Syria moves troops towards Turkish offensive

Syrian military units have begun moving north to confront a Turkish offensive on Syrian territory, the official SANA news agency reported. At the same time, a senior Kurdish politican said that mostly-Kurdish Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) were holding talks at a Russian air base in Syria.

Ahmed Suleiman, a senior member of the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party in Syria, which is not part of the SDF, said the talks were being held at Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in Latakia.

While the SDF responded “no comment” to Suleiman’s statement, SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said his group would look all “all options that could spare our people ethnic cleansing,” in light of Turkey’s “Operation Peace Spring.”

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a deal has been reached through which Syrian government forces will protect the Kurdish-held towns of Kobani and Manbij.

Turkey takes control of border towns

US troops had been deployed in both towns since they were cleared of “Islamic State” militants in 2015. However, last week US President Donald Trump made the surprised announcement that he was pulling the US military out of Kurdish Syria, leaving a key US ally in the fight against IS vulnerable to the Turkish army.

Turkey, which has been fighting an of fand on insurgency from armed Kurdish groups in its own country,says the offensive into Syria is to protect itself from “terrorists,” a word it uses to describe the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, which makes up most of what is left of the SDF.

SOHR reported that at least nine people, including five civilians, were killed in Turkish airstrikes on Sunday. The strikes hit a convoy carrying anti-Turkish protesters, fleeing residents, and journalists. The convoy was hit as it approached the town of Ras al-Ayn, a Syrian border town that is now under Turkish control.

Turkish forces alo advanced into the center of another border town, Tal Abyad, and had gained “near full control of it” by Sunday evening, SOHR said.

Dozens of Kurdish fighters, several Turkish soldiers, and at least ten civilians have been killed since Turkey began its operation earlier this week. Hundreds of IS supporters have been freed as the Kurds have had to focus on protecting their towns and cities. The UN estimates that more than 100,000 people have had to flee their homes.

es/ (AP, AFP, Reuters)

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