Kurds forced into Assad deal
SDF forces agree to deal in hopes of ending Turkish assault, hours after Trump pulls out troops
THE West’s Kurdish allies in Syria were forced to strike a deal with the Bashar al-assad government yesterday to help protect them from a Turkish onslaught.
Syrian troops were last night heading north to the cities of Kobani and Manbij in what marked a major shift in alliance in the conflict after the Kurds were abruptly abandoned by US allies.
The Kurds had used the cover of the Syrian war to form an autonomous state in north-eastern Syrian but the latest agreement looked likely to strike a death knell to their six-year experiment in democratic self-rule.
A coalition official said a deal for the “whole lot” was currently being discussed by senior Syrian Democratic Forces officials and the government, mediated by the regime’s ally, Russia.
It came after days of Turkish airstrikes and a ground offensive that forced more than 100,000 people from their homes and left 60 Syrians dead.
THE West’s Kurdish allies last night announced they had agreed to a Russianbrokered deal to let the Assad regime into their territory to spare their cities from a Turkish assault after they were abandoned by Donald Trump.
Hours after the US said it was withdrawing all of its troops from northern Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it had agreed to allow Bashar al-assad’s troops into their territory.
“If we have to choose between compromises and the genocide of our people, we will surely choose life for our people,” said Mazloum Kobani Abi, the commander of the SDF.
It was not immediately clear if the agreement would bring a halt to the Turkish offensive or if the Turkish military and its Syrian rebel allies would continue to advance. But the deal appeared to strike a death knell for Kurdish hopes of maintaining autonomy from Damascus in their own semi-state in northeast Syria.
News of the US retreat sparked panic across northern Syria as civilians, who believed their towns might be spared from Turkish onslaught by the presence of American forces, started fleeing their homes. At least 200,000 people have been displaced so far, aid groups said. “The betrayal process is officially completed,” an SDF official said of the US withdrawal.
The decision came as civilian casualties mounted on the bloodiest day of the offensive so far, and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) prisoners took advantage of the chaos to mount a mass escape. Kurdish authorities said yester- day that around 785 women and children escaped from a camp in Ain Issa when it came under attack from Turkish shelling.
The SDF warned the West that the resurgent jihadists “will come knocking on your doors” if the Turkish offensive is not stopped.
The SDF said Turkish-backed rebel fighters intercepted a car carrying Hevrin Khalaf, a Kurdish political leader with the Future Syria Party, and shot her to death along with her driver and an aide on Saturday.
Video footage showed her black SUV riddled with bullet holes while Arabicspeaking Syrian fighters cheered. Turkey has said such fighters, known as the National Army, would be at the forefront of anti-isil operations once the Kurds were defeated.
Mark Esper, the US defence secretary, said he and Mr Trump had decided to withdraw all 1,000 US troops from northern Syria because the Turks “likely intend to expand their attack further south than originally planned”.
“We have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancing armies and it’s a very untenable situation,” he said.
While US officials insisted America was opposed to the Turkish invasion, Mr Trump struck a laissez-faire note in a series of tweets yesterday. “The Kurds and Turkey have been fighting for many years,” he said. “Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other. Let them!”
The US has yet to slap any sanctions on Turkey for the assault, despite White House warnings that it would target the Turkish economy if the offensive led to a humanitarian crisis or disrupted anti-isil operations. Both outcomes have already happened.
Operations against Isil appeared to have come to a complete halt last night as US forces prepared to evacuate and directed all available Kurdish forces were to the fight against Turkey.
Turkey would likely welcome a deal that reasserts Damascus’ authority over northeast Syria, as that would fatally undermine Kurdish aspirations for an independent political region of their own. But analysts said the group, which includes some jihadist sympathisers, was unlikely to be an effective counter-terrorism force. “They do what they are told to by Turkey but they do it very poorly,” said Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
At least 60 civilians have been killed in northern Syria and 18 civilians have died from Kurdish shelling in southern Turkey since last Wednesday, according to the Syrian Observatory.
France and Germany both announced they were halting arms sales to Turkey. France is expected to propose an Eu-wide arms embargo against Turkey today, a Western diplomat said.