Abandoned by US, Syrian Kurds request help from Assad regime
Kurdish Syrian forces have asked the Syrian government for protection against a Turkish attack in a flashpoint town, triggered by a shock US decision to withdraw forces from the country which left them exposed.
Syrian troops arrived in Manbij on Friday morning and erected the national flag over administrative buildings - the first time it has flown in the northern town for more than six years.
“We invite the Syrian government forces, which are obliged to protect the same country, nation and borders, to assert control over the areas our forces have withdrawn from, in particularly Manbij, and to protect these areas against a Turkish invasion,” read a statement released by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Kurdish fighters still based there are part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance battling Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). The town has been governed for the last two years by the Manbij Military Council, which is allied to the SDF.
It is the first major concession by the Kurds to the Bashar al-Assad regime since the YPG seized control of vast swathes of north and east Syria and created an area of self-rule.
Until last week the YPG had the support of the US, which had helped them stave off a threatened offensive by Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels and hold territory wanted by the Syrian regime.
A number of Syrian troops arrived in the area early Friday morning and deployed between YPG and Turkish-backed forces west of Manbij.
The US-backed coalition had a number of special forces stationed in the city, where they have a base. It is understood they will withdraw in the next few days, ahead of a full-scale takeover.
A Syrian army spokesman said all Syrians must “join efforts to preserve national sovereignty” and “defeat all invaders”, with reference to Turkey.
The city fell to rebel fighters in the summer of 2012 before it was overrun by Isil jihadists in 2014. It was then captured by SDF in an offensive in 2016.
The Kurds have used the cover of the war to carve out an autonomous state in northeastern Syria. However, their project seems increasingly under threat as Bashar al-Assad’s regime looks to reclaim the whole of Syria.
Kurdish officials have told The Telegraph they would rather try their luck in negotiations with the regime than risk an all-out assault from neighbouring Turkey, which considers the YPG a terrorist group and has watched Kurdish expansion with growing concern.
“The YPG accepts drinking the poison to stop a massacre. Do you prefer your people to be massacred by a brutal dictator like (Turkish president Recep Tayyip) Erdogan or be protected by a brutal dictator like Assad?” tweeted Kamal Chomani, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.
Russia, which has long called for the withdrawal of US troops “illegally” in Syria, welcomed the news on Friday, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov describing the development as a "positive step" that could help "stabilise the situation."
Speaking in frank terms on Donald Trump’s decision, Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary, today said the US president “makes a speciality of talking in very black and white terms about what's happening in the world.”
"We have made massive progress in the war against Daesh (Arabic acronym for IS), but it's not over and, although they have lost nearly all the territory they held, they still hold some territory and there is still some real risk," Mr Hunt told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
During a visit to Iraq this week, Mr Trump declared an end to the US role of being the world's "policeman".
Arab leaders have in recent days taken steps to rehabilitate the brutal Assad regime, with the UAE and Bahrain announcing they are to reopen embassies that had been shut since the beginning of the civil war.
