SYRIAN GOVERNMENT TROOPS will deploy along the border with Turkey to help Kurdish fighters fend off Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria, the Kurds said, hours after President Donald Trump ordered all US troops to withdraw from the area to avoid getting caught in the middle of the fast-escalating conflict.
The announcement represents a major shift in alliances for Syria’s Kurds after they were abandoned by the US, with whom they were long-time partners in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Adding to the turmoil, hundreds of Islamic State families and supporters escaped from a holding camp in northern Syria amid heavy clashes between Turkish forces and the Kurds.
The dizzying developments reflected the rapidly growing chaos that has unfolded in the week since Trump ordered US forces in the region to step aside, clearing the way for the Turkish attack on the Kurdish fighters it considers terrorists.
Trump’s decision has been broadly condemned at home and abroad by critics who accuse him of betraying the Kurds, who long fought alongside the U.S. to help defeat the Islamic State group in Syria.
‘Untenable situation’
US defence secretary Mark Esper said all American troops will withdraw from northern Syria because of the increasing danger posed by the fighting.
“We have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancing armies, and it’s a very untenable situation,” he said on CBS’ Face The Nation.
He did not say how many would withdraw or where they would go but that they represent most of the 1,000 US troops in Syria.
The peril to American forces was illustrated on Friday, when a small number of US troops came under Turkish artillery fire at an observation post in the north. No Americans were hurt.
Dealing with @LindseyGrahamSC and many members of Congress, including Democrats, about imposing powerful Sanctions on Turkey. Treasury is ready to go, additional legislation may be sought. There is great consensus on this. Turkey has asked that it not be done. Stay tuned!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2019
Esper said it was unclear whether that was an accident.
Trump, in a tweet, said: “Very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish Border, for a change.
“Those that mistakenly got us into the Middle East Wars are still pushing to fight.
“They have no idea what a bad decision they have made.”
Meanwhile, Esper said the US also has come to believe that the Kurds are attempting to “cut a deal” with the Syrian army and Russia to counter the invading Turks.
Shortly afterward, Kurdish officials announced they will work with the Syrian government to fend off the Turkish invasion, deploying side by side along the border.
Syrian TV said government troops were moving to the north to confront the Turkish invasion but gave no details.
A Syrian Kurdish official and a war monitor also said Syrian government forces were poised to enter Kurdish-controlled towns from which US troops are pulling out, following a deal reached through Russia.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deal covered the towns of Kobani and Manbij.
US troops were deployed in the towns after they were cleared of Islamic State militants in 2015.
The Kurdish fighters had few options after the United States abandoned them, and it had been anticipated they would turn to the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and its Russian allies for support.
The Syrian troop movements raise the risk of a clash between Syria and Turkey.
In addition, a return by Assad’s forces to the region where Syrian Kurds have built up an autonomy in the north would be a major shift in Syria’s long-running civil war, further cementing Mr Assad’s hold over the war-ravaged country.
Airstrikes
It would also mean that US troops no longer have presence in an area where Russia and Iranian-backed militias now have a role.
Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency, meanwhile, said Turkey-backed Syrian forces have advanced into the centre of a Syrian border town, Tal Abyad, on the fifth day of Turkey’s offensive.
Turkey’s defence ministry tweeted that its forces had taken control of the main road running between Hassakeh, a major town and logistics hub, and Ein Eissa, the administrative centre of the Kurdish-held areas.
Casualties mounted.
Yesterday, at least nine people, including five civilians, were killed in Turkish airstrikes on a convoy in the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ayn, according to the Observatory and Syrian Kurdish officials.
Images of the attack showed bodies and severed limbs strewn in the street.
Some of those killed appeared to be carrying guns.
Activists said the gunmen were guarding the convoy.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday ruled out any mediation in the dispute with the Kurds, saying Turkey will not negotiate with “terrorists”.
Nato member Turkey views the Syrian Kurdish fighters as terrorists because of their links to the Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.
The fighting has raised fears that some of the thousands of Islamic State members and sympathisers held by the Kurds will escape or be released in the chaos, allowing the battered extremist group to make a comeback and sow terror at will.
Yesterday, heavy fighting reached a displaced-persons camp in Ein Eissa, some 20 miles south of the border, that is home to some 12,000 people, including around 1,000 wives and widows of Islamic State fighters and their children, held in a special detention area.
The Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria said in a statement that 950 IS supporters escaped after attacking guards and storming the gates.
It was not immediately possible to confirm that figure.
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