Turkey’s Foray into Syria: a Gamble in a Very Dangerous Game

The assault hit a YPG unit near the north of Manbij, another Syrian town controlled by the US -allied YPG, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The US, Turkey and other allies support them through a covert operations centre in Turkey, and they identify themselves as part of the Free Syrian Army.

Syrian rebel groups Firqat al-Hamzah, Faylaq al-Sham, Harakat Nur-al-Din al-Zinki, and Sultan Murat Tümeni all confirmed they were working with the Turkish military.

The head of the United Nations humanitarian aid efforts for Syria says the United Nations has received word from Russian Federation that it supports a 48-hour pause in fighting in Aleppo so aid can be delivered.

“We are ready to supply greater numbers, depending on the nature of the battle”, he said.

Roughly 1,500 soldiers from Syrian rebel groups backed Turkey’s assault, according to an activist embedded with the rebels.

“We need construction machinery to open up roads. and we may need more in the days ahead”. But Syrian Kurds, who control much of the border with Turkey, are considered terrorists by Turkey, yet are also one of the U.S.’s most potent surrogates in the fight against ISIS.

It is the first Turkish ground intervention in the course of the Syria war, now in its sixth year, and it underscores how seriously Turkey is taking Kurdish autonomy next door.

Turkey was angered by German lawmakers voting in June to label the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago genocide.

The offensive, codenamed Euphrates Shield, started as an effort to push the so-called Islamic State out of the Syrian city of Jarablus but officials have been vocal about the twin aim to oust Kurdish militias the government views as terrorists.

His claims echo frequent complaints made over the past year by USA officials that Turkey had seemed unable to follow through with promises to intervene more robustly in Syria. The U.S. has backed its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, sending a stern warning to the Syrian Kurds with whom it has partnered in the fight against IS to stay east of the Euphrates River.

The PYD’s armed wing also dominates the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an anti-Islamic State alliance that is backed by the US-led coalition.

The Syrian Arab Coalition (which includes Jaysh al-Thuwwar, the Burkan al-Firat Operations Center, Al-Sanadid Forces, and Brigade Groups of Al-Jazeera), along with the Assyrian Military Council, also joined the SDF.

The foreign ministry provided no further details on Thursday’s visit or topics that Walid al-Moallem would discuss in meetings with Iraqi officials.

Turkey launched what appeared to be a long-planned military operation on 24 August, when M60 tanks and ACV-15 armoured personnel carriers were seen advancing into Syria, while 155 mm Firtina self-propelled howitzers were deployed close to the border to provide fire support.

Hundreds of Syrian rebel fighters, backed by Turkish tanks, war planes and special forces, have captured the town of Jarabulus, a small town on the west bank of the Eurphrates, in a mere 14 hours to end more than three years of ISIL control.

Turkey will remain in Jarablus until the FSA takes full control there. That is something Turkish officials have vowed to prevent, for fear that a new Kurdish entity bordering Turkey in Syria would fuel the independence aspirations of Turkey’s already restive Kurds.

The council’s spokesman, Sherfan Darwish, earlier said the Syrian Kurdish YPG contingent that helped liberate Manbij earlier this month numbered about 500 fighters.

“Turkey and the U.S. have very serious differences about what is happening in Syria”, Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based scholar with the Silk Road Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University told Deutsche Welle.

He says that “for now, the withdrawal hasn’t fully taken place”.