QAMISHLI, Syria (AP) — The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces mentioned Tuesday they’ve launched a counter-offensive in opposition to the Ankara-backed Syrian National Army to take again areas close to Syria’s northern border with Turkey.
The SDF is Washington’s crucial ally in Syria, focusing on sleeper cells of the extremist Islamic State group scattered throughout the nation’s east.
Since the autumn of the totalitarian rule of Bashar Assad earlier this month, clashes have intensified between the U.S.-backed group and the SNA, which captured the important thing metropolis of Manbij and the areas surrounding it.
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The intense weekslong clashes come at a time when Syria, battered by over a decade of struggle and financial distress, negotiates its political future following half a century underneath the Assad dynasty’s rule.
Ruken Jamal, spokesperson of the Women’s Protection Unit, or YPJ, underneath the SDF, informed The Associated Press that their fighters are simply over seven miles away from the middle of Manbij of their ongoing counter-offensive.
She accused Ankara of attempting to weaken the group’s affect in negotiations over Syria’s political future by means of the SNA,
“Syria is now in a brand new part, and discussions are underway about the way forward for the nation,” Jamal mentioned. “Turkey is attempting, by means of its assaults, to distract us with battles and exclude us from the negotiations in Damascus.”
The Britain-based opposition struggle monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says because the SNA’s offensive in northern Syria in opposition to the Kurds began earlier this month, dozens from either side have been killed.
Ankara sees the SDF as an affiliate of its sworn enemy, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which it classifies as a terrorist group. Turkish-backed armed teams alongside Turkish jets for years have attacked positions the place the SDF are largely current throughout northern Syria, in a bid to create a buffer zone free from the group alongside the massive shared border.
While the SNA was concerned within the lightning insurgency — led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — that toppled Assad, it has continued its push in opposition to the SDF, seen as Syria’s second key actor for its political future.
On Monday, the SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami mentioned the group’s forces pushed again the Turkish-backed rebels from areas close to the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates, a key supply of hydroelectric energy. He mentioned the SDF additionally destroyed a tank belonging to the rebels southeast of Manbij.
The British-based struggle monitor mentioned on Tuesday that the Kurdish-led group, following in a single day preventing, has reclaimed 4 villages within the areas close to the strategic dam.
Turkish jets additionally pounded the strategic border city of Kobani in current days.
During Syria’s uprising-turned-conflict, the Kurds carved out an enclave of autonomous rule throughout northeastern Syria, by no means totally allying solely with Assad in Damascus nor the rebels attempting to overthrow him.
Even with the Assad household out of the image, it seems that Ankara’s place received’t change, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s landmark go to to Syria sustaining a robust place on the Kurdish-led group in his assembly with de facto chief Ahmad al-Sharaa of HTS.
“It has turned the area right into a cauldron of terror with PKK members and far-left teams who’ve come from Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Europe,” Fidan mentioned in a information convention after the assembly. “The worldwide neighborhood is popping a blind eye to this lawlessness due to the wardenship it offers (in opposition to IS).”
With the continuing preventing, SDF Commander Mazloum Abdi has expressed concern a couple of robust IS resurgence as a result of energy vacuum in Syria and the continuing preventing, which has left the Kurdish-led group unable to hold out its assaults and raids on the extremist group’s scattered sleeper cells.
Tens of 1000’s of youngsters, relations, and supporters of IS militants are nonetheless held in giant detention facilities in northeastern Syria, in areas underneath SDF management.
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Chehayeb reported from Beirut.
