"The Turkish military is not familiar with this kind of urban warfare," Metin Gurcan, a former Turkish military adviser in Afghanistan and Iraq (2002-2008), told Business Insider.

"This is a new phenomenon for them, so they are reacting by crushing the urban resistance. The critical question, which is being discussed right now in Ankara, is to what extent the conflict should be militarized."

Violence has consumed large parts of Turkey's southeast as the military battles the PKK in the Kurdish strongholds of Cizre — considered the center of Kurdish resistance — and Diyarbakir,besieging the cities and placing them under a curfew.

PKK rebels have reportedly killed 33 police officials in recent days.

Many cities have been blocked off entirely by security forces, and a new law has authorized the military to use live ammunition to quell protests and shoot at those who break curfew.

Many civilians caught in the sharpshooters' sniper fire have been unable to receive treatment due to the blockade. Food is running out and bodies are piling up.

“We were running out food as electricity and water were cut. They didn’t do this even in the 1990s,” Gamze Arslan, a dentist in Cizre, told the Wall Street Journal. “Curfews then lasted two, three days at most.”

The chaos has resulted largely from the emergence of PKK-affiliated youth militias who have endeavored to shift the conflict from rural areas to cities — and the military's relative inexperience in urban warfare.

Former Greek prime minister and leader of leftist Syriza party Alexis Tsipras waves to supporters after winning the general election in Athens, Greece, September 20, 2015. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

By Renee Maltezou and Karolina Tagaris

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek leftist Alexis Tsipras stormed back into office with an unexpectedly decisive election victory on Sunday, claiming a clear mandate to steer Greece's battered economy to recovery.

The vote ensured Europe's most outspoken leftist leader would remain Greece's dominant political figure, despite having been abandoned by party radicals last month after he caved in to demands for austerity to win a bailout from the euro zone.

In a victory speech to cheering crowds in a central Athens square, he promised a new phase of stability in a country that has held five general elections in six years, saying his mandate would now see him through a full term.

"Today in Europe, Greece and the Greek people are synonymous with resistance and dignity. This struggle will be continued together for a full four years," he said.

He made no specific reference to the 85 billion euro bailout, but Syriza campaigned on a pledge to implement it, while promising also to introduce measures to protect vulnerable groups from some aspects of the deal.

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Former Greek prime minister and leader of leftist Syriza party Alexis Tsipras addresses supporters a …

"We have difficulties ahead of us but we also have a solid ground, we know where we can step, we have a prospect. Recovery from the crisis can't come magically, but it can come through tough work," he said.

Tsipras's first task after forming a government will be to persuade European Union lenders that enough agreed steps have been made to ensure the next payment. The bailout program is due for a review next month.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers that use the single currency, said he looked forward to the swift formation of a new Greek government with a mandate to implement the bailout.

"Ready to work closely with the Greek authorities and to continue accompanying Greece in its ambitious reform efforts," Dijsselbloem tweeted.

Tsipras will also need to grapple with Greece's central role in Europe's refugee crisis, as the main entry point for tens of thousands of migrants who arrive by sea and trek up the Balkan peninsula to richer EU countries further north. He meets EU colleagues at an emergency summit over the crisis on Wednesday.

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Supporters of leftist Syriza party react at the party's main election kiosk after seeing the res …

In a near repeat of January's general election, his Syriza party fell just shy of an outright majority but will form a coalition with his former partners, the small rightwing Independent Greeks party.

With around 57 percent of votes counted, Syriza was on course to claim 35.5 percent of the vote, easily seeing off the main conservative challengers New Democracy on 28.2 percent.

The interior ministry said that would give Syriza 145 seats in the 300-seat parliament, just four fewer than when Tsipras first stormed to power early this year. The result was more decisive than had been indicated in opinion polls, which had predicted the outcome would be close.

New Democracy swiftly conceded defeat. Leader Vangelis Meimarakis said: "The electoral result appears to be concluding with Syriza and Mr Tspiras in the lead. I congratulate him and urge him to create the government which is needed."

Third place in the election looked set to go again to Golden Dawn, a far right party with a swastika-like symbol, with around 7 percent of the vote.

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Supporters of leftist Syriza party react at the party's main election kiosk after seeing the res …

WEARINESS

Tsipras resigned and called the election last month when his party split over his reversal on the bailout, which he had accepted despite having won an overwhelming referendum mandate in July to reject similar terms.

Many Greeks expressed weariness with politics during the campaign, tired of voting and frightened by the prospect of still more uncertainty that would worsen one of the worst depressions to hit an industrialized country in modern times.

