Kurds rejoin fight against Isil in Syria despite US exit plan
Allies targeted by Turkey begin cooperating again as president’s order to leave has little impact
THE West’s Kurdish allies have resumed cooperation with US forces against the Isil in northern Syria as American officials claimed nothing had changed in policy terms despite Donald Trump’s orders to pull out of the country.
Turkey also revealed that it had been holding a wife and daughter of Abu Bakr al-baghdadi, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) leader killed in a US raid two weeks ago, for more than a year but had kept their arrest secret. Baghdadi’s sister was captured by Turkey last week.
The US president said last month that he was pulling all US troops out of Syria except for a small residual force to secure oilfields in the east of the country. But a full-scale withdrawal has not yet happened.
Hundreds of US troops remain inside Syria, including right up against the Turkish border, despite Mr Trump’s determination to “let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand”.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, a senior US official appeared to acknowledge that Mr Trump’s flurry of announcements had little impact on US policy.
When asked if policy had changed since Mr Trump ordered the withdrawal, he replied simply: “No.
“Our goals have not changed and our means are basically the same. So the goals and means are the same. The conditions have changed.”
Asked if the president was aware there was no policy change, he replied: “You can ask the president.”
Underscoring the continuity of US policy, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it was resuming cooperation with American troops to carry out operations against the remnants of Isil for the first time since early October.
“As a result of a series of meetings with coalition leaders, the SDF is resuming its joint programme of work with the coalition to combat Isil and securing the infrastructure of north-east Syria,” said Mazloum Kobane Abdi, the head of the SDF. This is the second time Mr Trump’s ambition of withdrawing from Syria has been thwarted. He announced in December 2018 he was bringing US troops home, declaring “we have won against Isil”.
The decision triggered the resignation of Jim Mattis, his defence secretary, but was ultimately slowed down to the point that it was never implemented.
Last month’s announcement appears to have met a similar fate. US national security officials and senior Republicans reportedly played on Mr Trump’s years-long fascination with Middle East oil to convince him to leave some American forces in Syria to “secure the oil”.
Up to 800 US soldiers are expected to stay inside Syria as part of the plan and, as the senior US official indicated, they appear to be largely continuing the mission as they were before Mr Trump’s withdrawal order.
There were around 1,000 US soldiers in the country before the order was given.
Turkish officials also said yesterday that Baghdadi’s wife and daughter had been captured in southern Turkey in June 2018.
It was not clear why Turkey waited so long to make news of the arrests public or if it had informed Western intelligence agencies of their capture.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s president, said he didn’t want to “make a fuss” about the arrests and criticised the US for mounting a “communications campaign” after Baghdadi’s death.
Mr Trump confirmed that he would host Mr Erdoğan at the White House next Wednesday. There had been doubts about whether the meeting would go ahead amid tensions between the US and Turkey.
Large protests are expected in Washington during Mr Erdoğan’s visit. Both Republican and Democrat senators are still pushing for sanctions on Turkey as punishment for its military offensive in northern Syria, where it wants to push the Kurdish-led SDF from the border.
It will be Mr Erdoğan’s first visit to Washington since May 2017, when members of his security detail attacked Kurdish protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence.
The brawl caused a diplomatic incident and 15 Turkish security officials were indicted.
The charges were later dropped as both the US and Turkey tried to smooth over the incident.