Withdrawing Kurds accuse Turkey of breaching truce
Kurdish forces in north-east Syria left several positions along the border with Turkey on Thursday, complying with a deal in which Damascus, Ankara and Moscow will carve up the Kurds’ now-defunct autonomous region.
Russian forces have started patrols along the flashpoint frontier, filling the vacuum left by a US troop withdrawal that effectively returned a third of the country to the Moscowbacked regime of President Bashar Al Assad.
US President Donald Trump praised the agreement reached in Sochi by Nato member Turkey and Russia and rejoiced that US personnel were leaving the “long bloodstained sand” of Syria, leaving only a small contingent behind “where they have the oil”.
Mr Trump said on Twitter on Thursday that he had spoken with the commander of the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, and that “he appreciates” US efforts.
The deal signed in the Black Sea resort by Syria’s two main foreign brokers gives Kurdish forces until Tuesday to withdraw to an area 30 kilometres from the border.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Kurdish-led SDF had pulled out of some areas at the eastern end of the border on Thursday.
The Observatory also reported clashes near the town of Tel Tamer between SDF fighters and Syrian former rebels paid by Turkey to fight ground battles.
Mr Abdi on Twitter accused the Turkish-led forces of breaking the truce on the eastern front of Ras Al Ain.
“The guarantors of the ceasefire must carry out their responsibilities to rein in the Turks,” he said.
The events were expected to provoke a forceful discussion at a Nato defence ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, but Ankara risked little because of its strategic position, diplomats said.
At the Brussels meeting, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday refused to condemn Turkey for its actions, saying it has “legitimate security concerns” along its border with Syria.
But he confirmed that ministers would “address the situation in north-east Syria” where he said a Turkey-US ceasefire accord struck last week had reduced fighting.
Turkey was isolated among the 29 member states because of its incursion against Kurdish fighters, who are considered by Ankara to be terrorists. But the Kurds were key to the fight against ISIS in Syria.
Russian and Syrian government forces were setting up across the Kurdish heartland to assist “the removal of YPG elements and their weapons”.
Kurdish forces had already vacated a 120km segment of the border strip – an Arabmajority area between Ras Al Ain and Tel Abyad.
Turkey’s defence ministry said five Turkish soldiers were wounded on Thursday after an attack by Kurdish fighters in the same area.
They were wounded after “drone, mortar and light weapon attacks” from extremists while conducting reconnaissance and surveillance, the ministry said on Twitter.
Syria’s state news agency accused Turkish forces and their allies of attacking government troops on Thursday, killing some of them.
The fighting underscored the risks of violence as several, often opposing, armed forces jostle for new positions in the tight quarters of the north-east border zone.
The SDF withdrawal from that area came after Turkish forces and Ankara’s Syrian proxies launched a crossborder offensive on October 9.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes to use the pocket to resettle at least half of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees his country hosts.
Under the Sochi deal, the area will remain under the full control of Turkey, unlike the rest of the projected buffer zone, which will eventually be jointly patrolled by Turkish and Russian forces.
About 300,000 people have fled their homes since the start of the Turkish offensive and many Kurds among them seem unlikely to return.
The Syrian regime also killed seven civilians in an olive market in Idlib province on Thursday, with rockets striking a village to the north of the town of Jisr Al Shughour, the Observatory said.
The Idlib region, which has about three million residents – half of them displaced from other parts of the country – is controlled by a former Al Qaeda affiliate.
Mr Al Assad’s forces launched a blistering campaign against Idlib in April, killing about 1,000 civilians and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.