"I voted, but with a heavy heart," said Despina Biri, 29.

Sunday's ballot was the third national vote this year, including the referendum. Turnout was around 55 percent compared with 63 percent in January's election.

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People look at the results of exit polls on a giant screen as the leader of the conservative New Dem …

Some voters said they backed Syriza because Tsipras needed time to finish the job he began.

"They were ... the ones who signed the bailout so they have to implement it," said Fani Arvanitidi, 70.

The firebrand leftist fought hard for Greece to be let off harsh austerity rules imposed by international creditors, only to back down after Greece's banks were shut and the country was pushed to the wall.

More than two dozen of his lawmakers abandoned him last month, many saying he had betrayed his principles. He argued that his tough negotiating stance had softened the blow of austerity and had helped persuade creditors to agree a restructuring of Greek debt.

His center-right opponents argued that his erratic leadership had worsened the economic crisis, throttling a recovery that had just begun before he took power.

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Former Greek prime minister and leader of leftist Syriza party Alexis Tsipras speaks to journalists …

But with Tsipras and his main opponents now all committed to the bailout, the deep divisions that had polarized Greece and given rise to volatile politics appear less extreme for now.

Apart from Golden Dawn and the communist KKE party, the major parties in the new parliament have now all accepted the cash-for-reforms deal to keep Greece in the euro zone.

"After years of almost unprecedented crisis, the vast majority of Greeks are endorsing parties that are promising to keep the country in the euro even if that implies thorough and painful reforms," Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Germany's Berenberg bank said.

For former allies still opposed to EU-imposed austerity, however, Tsipras is a turncoat.

Yanis Varoufakis, the outspoken former finance minister who infuriated EU officials with his refusal to accept their proposals, called the election "the 'legalization' of the capitulation that followed the signing of the dead end, humiliating and irrational" bailout.

The new government will also need to respond to Greece's central role in Europe's migration crisis, which could intensify as countries further along the land route north across the Balkans shut down their frontiers.

In a painful reminder of that crisis, 13 migrants died in Turkish waters on Sunday when a boat carrying 46 people en route to Greece collided with a dry cargo vessel and capsized, a Turkish coast guard source said.

(Additional reporting by Michele Kambas, George Georgiopoulos, Angeliki Koutantou and Lefteris Papadimas; Writing by John Stonestreet and Jeremy Gaunt; Editing by Peter Graff)

* Rebels see conflict going on longer with Russians involved

* Hope for more support from their foreign allies

* Scope of Russian deployment unclear, says to fight terrorism

* Assad also backed by Iran, Lebanon's Hezbollah

* U.S. has provided only limited help to some Syrian rebels

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Tom Perry

AMMAN/BEIRUT, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Rebels who have inflicted big losses on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad say Russia's intervention in support of its ally will only lead to an escalation of the war and may encourage the rebels' Gulf Arab backers to pour in more military aid.

Russia's deployment is prompting a reassessment of the conflict among insurgents whose advances in western Syria in recent months may have been the catalyst for Russia's decision. U.S. officials say Russian forces are already arriving.

Rebels interviewed by Reuters say they have already encountered stronger government resistance in those areas - notably the coastal heartland of Assad's Alawite sect - and now predict an even tougher war with Russian involvement.

Some see an opportunity in the Russian deployment, predicting more military aid from states such as Saudi Arabia. That signals one of the risks of Russian involvement: a spiral of deepening foreign interference in a conflict already complicated by a regional struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Hoping to galvanise more support, rebels are evoking the Soviet failure in Afghanistan as a model for their struggle, and depicting Russia as a new occupier. But they also say this means the war, already in its fifth year, will go on even longer.

"It is in our calculations that the battle will now extend for more years than it would have without the Russians," said Abu Yousef al-Mouhajer, a rebel fighting in the Latakia area where Russian forces have deployed at an airfield.

"The Russian intervention has come to save the regime," said the fighter with the Ahrar al-Sham group, part of an alliance that has advanced in the Assad-held west. Like other rebels interviewed for this article, he spoke via the internet.

U.S. officials say Russia is undertaking a significant military buildup at the airfield, including fighter jets, helicopter gunships, artillery and as many as 500 naval infantry.

While Russia has not been specific about its goals - saying its support for Damascus aims to fight terrorism - rebels in the west believe their area of operations is the priority because it poses the biggest immediate risk to Assad.

Russia operates its only naval facility on the Mediterranean in the Syrian city of Tartous near Latakia.

