Syria Kurds fear US to abandon them

QAMISHLI, Syria: Syria’s Kurds fear the steadfast ally they found in the US to successfully take on Daesh may now leave them to face threats from Turkey and Damascus alone.

Across Syria’s north, Kurdish authorities have spent more than four years steadily building public institutions including elected councils, security forces, even schools.

They felt they had found an international sponsor in the US, which relied primarily on the fighters of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to roll back Daesh in northern and eastern Syria.

But with Daesh holding just five percent of Syria, Kurds worry the US could withdraw support, costing them the key political and territorial gains they scored in the chaos of war.

“We are afraid of America, which has been using us as a card to play for a long time,” said Rafea Ismail, a 37-year-old who sells women’s accessories on the hood of his car in the city of Qamishli.

“When they’re done using us, they’ll forget us,” he said.

Qamishli is the main hub of the autonomous administration the Kurdish authorities have run since regime forces withdrew from swathes of northeast Syria in 2012.

“All countries should support us because we fight terrorism. We liberated Raqqa, and America should not abandon us and ally with Turkey,” said Nawal Farzand, a 45-year-old Kurdish language teacher.

In March 2016, Kurdish parties announced they would seek to establish a federal system there after ousting Daesh from much of the area with the help of the US-led coalition.

Their biggest win was Raqqa, once Daesh’s de facto Syrian capital but captured in October by the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Weeks later, the US announced it was pulling 500 Marines from its nearly 2,000-strong force in Syria and “amending” its support to the YPG.

But the terrorists are “not finished yet,” said Nassrin Abdallah, a commander in the militia’s female branch, the Kurdish Women’s Protection Units (YPJ).

Sleeper cells still stage attacks and Daesh fighters are active in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, she said.

“It is important for the coalition forces to stay to guarantee security and stability, since the threat from Daesh still exists,” Abdallah added.”Turkey is also a threat to the Kurdish people.”