The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia allied with America, confirmed on Monday a short-lived truce with Islamist Turkish proxies in the country had collapsed due to Turkey’s intransigence.
The ongoing battles between the SDF and the Syrian National Army (SNA) – an Islamist coalition that evolved out of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) into an informal Turkish proxy actor – are some of the last fighting remaining in the over decade-old Syrian Civil War. The SDF has been an indispensable ally for the United States in eliminating the threat of the Islamic State and dismantling its “caliphate” in Raqqa, but has faced years of attacks from SNA-type militias and the Turkish armed forces itself, as Islamist strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan considers the Kurds a terrorist threat.
The main fighting in the Syrian Civil War between the Bashar Assad regime in Damascus and various Syrian opposition groups ended in early December when Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihadist terrorist organization that broke off of al-Qaeda, stormed multiple major cities and ultimately took Damascus in a relatively bloodless struggle. Assad is believed to have fled the country on December 7, leaving it in the hands of the terrorists, though a letter claiming to be from Assad published on Monday bizarrely claimed that he never resigned from the presidency or decided to flee.
After HTS took over Aleppo, the nation’s second-largest city, in late November, the SNA launched what it called “Operation Dawn of Freedom,” a campaign to displace the Kurdish communities that live along the border with Turkey. The SDF is largely composed of the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG/YPJ), which Turkey claims is allied with, and often indistinguishable from, the Marxist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, but the U.S. often works with the YPG to address Islamic State threats. The SDF generally is also in charge of several prisons filled with Islamic State terrorists whose home countries refuse to take them back.
Neither HTS nor the former Assad regime were meaningfully involved in the conflict between the SDF and SNA. The Turkish government vowed in 2016 to “end the rule of the tyrant Assad” but focused largely instead of eliminating Kurds along the Turkish border. HTS, meanwhile, has made no meaningful moves in the area since taking over the country and the SDF claims to have cordial communication with the militia.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Ankara last week in an attempt to stop America’s NATO ally from endorsing such an attack on a key American collaborating force. The SDF announced on December 11 that Washington had brokered a ceasefire between it and the SNA in the northern city of Manbij, which the SDF controlled since liberating it from the Islamic State in 2017.
“Our goal is to reach a ceasefire across Syria and start a political process for the future of the country,” SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said at the time.
By Monday, the SDF proclaimed the ceasefire over and blamed the Turkish government directly for the development.
“The US-led mediation efforts to declare a permanent truce in the Manbij and Kobani regions were unsuccessful due to Turkey’s approach in dealing with the mediation efforts and its evasion to accept key points,” SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami said in a social media statement, according to the Kurdish outlet Rudaw. Shami claimed that Turkey was preventing civilians from evacuating Manbij to avoid jihadist rule. The Turkish government is now active in Manbij, Turkish state news agency Anadolu confirmed.
Speaking to Reuters on Monday, an unidentified “Syrian opposition source” said that Turkey never fully supported the ceasefire because it “prefers to keep maximum pressure on SDF.”
In Ankara on Friday, after the ceasefire announcement, Blinken thanked Turkey for its “insight” on Syria and cooperation on helping stabilize the country, but did not mention America’s Kurdish allies by name. Turkish Foreign Ministry Hakan Fidan, however, ensure to mention that Turkey was interested in discussing containing Kurdish forces.
“Of course, ensuring stability in Syria as soon as possible, taking action to prevent terrorism from establishing a foothold are among our priorities,” Fidan said alongside Blinken. “We discussed what would be done on these issues, what would be done for terrorists – DAESH [ISIS] and PKK – taking action to prevent them from abusing the situation.”
The outgoing administration of President Joe Biden has engaged in some alleged anti-Islamic State activity in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime, mostly airstrikes on alleged ISIS targets. On Monday, Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed airstrikes on unspecified locations in Syria “targeting ISIS camps and operatives.” The strikes allegedly killed 12 terrorists.
“When questioned as to whether there is any concern within the Pentagon that the Dec. 8 downfall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria could ostensibly lead to ISIS making attempts to free its detained fighters from prison camps in the region,” the Pentagon said in a statement, “Ryder said that DOD is working with the Syrian Democratic Forces to ensure the situation doesn’t deteriorate.”
“[The prison camp situation] presents a significant security concern in the sense that, were ISIS able to affect some type of breakout of any detention facility, that would be a significant setback and something that would be very concerning,” Ryder was quoted as saying.
Abdi, the SDF commander, told Sky News on December 11 that all SDF efforts to combat ISIS were “halted” due to the need to protect themselves from Turkish proxies and that the prisons holding ISIS terrorists were under serious threat.
“Generally, the effectiveness of our forces and those of the coalition against ISIS diminishes when we are focused on protecting civilians and our communities, as efforts are redirected toward the ongoing conflict” he explained. “This is why I say that if the fighting continues and intensifies, it will play into ISIS’s hands.”
“Frankly, there is currently a significant threat to the security of these detention centres,” Abdi added.
“I stress that if these [SNA] attacks persist, joint operations will remain suspended,” he insisted.
In the absence of meaningful support from the Biden administration, the SDF has turned to HTS, the al-Qaeda offshoot. Kurdish leaders reportedly began flying the flag of the anti-Assad resistance in Rojava, or Syrian Kurdistan, last week, and Abdi confirmed the SDF is preparing a delegation to Damascus as soon as possible to speak with HTS leaders.
“At the outset of the incident, HTS informed us that our territories are not their target,” Abdi said on Thursday, speaking to the Kurdish outlet Ronahi TV, according to Rudaw. “We have agreements with HTS regarding Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor.”
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