US-led coalition to build border force in Syria, angering Turkey Syrian troops seize dozens of villages in advance on key base
BEIRUT: The US-led coalition fighting the Daesh group said on Sunday it was working to create a 30,000-strong border security force in northern Syria, drawing sharp condemnation from Turkey.
With the offensive against Daesh winding down, the coalition and its allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance were beginning to shift their focus to border security, coalition spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon told AFP.
“There is a goal of a final force of approximately 30,000,” about half of whom would be retrained SDF fighters, he said.
“There are approximately 230 individuals that are training right now in the border security force. That’s an inaugural class,” Dillon said.
The SDF has ousted Daesh from swathes of northeastern Syria, backed by the US-led coalition’s airstrikes, equipment and arms.
Its Kurdish and Arab members now control territory bordering Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and Syrian government forces to the west.
Turkey reacted sharply to news of the border force on Sunday, saying it would “legitimize a terror organization.”
Ankara is fiercely opposed to the SDF, which is dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — considered by the Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Accepting this state of affairs is absolutely not possible,” Kalin added, in comments reported by Turkish media.
Dillon could not immediately confirm whether the border security force would be deployed along the frontier with Turkey or adjacent to territory controlled by Syrian regime forces.
He declined to comment on possible “rules of engagement” between the border units and Turkish or Syrian troops.
The force’s creation, Dillon said, was instead part of a broader strategy to “prevent the resurgence of IS.”
“With the fight against IS, as the remaining pocket continues to go away, we know that doesn’t mean the end of Daesh. We’ll have to make sure that there is security that can be maintained,” he said.
Also on Sunday, Syrian troops have recaptured dozens of towns and villages from opposition fighters, a monitor said, bringing them closer to a key military airport in the country’s northwest.
“In the past 24 hours, regime forces have taken at least 79 villages in the southern parts of Aleppo province, an area near the Abu Duhur military airport,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
Russia-backed regime troops are aiming to reach the Abu Duhur base as part of a weekslong assault against Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which is dominated by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate.
The offensive has seen Syrian forces seize surrounding territory in the provinces of Aleppo and Hama as they close in on Abu Duhur, which lies just inside the Idlib province.
They briefly broke into the air base this week from the south but were ousted in a ferocious counter-offensive by opposition fighters.
With the latest push in Aleppo province, Abdel Rahman said, army troops were seeking to open a new front on the airport’s northern and eastern flanks.
“Regime troops lost control of those villages in southern Aleppo province in 2012,” he said.
“They are advancing quickly now because of HTS’s collapse, and the withdrawal of its fighters and those of other groups from the area,” Abdel Rahman added.
Syrian daily Al-Watan, which is close to the government, also reported that the army was “encircling” the airport.