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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kurdish-forces-strike-deal-damascus-moscow-repel-turkey-n1065636
Kurdish troops have turned to the Syrian government and Russia for help, as U.S. forces move out of the region.
TURKISH-SYRIAN BORDER — Syrian government troops were headed north toward the Turkish border Monday after the Kurds called on Damascus and Moscow for military assistance to repel the advancing Turkish forces, according to Syrian state media and a human rights monitoring group.
Regime forces are currently less than four miles away from the border with Turkey and are expected to advance farther toward the area surrounding the border town of Ras al Ayn, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain.
On the Turkish side of the border, dozens of armored vehicles, Turkish tanks and military equipment streamed toward the front lines. Across the border in Syria, Turkish F-16 fighter jets could be seen circling over the town of Qamishlo, the administrative center of the Kurdish autonomous authority.
The deployment came as the United States heads toward an almost total withdrawal from Syria and the civilian death toll reached 39, according to the Kurdish Red Crescent.
Syrian regime troops began heading north Sunday to repel Turkish troops in the towns and border territories north of the city of Hasaka and the region of Raqqa, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
"The forces of the Turkish regime committed massacres of civilians and occupied territories and destroyed infrastructure," it added.
On Monday, the Syrian flag was hoisted over state institutions in the town of Qamishli on the Turkish-Syrian border, as government troops reached several towns and villages in northeastern Syria, the news agency reported. NBC News could not immediately confirm these reports.
Most of Qamishli currently falls under the political and military control of the Kurdish autonomous administration, according to the Rojava Information Center, a pro-Syrian Democratic Forces research group based in the town.
Aldar Xelil, a senior Kurdish official, said Monday that the regime would take positions along the border but the political administration of the area would mainly continue to fall under the autonomous administration.
Xelil said negotiations were still ongoing and that Russia wanted to negotiate "directly with the Kurds."
Kurdish troops turned to the Syrian government and Russia for help Sunday, according to a Kurdish military official, in a move that could increase Russian President Vladimir Putin's influence in Syria, deal a substantial blow to the Kurds’ ambitions of independence in the region, and be seen as a win for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The announcement represents a major shift in alliances for Syria's Kurds, who were longtime partners with the U.S. in the fight against the Islamic State militant group. The decision also sets up a potential clash between Turkey and the Syrian government and raises the possibility of a resurgent Islamic State group.
“Nobody supports us. This is why we made an agreement with the Russians and the Syrian government,” said Ismat Sheik Hassan, a Kurdish official who leads the Kobani Military Council.
Mazloum Abdi, the commander in chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, wrote in an article for Foreign Policy on Sunday that “we know that we would have to make painful compromises with Moscow and Bashar al-Assad if we go down the road of working with them."
“But if we have to choose between compromises and the genocide of our people, we will surely choose life for our people,” he said.
President Donald Trump dismissed interventions by other countries as unimportant.
“Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other,” he posted on Twitter Sunday. “Let them!”
Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics, said the decision by the Kurds meant that Putin, and not Trump, was now in control of Syria and beyond.
Kurdish troops have turned to the Syrian government and Russia for help, as U.S. forces move out of the region.
TURKISH-SYRIAN BORDER — Syrian government troops were headed north toward the Turkish border Monday after the Kurds called on Damascus and Moscow for military assistance to repel the advancing Turkish forces, according to Syrian state media and a human rights monitoring group.
Regime forces are currently less than four miles away from the border with Turkey and are expected to advance farther toward the area surrounding the border town of Ras al Ayn, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain.
On the Turkish side of the border, dozens of armored vehicles, Turkish tanks and military equipment streamed toward the front lines. Across the border in Syria, Turkish F-16 fighter jets could be seen circling over the town of Qamishlo, the administrative center of the Kurdish autonomous authority.
The deployment came as the United States heads toward an almost total withdrawal from Syria and the civilian death toll reached 39, according to the Kurdish Red Crescent.
Syrian regime troops began heading north Sunday to repel Turkish troops in the towns and border territories north of the city of Hasaka and the region of Raqqa, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
"The forces of the Turkish regime committed massacres of civilians and occupied territories and destroyed infrastructure," it added.
On Monday, the Syrian flag was hoisted over state institutions in the town of Qamishli on the Turkish-Syrian border, as government troops reached several towns and villages in northeastern Syria, the news agency reported. NBC News could not immediately confirm these reports.
Most of Qamishli currently falls under the political and military control of the Kurdish autonomous administration, according to the Rojava Information Center, a pro-Syrian Democratic Forces research group based in the town.
Aldar Xelil, a senior Kurdish official, said Monday that the regime would take positions along the border but the political administration of the area would mainly continue to fall under the autonomous administration.
Xelil said negotiations were still ongoing and that Russia wanted to negotiate "directly with the Kurds."
Kurdish troops turned to the Syrian government and Russia for help Sunday, according to a Kurdish military official, in a move that could increase Russian President Vladimir Putin's influence in Syria, deal a substantial blow to the Kurds’ ambitions of independence in the region, and be seen as a win for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The announcement represents a major shift in alliances for Syria's Kurds, who were longtime partners with the U.S. in the fight against the Islamic State militant group. The decision also sets up a potential clash between Turkey and the Syrian government and raises the possibility of a resurgent Islamic State group.
“Nobody supports us. This is why we made an agreement with the Russians and the Syrian government,” said Ismat Sheik Hassan, a Kurdish official who leads the Kobani Military Council.
Mazloum Abdi, the commander in chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, wrote in an article for Foreign Policy on Sunday that “we know that we would have to make painful compromises with Moscow and Bashar al-Assad if we go down the road of working with them."
“But if we have to choose between compromises and the genocide of our people, we will surely choose life for our people,” he said.
President Donald Trump dismissed interventions by other countries as unimportant.
“Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other,” he posted on Twitter Sunday. “Let them!”
Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics, said the decision by the Kurds meant that Putin, and not Trump, was now in control of Syria and beyond.
