In all-out Turkish-Kurdish
war has boiled over in northern Syria since the Turkish army crossed the border
last Wednesday, Aug. 24 for the avowed aim of fighting the Islamic State and
pushing the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia back. Instead of falling back, the Kurds
went on the offensive and are taking a hammering. This raging confrontation has
stalled the US-led coalition offensive against ISIS and put on indefinite hold
any US plans for campaigns to drive the jihadists out of their Syrian and Iraqi
capitals of Raqqa and Mosul.
The Kurdish militia ground troops, who were backed by the US and assigned the
star role in these campaigns, are now fully engaged in fighting Turkey. And, in another radical turnaround,
Iraqi Kurdish leaders (of the Kurdish Regional Republic) have responded by
welcoming Iran to their capital, in retaliation for the US decision to join
forces with Turkey at the expense of Kurdish aspirations.
The KRG’s Peshmerga are moreover pitching in to fight with their Syrian
brothers. Together, they plan to expel American presence and influence from
both northern Syria and northern Iraq in response to what they perceive as a US sellout of the Kurds.
What is the escalating
complication of the Syrian war and its wider impact:
·
Since cleansing Jarablus
of ISIS, Turkey has thrown large, additional armored and air force into the
battle against the 35,000-strong YPG Kurdish fighters. This is no longer just a
sizeable military raid, as Ankara has claimed, but a full-fledged war
operation. Turkish forces are continuing to advancing in three directions and
by Sunday, Aug. 28 had struck 15-17km deep inside northern Syria across a 100km
wide strip.
Their targets are clearly
defined: the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northwest Syria and the Kurdish
enclave of Qamishli and Hassaka in the east, in order to block the merger of
Kurdish enclaves into a contiguous Syrian Kurdish state.
Another goal was Al-Bab north of and within range of Aleppo for a role in a
major theater of the Syrian conflict. To reach Al-Bab, the Turkish force would
have to fight its way through Kurdish-controlled territory.
·
The Turks are also using a
proxy to fight the Syrian Kurds. Thousands of Syrian Democratic Army (SDF) rebels, whom they trained and
supplied to fight Syria’s Bashar Assad army and the Islamic State, have been
diverted to targeting the Kurds under the command of Turkish officers, to which
Turkish elite forces are attached.
·
A Turkish Engineering
Corps combat unit is equipped for crossing the Euphrates River and heading east
to push the Kurds further back. Contrary to reports, the Turkish have not yet
crossed the river itself or pushed the Kurds back. They only forded a small
stream just east of Jarablus. The main Kurdish force is deployed to the south
not the east of the former ISIS stronghold.
·
Neither have
Turkish-backed Syrian forces captured Manbij, the town 35km south of Jarablus
which the Kurds with US support captured from ISIS earlier this month. Contrary
to claims by Ankara’s spokesmen, those forces are still only 10-15km on the
road to Mabij.
·
Sunday, heavy fighting
raged around a cluster of Kurdish villages, Beir Khoussa and Amarneh, where the
Turks were forced repeatedly to retreat under Kurdish counter attacks. Some of the villages were razed
to the ground by the Turkish air force and tanks. At least 35
villagers were reported killed.
·
In four days of fierce
battles, the Kurds suffered 150 dead and the Turkish side, 60.
·
Preparations began Sunday
to evacuate US Special Operations Forces and helicopter units from the Rmeilan
air base near the Syrian-Kurdish town of Hassaka. If the fighting around the
base intensifies, they will be relocated in northern Iraq.
·
Fighters of the
Iraqi-Kurdish Peshmerga were seen removing their uniforms and donning Syrian
YPG gear before crossing the border Sunday and heading west to join their
Syrian brothers in the battle against Turkey.
·
The KRG President Masoud Barazani expects to travel to
Tehran in the next few days with an SOS for Iranian help against the US and the
Turks. On the table for a deal is permission from Irbil for the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards to win their first military bases in the Iraqi Kurdish
republic, as well as transit for Iranian military forces to reach Syria through
Kurdish territory. For an update on the Turkish invasion into northern Syria go to the 1 minute 39 second spot on the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T_AleXH9n4
The video below covers the Turkish use of chemical weapons against the Kurds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il1acCd70z0
