Turkey mired in battle with ISIS in Syria
Siege, realignment with Russia testing Ankara’s ties with U.S.
BEIRUT — Nearly two months into the assault, Turkey has become bogged down in an unexpectedly bloody fight to retake the Islamic State group’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 into Syria, aimed against both ISIS 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. Dozens of deaths
The battle itself has proven grueling.
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 land mines and carrying out painful 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.
“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 ISIS.
“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 noncombatants.
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 Islamic State militants who turned their terror against the Turkish state and thwarting Kurdish aspirations for autonomous rule along Syria’s border with Turkey.
Retaking al-Bab would break the ISIS 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 ISIS capital, Raqqa. Washington supports and relies on the Kurds in the fight against ISIS 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 al-Bab area. Exploring Russian ties
Turkey is likely sending a message to the U.S. before Presidentelect Donald Trump takes office that it has other options if Washington keeps backing the Syrian Kurds, considered by Ankara to be terrorists.
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.
Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday the U.S. has seen no indication of Russian-Turkish coordination, only independent Russian airstrikes in al-Bab.
“I don’t think the United States is very worried about Erdogan flipping from NATO to Moscow, but they are worried about Turkey’s general drift into instability and rash decisions. Erdogan bungling his foreign policy to the point where he must turn to Putin for help is certainly part of that broader concern,” said Aron Lund, a fellow at the New Yorkbased Century Foundation.