Fighting ISIL bogs down Turkey

Realignment toward Moscow tests ties to U.S.

BEIRUT • Nearly two months into the assault, Turkey has become bogged down in an unexpectedly bloody fight to retake the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s last stronghold in northern Syria. It has been forced to pour in troops, take the lead in the battle from its Syrian allies and reach out to Russia for aerial support.

The fight for al-Bab underscores the precarious path Ankara is treading with its foray in to Syria, aimed against both ISIL militants and Syrian Kurdish fighters. The assault on the town had already driven a wedge between Turkey and the United States, and now the realignment toward Moscow — which supports the government in Syria’s civil war — further tests Ankara’s alliance both with Washington and with the Syrian opposition.

The battle itself has proven gruelling.

Nearly 50 Turkish soldiers have been killed in its Syria operation, most of them since the al-Bab assault began in mid-November — including 14 killed in a single day. The militants have dug in, surrounding the town with trenches, lining streets with landmines and carrying out ambushes and car bombings against the besieging forces. Each time Turkish backed Syrian opposition fighters have thrust into the city, they’ve been driven out. More than 200 civilians are believed to have been killed since the attack began Nov. 13. Mud and cold rain have only made it more of a slog.

“The battle for al-Bab has been mostly about killing civilians and destroying the city, whether by Daesh or the Turks,” said Mustafa Sultan, a resident of al-Bab and a media activist who has been covering the fight. He used the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

“The town is almost half destroyed. Daesh takes cover in hospitals, schools and these end up getting targeted,” he said. The Turkish military says it takes great care not to harm civilians, halting operations that could endanger non-combatants.

Capturing al-Bab is essential to Ankara’s goals in Syria.

Turkey, which for years supported the Syrian opposition drive to oust President Bashar Assad, has recalibrated its priorities toward fighting ISIL militants and thwarting Kurdish aspirations for autonomous rule along Syria’s border with Turkey.

If al-Bab is retaken, it would break the ISIL’s presence near the border and plant a Turkish-backed presence between Kurdish-held territory to the east and west, preventing them from linking.

For the U.S., the al-Bab assault risks causing direct confrontation between Turkish troops and Syrian Kurdish forces, which are leading a U.S.-backed offensive toward the de facto ISIL capital of Raqqa. Washington has supported and relied on the Kurds in the fight against ISIL the past two years.

Last month, Ankara protested to Washington that its NATO ally was providing no help in al-Bab. A day later, Turkey said Russia carried out three airstrikes in the albab area.

In the short term, Turkey is likely to sending a message to the United States before president-elect Donald Trump takes office that it has other options if Washington keeps backing the Syrian Kurds, considered by Ankara as terrorists linked to a Kurdish faction that has carried out bombings in Turkey.

In the long term, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be exploring his options with Russia, which currently holds the key to Syria militarily and diplomatically. Russia helped Assad’s forces crush the opposition enclave in the northern city of Aleppo in December. Then Moscow and Ankara joined to broker a ceasefire, which is supposed to lead to negotiations later this month.

The offensive has also revealed how unprepared Turkish-allied Syrian rebels are for a protracted fight against ISIL.

Ankara increased its initial deployment of 600 soldiers — which included special forces and mechanized battalions — to at least 4,000 today, according to Metin Gurcan, a former Turkish military adviser who served in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Iraq and is now an independent security analyst. Turkish troops now outnumber the Syrian opposition fighters who were supposed to be “the primary ground force,” Gurcan wrote in AlMonitor.

He said some Syrian fighters have withdrawn, “and because of their lack of discipline in the field, Turkish commandos are now engaged in front-line fighting against ISIL.”

Al-Bab had a prewar population of 60,000 and it’s not known how many remain there. Despite the tight ISIL seal, some still try to escape.

A resident who goes by the name of Abul-Ful for fear for his safety said his sister and her family fled Monday after ISIL took over their farmland north of the town to use as base. The family of seven moved from one farm to the next undetected until they reached shelter in a village north of al-Bab.

She was lucky, Abul-Ful said. He said his older sister was killed 10 days earlier as she tried to escape with her family. While hiding in farmland, they were caught in crossfire: ISIL fired on Turkish-backed forces, then moved, and Turkish artillery responded, hitting the family and killing her.

Her family buried her at the spot where she died, then continued their escape, he said.

THE TOWN IS ALMOST HALF DESTROYED.

DHA-DEPO PHOTOS VIA AP Family members mourn Turkish soldier Oktay Durak, who was killed by ISIL militants in Syria. Nearly 50 Turkish soldiers have been killed in its Syria operation, most of them since the al-Bab assault began in mid-November.