Islamic State, while a growing danger, is seen as a lesser threat to Assad for now, though it also seems likely to be hit.

The insurgents fighting near the coast include the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's Syrian wing, 30 percent of whose fighters are foreign jihadists inspired by the aim of battling the Alawite-led government. They include Russians, Asians and Chechens, the Nusra Front leader said in an interview earlier this year.

Moscow has said its military support for Damascus is aimed at fighting terrorism, safeguarding Syria's statehood and preventing a "total catastrophe" in the region.

It has sent greater quantities and new types of weapons to a Syrian army which has been suffering a manpower problem.

The support adds to the foreign backing Assad has already received from Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside the army for several years. Iran has mobilised Iraqi and Afghani militias to support the government.

"MORE FEROCIOUS"

The rebels, better armed and organised, have challenged Assad like never before in both the northwest and southwest this year, with support from governments including Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. They all want Assad gone from power.

Recent gains have brought the rebels into the Ghab Plain, just east of the Alawite mountains that overlook the coast.

Rebels there report tougher resistance from government troops even before the news of the Russian deployment.

"Today we have a new type of soldier that is fighting us with more ferociousness and professionalism," said al-Mouhajer. "The battle has changed: it's now in their Alawite home."

Another rebel said: "The more progress we make towards the coast, the more ferocious they are in battle."

Some fighters say there is no sign of increased Russian support yet. Others report more accurate air strikes and the appearance of new types of armoured vehicles.

A Syrian military source told Reuters last week the army has started using new types of weapons supplied by Russia.

"The information we have is that Russia has taken on the task of protecting the coast and it is leading the battles we are now fighting near Joreen," said a Nusra Front commander who was using his nom de guerre, Abu Anas al-Lathkani.

Joreen is a government-held town overlooking the Ghab Plain, and home to an army base. "The Russian presence will change the nature of the battle. The pace of our advances will become slightly more difficult," al-Lathkani said.

"ANOTHER AFGHANISTAN"

Damascus, an ally of Moscow since Soviet times, says it will request Russian troops to fight alongside its own if the need arises. It has denied the presence of Russian combat troops on the ground now. But Lebanese sources familiar with the political and military situation have said Russians have already taken part in military operations.

There are already signs of a rebel response.

Jaish al-Islam, one of the bigger rebel groups, has posted a video said to show a missile attack on the Latakia airfield being used by the Russians. Jaish al-Islam, widely believed to be Saudi-backed, has also launched new attacks near Damascus. Other rebels have escalated attacks in Idlib province and in Aleppo.

Another rebel said the Russians risked "another Afghanistan where they would be sending troops who would return in coffins".

U.S. and Saudi support was crucial to the success of Afghani insurgents - the Mujahideen - against the Soviets in the 1980s.

But the United States, while supplying limited military support to some rebels, has shied away from larger backing for reasons including fears that weapons will go to extremists. Notably, requests for anti-aircraft missiles have been denied.

Notwithstanding U.S. caution, some rebels believe backers such as Saudi Arabia will be forced to increase their support.

"A serious Russian intervention in Syria - beyond the reports we are hearing - will represent a continuation of the struggle," said Abu Ghiath al-Shami, spokesman for Alwiyat Seif al-Sham, a "Free Syrian Army" rebel group in southern Syria.

"Russia has no aim for a political solution. It only wants the preservation of the Syrian regime. As for the states that support us, ... I think there will be a change in their attitude towards us, via support, or perhaps a political shift." (Writing by Tom Perry; editing by Janet McBride)

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is due to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss Russia's involvement in the Syrian crisis, in what the Israeli press has described as a "jab" at the U.S.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Netanyahu will conduct a "short work visit" to Moscow on Monday, Russian news agency message from the Kremlin's press desk, the talking points of the Israeli leader's meeting with Putin will include "the Middle East peace process and the global fight against terror."

Netanyahu will likely be keen to discuss increasing reports of denied press reports of potential Russian troop deployments to the region.

Israeli Defence Forces chief-of-staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot and Military Intelligence chief Major General Herzl Halevi will accompany Netanyahu to Moscow, according to the Jerusalem Post—a rare occurrence in the prime minister's work trips, the paper says.

Israeli daily Haaretz reports that part of the goal behind Netanyahu's trip is to ensure that any Russian presence in Syria does not result in accidental clashes with Israeli forces on the northern border, citing anonymous security sources.

The paper also adds that the visit reflects a "lack of faith in the ability or the intent of the United States to protect Israel's security interests." This is Netanyahu's first visit to Moscow since 2013, prior to the collapse of relations between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis.