Qamishli, Syria — Qamishli, Syria (AFP) Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces Its forces announced, on Tuesday, that they had launched a counterattack on the Syrian National Army supported by Ankara to reclaim areas near the northern border of Syria with… turkey.
The Syrian Democratic Forces are an important ally of Washington in Syria, targeting sleeper cells of the extremist Islamic State organization spread in the east of the country.
Since the fall The totalitarian rule of Bashar al-Assad Earlier this month, clashes intensified between the US-backed group and the Syrian National Army, which took control of the main city of Manbij and its surrounding areas.
The weeks-long intense clashes come at a time when Syria, suffering from more than a decade of war and economic misery, negotiates its political future after half a century of Assad family rule.
Rukn Jamal, spokeswoman for the SDF’s Women’s Protection Unit, told the Associated Press that their fighters are just over seven miles from central Manbij in their ongoing counterattack.
Ankara was accused of trying to weaken the group’s influence in negotiations over the political future of Syria through the Syrian National Army.
Jamal said: “Syria is now in a new phase, and discussions are ongoing about the future of the country.” He added, “Through its attacks, TĂĽrkiye is trying to distract us with the battles and exclude us from the negotiations in Damascus.”
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that since the start of the Syrian National Army’s offensive in northern Syria against the Kurds earlier this month, dozens have been killed on both sides.
Ankara considers the Syrian Democratic Forces to be affiliated with its arch enemy, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which it classifies as a terrorist organization. Turkish-backed armed groups, along with Turkish aircraft, have for years been attacking locations where the SDF is largely present in northern Syria, in an attempt to create a buffer zone free of the group along the large shared border.
While the Syrian National Army was involved in the blitzkrieg – led by the Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham – that overthrew Assad, it has continued its campaign against the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is seen as the second major actor in Syria’s political future.
Farhad al-Shami, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, said on Monday that the group’s forces had expelled Turkish-backed rebels from areas near the Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates River, a major source of hydroelectric power. He added that the Syrian Democratic Forces also destroyed a tank belonging to the rebels southeast of Manbij.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday that the Kurdish-led group had retaken four villages in areas near the strategic dam, after fighting overnight.
Turkish aircraft also bombed the strategic border city of Kobani in recent days.
During the Syrian uprising-turned-conflict, the Kurds carved out an autonomous region across northeastern Syria, neither fully allying themselves with Assad in Damascus nor with the rebels trying to overthrow him.
Even with the Assad family out of the picture, it appears that Ankara’s position will not change, as Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s historic visit to Syria maintained a strong stance towards the Kurdish-led group in his meeting with the de facto leader. Ahmad al-Sharaa From Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham.
“It has turned the region into a cauldron of terrorism with members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and extremist leftist groups who came from Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Europe,” Fidan said in a press conference after the meeting. He was exposed to this security chaos because of the protection he provided (against ISIS).”
As the fighting continued, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, confirmed She expressed her concern about the strong re-emergence of ISIS 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 the extremist group’s scattered sleeper cells.
Tens of thousands of children, family members, and supporters of ISIS fighters are still being held in large detention centers in northeastern Syria, in areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces.
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Chehayeb reported from Beirut.
