Govt militias rush to Kurds’ aid
Fighters reclaim Afrin territory from Turkey
ISTANBUL: Militias loyal to the Syrian government swept into the northwestern enclave of Afrin on Thursday in support of Kurdish fighters, reclaiming the territory and stealing a march on Turkish forces that have been battling toward the city for nearly a month.
Television broadcasts and social media postings showed crowds celebrating in the main square of the city of Afrin, waving flags and holding posters of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and the Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is imprisoned in Turkey on terrorism charges.
The entry into Afrin of forces loyal to Mr Assad — the result of a deal between the Syrian government and Kurdish militias, with the backing of Iran and Russia — has harmed Turkey’s ambitions in Syria. It is one of many setbacks that Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has experienced throughout the seven-year Syrian civil war.
“It’s not something Turkey is happy with at all,” said Michael Stephens, who studies the Middle East at the Royal United Services Institute in London. “It limits Turkish strategic options.” Turkey has made it clear that if attacked by pro-government forces, its forces will strike back, he said.
Turkey began its incursion into Afrin a month ago, saying it wanted to clear the enclave of Kurdish militias, which it says are affiliated with Ocalan’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has long waged a separatist insurgency in Turkey.
Turkey mobilised hundreds of CIA-trained Syrian Arab fighters from the opposition Free Syrian Army to spearhead its attack, and bombarded the enclave with jets and artillery fire.
But Turkish forces have struggled to make headway against the well-prepared Kurdish fighters. In a month of fighting, Turkish forces have lost 32 soldiers. They have taken several dozen villages along the Turkish border but have yet to reach the main cities.
The Syrian government has opposed the Turkish action from the start, accusing it of a breach of Syrian sovereignty, but Russia, which controls Syrian airspace, opened airspace to Turkish war planes.
Syrian and Kurdish officials suggested from the start that the Syrian government could move in to help the Kurdish forces.
Ibrahim Hamidi, a Syrian journalist for the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, reported on Wednesday that senior Russian and Syrian government officials met with Saban Hamo, the leader of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, in Aleppo to work out a deal.
The head of the Syrian government forces’ security committee, Brig Gen Malek Alia, attended the meeting along with the head of the Russian Army Reconciliation Center in northern Syria, Hamidi reported.