Kurds left behind as Trump backs Turkish withdrawal

US FORCES in northern Syria began pulling back on Monday from areas along the Turkish border ahead of a feared military invasion by Ankara that Kurdish forces say would spark a jihadist resurgence.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement that “US forces withdrew from the border areas with Turkey” in northeast Syria.

The UK-based Sy rian Obser vator y for Human Rights monitoring group confirmed t hat US forces had pulled back from key positions in Ras a l-Ain and Tal Abyad.

The White House on Sunday said that Turkey would “soon be moving for ward with its long-planned operation”.

It said US troops in northern Sy ria would no longer be “in the immediate area” near the border with Turkey, nor would they support Ankara’s operations.

On Monday, the US-backed SDF said such an operation would reverse years of successful Kurdish-led operations to defeat the so-called Islamic State (IS) and allow some of its surviving leaders to come out of hiding.

It a lso warned t hat a Turkish invasion would pose a threat to SDFrun prisons and informal sett lements housing thousands of IS jihadists and t heir fa milies.

Ankara wants to push the USbacked Sy rian Kurdish forces from its border, say ing t hat t he group is a “terrorist” of fshoot of Kurdish insurgents in Turkey.

The Turkish militar y has twice launched offensives in Syria – against IS in 2016 and in 2018 against the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF.

Long marginalised, Syria’s Kurds have – beyond heavy campaigns against IS – essentially stayed out of the country’s eight-year civil war, instead setting up their own institutions in areas under their control.

In the areas of Ras al-Ain, Tal Abyad and Kobane, all bordering Turkey, Kurdish forces have dug trenches and tunnels in preparation for a Turkish offensive, the Observatory said Sunday.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday gave his blessing to the Turkish operation, saying the US will stand aside as Ankara launches its “long-planned” operation.

The move marks a major shift in US policy, and effectively abandons an American ally in the battle against IS, which took over swaths of Syria.

“Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into northern Syria,” a White House statement issued late on Sunday evening said.

The statement, which followed a call between the US president and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also criticised “France, Germany and other European nations” for what it said was their refusal to take back citizens detained in northern Syria.

“Turkey will now be responsible for all IS fighters in the area captured over the past two years in the wake of the defeat of the territorial ‘caliphate’ by the United States,” the statement said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Trump agreed to meet in Washington next month to discuss creating a “safe zone” in northern Syria, the Turkish presidency said.