Share this page!

Seth Frantzman Profile picture
Twitter logo
Feb 5 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
THREAD: The narrative about the killing of ISIS leader Qurayshi includes several narratives; let me sum them up:

1. "He was very hands-on leader & involved in many day-to-day operations."

2. "Qurayshi, never left his compound. Living on the 3rd floor with family, he emerged only occasionally to bathe on roof. Families with no connection to ISIS lived on the first floor, apparently without knowledge of the terrorist two stories above them." edition.cnn.com/2022/02/03/pol…
3."After years of war, Idlib’s social structure has been torn up, scrambled, and overwhelmed by displaced people from other parts of Syria, creating a situation where a stranger can easily go unnoticed. On top of that, it is basically stateless territory."
"explanations for how IS leaders end up in Syria's northwest...least of bad options security-wide. No active coalition ground presence, local security apparatus not so tight, and easy to hide among waves of displaced people who don't know each other.
4."Marks the second time in little over two years that the IS ‘Caliph’ was killed in US raid while living walking distance from Turkey. On both occasions this occurred within part of Syria controlled by HTS and featuring a large Turkish military presence."
5.A UN report also says the he was "believed to move regularly between #Iraq & the #Syria|n Arab Republic"

6.HTS "blocked off the roads leading to the site of yesterday’s U.S. raid, raising questions about whether the group knew of the operation in advance or even provided intelligence that enabled it. 2019, HTS did not interfere with US raid against Baghdadi"
The role of HTS, "jihadist group that controls north-western Syria. Some analysts believe this group has generally cooperated with the international counter-ISIS coalition, as well as Turkey, in combating ISIS, while others accuse it of protecting ISIS."
7.The timing of the raid is important because al-Qurayshi's death comes as the group was mobilizing for a larger offensive in Syria and Iraq, signalled by the recent ISIS prison break in Hasakah
"Towards the end of the mission, US forces were purportedly attacked by a small number of individuals approaching the site. These men were engaged by helicopter fire which killed two and allegedly convinced them to retreat." -akmckeever.substack.com/p/the-atmeh-ra…
So to sum up...he never left, no one knew he was there, he was actively leaving to Iraq sometimes and running the organization, HTS helped and didn't help, maybe even opposed but also maybe works with US-led Coalition...Turkey helped or didn't...just coincidence he lived here.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Seth Frantzman

Seth Frantzman Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @sfrantzman

Seth Frantzman Profile picture
Feb 7
I can't get over how you have these pro-Ankara accounts that put out positive statements about Israel-Turkey reconciliation...and then days later are bashing Israel, bashing Israeli politicians, and spreading conspiracies about Israel's role in the region...ummm...
The reality of the pro-Ankara troll army is that one minute it gets the talking point about "wow...Israel and Turkey may reconcile...Israel's president is visiting"...but their real view...the entrenched one...is visceral hatred of Israel and sometimes antisemitism.
One can't talk about reconciliation and also hate the country one is "reconciling" with...literally I see these trolls backing Hamas...and then being like "oh there could be reconciliation." You can't back extremists and terror and also be fore "reconciliation."
Read 12 tweets
Seth Frantzman Profile picture
Feb 5
Fars News reporting in Iran that Kataib Hezbollah has "warned Turkey: Withdraw your forces before it's too late"...usually when Iran media that is close to IRGC messages something like this, an action may follow. Watch closely if KH or a "new group" linked to them does something
There have been previous incidents where pro-Iran militias targeted Turkish forces in Iraq, usually the Bashiqa base, for instance back in November; rudaw.net/english/middle…
It's important to recall that while many Turkish forces in Iraq are concentrated in a string of mountain bases and outposts, which Ankara claims is to fight "terrorism"...that the Bashiqa camp is on the border of the KRG, and is within range of the 107mm and 122mm from Nineveh
Read 9 tweets
Seth Frantzman Profile picture
Feb 4
Food diary at #ChezFrantzman

Wanted to make "General Tso's" chicken and looked around for some ideas at 'Serious Eats' and 'Recipe Tin Eats'.

We began by buying four large chicken breasts and carving them up into approx 1 inch cubes. Image
2/We put this with 2 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of hoisin sauce, chili flakes, 1 tbsp of sesame oil, 2 tbsp of cornstarch, 1 egg white beaten, 2 tbsp sherry, 2 tbsp Tito's vodka, a dash of baking soda, dash of salt, chopped garlic and chopped ginger, 2 tbsp rice vinegar.Set aside
We then made the dry dip/rub in a deep bowl; with 1.5 cup of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of flour, dash of baking powder and kosher salt.

We then take the chicken from the marinade by hand and put them in the dry rub until coated and placed on a plate;
Read 11 tweets
Seth Frantzman Profile picture
Feb 4
Soon half the cars will be like this, and "regular" cars being driven by people will be like horse-drawn carriages were when the first cars appeared...and the self-driving cars will all communicate and know not to hit eachother...
Consider the fact that when cities were like 20% cars and 60% horse-drawn carts and 10% mounted people and 10% bicycles it was a big mess...and people in cars found horses to be hard to predict...
The self-driving cars have difficulty because people are to them, what horses are to people...in the sense that people are hard to predict compared to a "smart" computer car...so when we reach like 20-50% self-driving cars...then things will work more reasonably...
Read 4 tweets
Seth Frantzman Profile picture
Jan 31
Thread/I am open to the theory that Ankara and Israel might indeed try limited reconciliation.

What I think is an enduring myth is that Israel and Turkey will cooperate against Iran...because I believe Ankara works with Iran.
The reason for Turkey-Israel reconciliation has to do with other things, I mean why not try it again...but the idea that some of the Iran hawks have that the US, Israel, Turkey or whatever will work 'against' Iran is a huge nonsense. There is no such thing.
Turkey does not want to be dragged into some kind of tensions with Iran. Why would it? Turkey gains nothing by heating up tensions with Iran. We heard this nonsense during the Trump era as a reason to support Ankara's operations in Syria...that one day it will confront Iran.
Read 8 tweets
Seth Frantzman Profile picture
Jan 31
This is shocking...Some of Ankara's media was antisemitic and the leadership knew this...and for years did nothing. Now trying to push for Israel president's visit, the leadership is like "ok, let's stop the antisemitism for a few weeks"...call Israel "Israel"...amazing truth out
Imagine if you'd heard about a country that was openly pushing anti-Black racist articles and then to prepare for Barack Obama's visit was like "Ok let's stop the racism"...you'd be shocked by this admission the government controls the racist narrative and can stop/start it...
Literally there was an Ankara regime that controls the media that can turn off and turn on the antisemitism at a whim...the media in Ankara didn't feel any embarassment about pushing antisemitic stories...it had to be told by the government to stop...
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @sfrantzman has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @sfrantzman!

Read all threads by @sfrantzman

:(