Kurdish-led administration in north Syria says riot broke out in camp holding women and children
At least 750 people with suspected links to Islamic State have reportedly fled a displacement camp in north-east Syria, local officials have said, raising fears that the Turkish offensive against Kurdish forces in the areacould lead Isis to regain strength amid the chaos.
The 249 women and 700 children of the “caliphate” held in a secure annex at the Ain Issa camp began rioting and scared away the guards after Turkish shelling struck close to the area on Sunday, said Abdulkader Mwahed, the joint president for humanitarian affairs in the Kurdish-held part ofSyria, in a statement.
Jelal Ayaf, the co-chair of the camp’s management, said sleeper cells within the civilian section also emerged during the riot, attacking the guards and causing them to flee.
Who is in control in north-eastern Syria?
The region makes up more than a quarter of the country and is the largest area outside the control of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. It is controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which comprises militia groups representing a range of ethnicities, though its backbone is Kurdish. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,has announcedan invasion of territory with the intention of forcing the SDF out of at least a 20 – mile “safe zone” below its border.
How did the SDF come to control the region?
Before the SDF was formed in 2015, theKurdshad created their own militias who mobilized during the Syrian civil war to defend Kurdish cities and villages and carve out what they hoped would eventually at least become a semi-autonomous province.
In late 2014, theKurds were strugglingto fend off an Islamic State siege of Kobani, a major city under their control. With US support, including arms and airstrikes, the Kurds managed to beat back Isis and went on to win a string of victories against the radical militant group. Along the way the fighters absorbed non-Kurdish groups, changed their name to the SDF and grew to include 60, 000 Soldiers.
Why does Turkey oppose the Kurds?
For years, Turkey has watched the growing ties between the US and SDF with alarm. Significant numbers of the Kurds in the SDF were also members of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) that has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for more than 35 years in which as many as 40, 000 people have died. The PKK initially called for independence and now demands greater autonomy for Kurds inside (Turkey) ***********************************.
Turkey claims the PKK has continued to wage war on the Turkish state, even as it has assisted in the fight against Isis. The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by (Turkey) , the US, the UK, Nato and others and this has proved awkward for the US and its allies, who have chosen to downplay the SDF’s links to the PKK, preferring to focus on their shared objective of defeating Isis.
What are Turkey’s objectives on its southern border?
Turkey aims firstly to push the SDF away from its border, creating a 20 – mile (32 km) buffer zone that would have been jointly patrolled by Turkish and US troops until Trump’srecent announcementthat American soldiers would withdraw from the region.
Erdoğan has also said he would seek to relocate more than 1 million Syrian refugees in this “safe zone”, both removing them from his country (where their presence has started to create a backlash) and complicating the demographic mix in what he fears could become an autonomous Kurdish state on his border.
How would a Turkish incursion impact on Isis and stability of the wider Middle East?
Nearly 11, 000 Isis fighters, including almost 2, 000 foreigners, and tens of thousands of their wives and children, are being held in detention camps and hastily fortified prisons across north-eastern Syria.
The SDF has been pleading for international assistance in dealing with these prisoners, who countries including the US, UK and Australia have been reluctant to take back – in some casescancelling the citizenshipof prisoners.
SDF leaders have warned they cannot guarantee the security of these prisoners if they are forced to redeploy their forces to the frontlines of a war against Turkey. They also fear Isis could use the chaos of war to mount attacks to free their fighters or reclaim territory.
The UK-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rightsput the number to have escaped at 100, publishing pictures of men, women in black niqabs and small children running through yellow scrubland. It was not clear whether the pictures showed Isis families or civilian residents of the camp fleeing the Turkish attack. No Isis men were held at the facility.
Save the Children’s staff members on the ground reported no foreign women were left at the camp and that masked men on motorbikes were circling the perimeter.
Ain Issa’s remaining inhabitants are being evacuated by US forces to another area, a source in the area said, although he did not know where they were being taken. The camp was home to a total of about 13, 000 people,including three suspected British orphans.
Turkey launched an offensive against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) over its southern border on Wednesday, a move widely condemned by the international community for triggering a humanitarian disaster, opening a new front in Syria’s complex war and risking the re-emergence of Isis, which lost control of its final slivers of territory in March.
Operation Peace Spring, as Ankara has designated it, was triggered byDonald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops partnered with the SDFfrom the region. The US special forces have long acted as a buffer stopping the SDF and Turkey from clashing: Ankara considers the Kurdish YPG, which makes up the majority of the multi-ethnic SDF, a terrorist group indistinguishable from the outlawed militant group the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK). Trump has denied the decision to abandon the SDF to a likely attack from Turkey as a betrayal.
The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s stated goal is to create a 20 – mile (32 km) deep safe zone on its border with the SDF, deep enough to keep Turkish border towns out of the range of shelling and rocket fire.
However, Ain Issa and other Kurdish-held towns south of the proposed safe zone have been hit by airstrikes and shelling. On Sunday morning Syrian rebels allied to the Turks were advancing south on the town of Ain Issa, two military sources told the Guardian.
Ain Issa town has emptied of residents and about 210, 000 people have been displaced in Syria so far.
The Kurdish Red Crescent said 14 civilians have died, with another 46 seriously injured as a result of the offensive to date. Nine people, including a Syrian baby, have been killed in counterattack SDF shelling of Turkish border towns.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings