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In an unique interview with Fox Information, Gen. Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the primary U.S. ally whose fighters are at present guarding 45,000 ISIS militants and their households at camps and prisons in Japanese Syria, mentioned the Turkish navy and its allied forces proceed to assault his Kurdish forces, regardless of a U.S. brokered ceasefire deal Wednesday.
“We’re nonetheless below fixed assault from the Turkish navy and the Turkish-supported opposition which is named SNA,” Gen. Mazloum advised Fox. “Eighty drone assaults a day we now have from the Turkish navy. There’s intensive artillery shells. This case has paralyzed our counterterror operation.”
The assaults by the Turkish navy on the SDF have elevated since Bashar Al Assad’s fall on December 8. Gen. Mazloum warned that if his Kurdish fighters need to flee, ISIS would return.
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Gen. Mazloum mentioned half of his fighters guarding the ISIS camps needed to withdraw in current days.
“The entire prisons nonetheless are below our management. Nevertheless, the prisons and camps are in a crucial scenario as a result of who’s guarding them? They’re leaving and having to guard their households,” mentioned Gen. Mazloum in an interview from his base in Japanese Syria. “I can provide you one instance just like the Raqqa ISIS jail, which accommodates about 1,000 ISIS ex-fighters. The variety of guards there have diminished by half which is placing them in a fragile place.”
A chilling warning from one in all America’s staunchest allies. The U.S. has 900 troops in Japanese Syria, and they might doubtless need to withdraw if the allied Kurdish fighters retreat below assault from Turkey’s navy, which views the Kurds as a terrorist risk.
“We do not wish to see that occur. So we’re in very shut contact with our SDF companions to attempt to keep that concentrate on counter-ISIS missions. And we’re simply as importantly in contact with our Turkish counterparts,” mentioned Nationwide Safety Communications Adviser John Kirby throughout a White Home press briefing Thursday.
A masked Islamic State terrorist poses holding the ISIS flag. (Photos from Historical past/Common Photographs Group through Getty Photographs)
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is in Turkey at present assembly with President Recep Erdogan to debate learn how to convey stability to Syria.
Secretary Blinken “reiterated the significance of all actors in Syria respecting human rights, upholding worldwide humanitarian regulation, and taking all possible steps to guard civilians, together with members of minority teams,” State Division Spokesperson Matthew Miller mentioned in an announcement following the assembly with President Erdogan. “He emphasised the necessity to make sure the coalition can proceed to execute its crucial mission to defeat ISIS.”
CENTCOM Commander Common Erik Kurilla met with Gen. Mazloum and the SDF in Syria on Tuesday, two days after the U.S. navy carried out intensive airstrikes concentrating on dozens of ISIS positions in Japanese Syria. The operation struck over 75 targets – camps and operatives – utilizing U.S. Air Pressure B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s, in keeping with an announcement launched by U.S. Central Command.
“There ought to be little question – we won’t permit ISIS to reconstitute and reap the benefits of the present scenario in Syria,” mentioned Kurilla. “All organizations in Syria ought to know that we’ll maintain them accountable in the event that they companion with or assist ISIS in any approach.”
On Wednesday, the SDF introduced a truce with Syria’s Turkey-backed rebels in northern Manbij following U.S. mediation “to make sure the security and safety of civilians,” Gen. Mazloum mentioned early on Wednesday.
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“The fighters of the Manbij Navy Council, who’ve been resisting the assaults since November 27, will withdraw from the world as quickly as doable,” Gen. Mazloum added.
And new indications recommend a ceasefire late Thursday has tentatively been agreed to in Aleppo and Deir Ezzor south of Raqqa alongside the Euphrates River.
Syrians collect at Umayyad Sq. to have a good time the collapse of 61 years of Baath Social gathering rule in Damascus, Syria on December 9, 2024. (Murat Sengul/Anadolu through Getty Photographs)
Gen. Mazloum worries about what would occur if the U.S. pulled its forces out of Syria proper now.
“We noticed that the Russians – they don’t have any additional leverage within the nation – identical for the Iranians. So if now U.S. troops withdraw from Syria that may convey a vacuum.”
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He added the next warning: “We count on these Islamists, completely different factions to unite, to battle with ISIS and that may convey again more durable extremists, terrorist organizations again to the nation.”
The SDF Commander fears one other bloody civil battle may begin if the brand new Syrian authorities in Damascus doesn’t embrace completely different minority teams, just like the Syrian Kurds.
Displaced Kurds go away the refugee camp within the north of Aleppo, fleeing to Afrin, on December 4, 2024. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Photographs/Abaca/Sipa USA(Sipa through AP Photographs)
“So any new authorities in Syria must be consultant, must be inclusive and include and embrace all completely different events of Syria. So if not that takes us to a bloody civil battle within the nation and that may put us in large stage of escalatory path that nobody can predict the destiny of that,” Gen. Mazloum advised Fox.
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Going through the Turkish fighter jets, the SDF mistakenly shot down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone in Syria on Monday, the results of “pleasant hearth,” a U.S. protection official advised Fox Information. “The U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters who’re below assault from the Turkish navy misidentified the drone as a risk,” the official mentioned.
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