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The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Tuesday they had launched a counteroffensive against the Ankara-backed Syrian National Army to capture areas near Syria’s northern border with Turkey.
The SDF is Washington’s critical ally in Syria, targeting sleeper cells of the Islamic State extremist group scattered across the east of the country.
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s totalitarian rule earlier this month, clashes have intensified between the US-backed group and the SNA, which has seized the key city of Manbij and areas surrounding it.
Sunday’s intense clashes come as Syria, battered by more than a decade of war and economic misery, negotiates its political future after half a century under the Assad dynasty.
Ruken Jamal, a spokeswoman for the Women’s Protection Unit, or YPJ, under the SDF, told The Associated Press that their fighters are just over seven miles from the center of Manbij in their ongoing counteroffensive.
She accused Ankara attempts to weaken the group’s influence in negotiations on the political future of Syria through the SNA,
“Syria is now in a new phase and talks are ongoing about the future of the country,” Jamal said. “Turkey is trying with its attacks to distract us with fighting and exclude us from the negotiations in Damascus.”
Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says dozens have been killed on both sides since the start of the SNA offensive in northern Syria against the Kurds earlier this month.
Ankara sees the SDF as an affiliate of its sworn enemy, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which it classifies as a terrorist organization. Armed groups supported by Turkey Turkish planes have been attacking positions where the SDF has a major presence across northern Syria for years, in an attempt to create a buffer zone free of the group along a large shared border.
Although the SNA was involved in the lightning uprising – led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – that ousted Assad, it has continued its push against the SDF, which is seen as Syria’s other key player for its political future.
On Monday, SDF spokesman Farhad Shami said the group’s forces had pushed Turkish-backed rebels out of an area near the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates, a key source of hydropower. He said the SDF also destroyed a tank belonging to the rebels southeast of Manbij.
A Britain-based war monitor said on Tuesday that the Kurdish-led group had recaptured four villages in areas near the strategic dam after overnight fighting.
Turkish planes have also struck the strategic border town of Kobani in recent days.
During Syria’s uprising-turned-conflict, the Kurds created an enclave of autonomous rule across northeastern Syria, never fully aligning with Assad in Damascus or the rebels trying to oust him.
Even with the Assad family out of the picture, Ankara’s position appears unlikely to change, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s landmark visit to Syria maintaining a strong position towards the Kurdish-led group in his meeting with de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa of HTS- a.
“It turned the region into a cauldron of terror with PKK members and far-left groups coming from Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Europe,” Fidan said at a press conference after the meeting. “The international community is closing in on this lawlessness because of the surveillance it provides (against IS).
In light of the ongoing fighting, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi expressed concern over the strong resurgence of IS due to the power vacuum in Syria and the ongoing fighting, which has left the Kurdish-led group unable to carry out its attacks and raids on extremist sleeper cell groups.
Tens of thousands of children, family members and supporters of IS militants are still being held in large detention centers in northeastern Syria, in areas controlled by the SDF.
—
Chehayeb reported from Beirut.