In an unique interview with Fox News, Gen. Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the primary U.S. ally whose fighters are at present guarding 45,000 ISIS militants and their households at camps and prisons in Eastern Syria, stated the Turkish navy and its allied forces proceed to assault his Kurdish forces, regardless of a U.S. brokered ceasefire deal Wednesday.
“We are nonetheless beneath fixed assault from the Turkish navy and the Turkish-supported opposition which is named SNA,” Gen. Mazloum instructed Fox. “Eighty drone assaults a day we have now from the Turkish navy. There is intensive artillery shells. This state of affairs has paralyzed our counterterror operation.”
The assaults by the Turkish military on the SDF have elevated since Bashar Al Assad’s fall on December 8. Gen. Mazloum warned that if his Kurdish fighters should flee, ISIS would return.
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Gen. Mazloum stated half of his fighters guarding the ISIS camps needed to withdraw in latest days.
“All of the prisons nonetheless are beneath our management. However, the prisons and camps are in a crucial state of affairs as a result of who’s guarding them? They are leaving and having to guard their households,” stated Gen. Mazloum in an interview from his base in Eastern Syria. “I can provide you one instance just like the Raqqa ISIS jail, which incorporates about 1,000 ISIS ex-fighters. The variety of guards there have diminished by half which is placing them in a fragile place.”
A chilling warning from one in every of America’s staunchest allies. The U.S. has 900 troops in Eastern Syria, and they’d doubtless should withdraw if the allied Kurdish fighters retreat beneath assault from Turkey’s navy, which views the Kurds as a terrorist risk.
“We do not wish to see that occur. So we’re in very shut contact with our SDF companions to attempt to keep that concentrate on counter-ISIS missions. And we’re simply as importantly in contact with our Turkish counterparts,” stated National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby throughout a White House press briefing Thursday.
A masked Islamic State terrorist poses holding the ISIS flag. (Pictures from History/Universal Images Group through Getty Images)
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is in Turkey in the present day assembly with President Recep Erdogan to debate methods to convey stability to Syria.
Secretary Blinken “reiterated the significance of all actors in Syria respecting human rights, upholding worldwide humanitarian regulation, and taking all possible steps to guard civilians, together with members of minority teams,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller stated in a press release following the assembly with President Erdogan. “He emphasised the necessity to make sure the coalition can proceed to execute its crucial mission to defeat ISIS.”
CENTCOM Commander General Erik Kurilla met with Gen. Mazloum and the SDF in Syria on Tuesday, two days after the U.S. navy carried out in depth airstrikes focusing on dozens of ISIS positions in Eastern Syria. The operation struck over 75 targets – camps and operatives – utilizing U.S. Air Force B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s, based on a press release launched by U.S. Central Command.
“There ought to be little question – we won’t enable ISIS to reconstitute and make the most of the present state of affairs in Syria,” stated Kurilla. “All organizations in Syria ought to know that we are going to maintain them accountable in the event that they accomplice with or assist ISIS in any approach.”
On Wednesday, the SDF introduced a truce with Syria’s Turkey-backed rebels in northern Manbij following U.S. mediation “to make sure the protection and safety of civilians,” Gen. Mazloum stated early on Wednesday.
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“The fighters of the Manbij Military Council, who’ve been resisting the assaults since November 27, will withdraw from the realm as quickly as potential,” Gen. Mazloum added.
And new indications counsel a ceasefire late Thursday has tentatively been agreed to in Aleppo and Deir Ezzor south of Raqqa alongside the Euphrates River.
Syrians collect at Umayyad Square to have a good time the collapse of 61 years of Baath Party rule in Damascus, Syria on December 9, 2024. (Murat Sengul/Anadolu through Getty Images)
Gen. Mazloum worries about what would occur if the U.S. pulled its forces out of Syria proper now.
“We noticed that the Russians – they haven’t any additional leverage within the nation – similar for the Iranians. So if now U.S. troops withdraw from Syria that may convey a vacuum.”
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He added the next warning: “We anticipate these Islamists, completely different factions to unite, to struggle with ISIS and that may convey again more durable extremists, terrorist organizations again to the nation.”
The SDF Commander fears one other bloody civil conflict may begin if the brand new Syrian authorities in Damascus doesn’t embrace completely different minority teams, just like the Syrian Kurds.
Displaced Kurds go away the refugee camp within the north of Aleppo, fleeing to Afrin, on December 4, 2024. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Images/Abaca/Sipa USA(Sipa through AP Images)
“So any new authorities in Syria must be consultant, must be inclusive and include and embrace all completely different events of Syria. So if not that takes us to a bloody civil conflict within the nation and that may put us in big stage of escalatory path that nobody can predict the destiny of that,” Gen. Mazloum instructed Fox.
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Facing the Turkish fighter jets, the SDF mistakenly shot down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone in Syria on Monday, the results of “pleasant fireplace,” a U.S. protection official told Fox News. “The U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters who’re beneath assault from the Turkish navy misidentified the drone as a risk,” the official stated.
