. “But I saw this place and I bought the building. It came with a liquor license, which was great.”
Today, nine years later, Patrick’s Irish Bar is thriving. The bar is renowned for its festive atmosphere, and Patrick has gone out of his way to give it an authentic Irish feel, right down to the staff’s green uniforms.
Strategically situated in the heart of Parque Lleras, an area in the popular El Poblado neighborhood that is a nightlife hot-spot, Patrick’s is popular both with expats from the U.S., Canada and Europe, as well as with local Colombians.
This diverse clientele means catering to a range of different tastes. Keeping a diverse and interesting menu is one of Patrick’s challenges with his bar.
“Everyone wants what food they are used to in their own country,” he says. “And I am still pursuing the challenge of making the perfect hamburger.”
Customers can have their pick of finger foods, sandwiches, burgers and main courses such as shepherds’ pie, fish and chips and Guinness beef stew.
The bar carries over 65 different types of beer, from local Colombian brews to German brands and, of course, Guinness. You won’t want for liquors to choose from, either.
“I have over 40 distributors just for liquor,” says Patrick. “I also offer drink and food specials and themed nights, like ladies’ night.” After six months of consistently offering these specials, he has developed a following of customers who come just because of these.
Learning the business rules and regulations in a foreign country can be a little challenging. Patrick is proud to say that “all my employees are legal. They receive paid healthcare, pensions, and all the required benefits.”
Patrick owns an apartment a few blocks away from the bar, where he lives with his Colombian wife and their six-year-old daughter. He can walk to work from the apartment, but nowadays he lets the manager, Sandra, handle the day-to-day running of the bar. With the business doing so well, he has time to focus on what’s most important to him: family.
Botero’s Sculpture in Downtown Medellin, Colombia
“I am taking it easier now,” he says. “I am more focused on my wife and daughter. I adore my six-year-old and want her to have every possible opportunity in life. That means we go to piano lessons, gymnastics, music lessons, and of course language lessons.”
Patrick still travels back and forth to a home he keeps in Bullhead City, Arizona, the only remnant of his U.S. life. “Getting from Medellín to Miami is easy, only a three-hour direct flight. It’s within the U.S. that the travel is a little more complicated getting to my home.
“I really love my life in Medellín,” he says. “The bar is doing well, in the top 25 in TripAdvisor (for Medellín).” With a successful business, a lovely family, and a cosmopolitan city to enjoy, it’s easy to understand why.
This article comes to us courtesy of InternationalLiving.com, the world’s leading authority on how to live, work, invest, travel, and retire better overseas.
Related Articles
5 Reasons That Make Medellín A Great Retirement Haven
The Benefits of Living in Colombia
Irresistible Medellin: The City That Has Something for Everyone
Earlier on Huff/Post50:
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
KARKAMIS, Turkey, Aug 28 (Reuters) – Turkey’s army and its allies thrust deeper into Syria on Sunday, seizing territory controlled by Kurdish-aligned forces on the fifth day of a cross-border campaign that a monitoring group said had killed at least 35 villagers.
Turkish warplanes roared into northern Syria at daybreak and its artillery pounded what security sources said were sites held by Kurdish YPG militia, after the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fierce overnight fighting around two villages.
Turkey’s military said 25 Kurdish militants were killed in its air strikes. There was no immediate comment from the YPG, but forces aligned with the Kurdish militia have said it withdrew from the area targeted by Turkey before the offensive.
Turkey, which is also battling Kurdish insurgents on its own soil, sent tanks and troops into Syria on Wednesday to support its Syrian rebel allies. The Turkish-backed forces first seized the Syrian border town of Jarablus from Islamic State militants before pushing south into areas held by Kurdish-aligned militias. They have also moved west towards Islamic State areas.
Turkish officials have openly stated that their goal in Syria is as much about ensuring Kurdish forces do not expand the territory they already control along Turkey’s border, as it is about driving Islamic State from its strongholds.
However, Turkey’s offensive has so far focused mostly on targeting forces allied to the Kurdish-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition that includes YPG, an Observatory source said.
The SDF has support from the United States, which sees the group as an effective Syrian ally against Islamic State. So Turkey’s action against SDF-allied forces puts it odds with a fellow NATO member, adding a further twist to Syria’s complex war that began in 2011 with an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and has drawn in regional states and world powers.
The Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group with a network of sources in Syria, said Turkish-allied forces had seized two villages south of Jarablus, Jub al-Kousa and al-Amarna, that were held by militias loyal to the SDF.
The fighting killed 20 civilians in Jub al-Kousa and 15 in al-Amarna, while scores more were wounded, the group said.
HEADING SOUTH
The Observatory said rebels backed by Turkish tanks fought until dawn against rival militias allied to the SDF around al-Amarna. SDF-allied militia damaged three Turkish tanks, it said.
Turkish security sources said warplanes and artillery had hit Kurdish YPG militia sites south of frontier town of Jarablus and towards Manbij, a city captured by Kurdish-aligned SDF this month in a U.S.-backed operation.
Colonel Ahmed Osman, head of the Turkish-backed Sultan Murad rebel group, told Reuters the force was “certainly heading in the direction of Manbij” and hoped to take it days. He also said Turkish-backed rebels were pushing west against Islamic State.
The Ankara government wants to stop Kurdish forces gaining control of an unbroken swathe of Syrian territory on Turkey’s frontier, which it fears could embolden the Kurdish militant group PKK that has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.
A Reuters witness in Karkamis, a Turkish border town, heard jets and artillery bomb Syrian targets. A Turkish official told Reuters even heavier air strikes could follow in coming hours.
Turkey said one of its soldiers was killed on Saturday when a rocket hit a tank that it said came from a YPG-controlled area. It was the first Turkish death reported in the campaign.
Turkey has suffered shock waves from the conflict raging in its southern neighbor, including frequent bomb attacks by Islamic State. The government suspects the jihadist group was behind a blast at a wedding this month that killed 54 people.
President Tayyip Erdogan was expected to visit the site of that wedding attack in Gaziantep, in southeastern Turkey, later on Sunday to pay his respects to families of the victims.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
