Syrian Kurds say they have stopped operations against Daesh
The commander of the main US-backed Kurdish-led force in Syria said on Saturday they have halted operations against Daesh due to Turkish attacks on northern Syria over the past week.
Mazloum Abdi of the Syrian Democratic Forces told reporters that after nearly a week of Turkish airstrikes on northern Syria, Ankara is now preparing for a ground offensive.
He said Turkiye-backed opposition fighters were getting ready to take part in the operations.
Abdi added that Turkish strikes over the past week had caused severe damage to the region’s infrastructure.
Abdi said Turkiye is taking advantage of the deadly Nov. 13 bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on Kurdish groups. Kurdish organizations have denied any involvement in the Istanbul attack that killed six and wounded dozens.
Over the past week, Turkiye launched a wave of airstrikes on suspected Kurdish rebels hiding in neighboring Syria and Iraq in retaliation for the Istanbul attack.
“The forces that work symbolically with the international coalition in the fight against Daesh are now targets for the Turkish state and therefore (military) operations have stopped,” Abdi said. “AntiDaesh operations have stopped.” His comments came hours after the US military said two rockets targeted US-led coalition forces at bases in the northeastern Syrian town of Shaddadeh resulting in no “injuries or damage to the base or
coalition property.”
The US military statement said SDF fighters visited the site of the rocket’s origin and found a third unfired rocket. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, blamed Daesh sleeper cells for the Friday night attack on the US base.
“Attacks of this kind place coalition forces and the civilian populace at risk and undermine the hardearned stability and security of Syria and the region,” said Col. Joe Buccino, CENTCOM spokesman. The SDF said in a statement that as Turkish drones flew over the Al-Hol camp that is home to tens of
thousands of mostly wives, widows and children of Daesh fighters, some Daesh family members attacked security forces and managed to escape from the sprawling facility. The SDF did not say how many escaped but that they were later detained.
Kurdish authorities operate more
than two dozen detention facilities scattered across northeastern Syria holding about 10,000 Daesh fighters.
Among the detainees are some 2,000 foreigners whose home countries have refused to repatriate them, including about 800 Europeans.