ISTANBUL – Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took up positions Monday in several key towns across northeastern Syria, state media and a war monitoring group reported, following a last-minute agreement with local Kurdish fighters to ward off a Turkish assault.
Syrian troops deployed to Ain Issa and Tabqa – on the outskirts of Raqqa – and raised the Syrian flag over government buildings in cities such as Qamishli and Hasakeh, according to pro-government media. One report, in al-Watan newspaper, said government forces had reached the towns of Kobane, a garrison for Syrian Kurdish militants, and Manbij, where U.S. troops had been stationed.
In Ain Issa, the headquarters of the Kurdish-led administration, government troops arrived atop pickup trucks waving Syrian flags, according to images published by state news agency, SANA.
The return of Assad’s forces to northeastern Syria, while welcomed by some residents amid the Turkish offensive, marks a stunning reversal for Syrian Kurdish authorities, whose fighters controlled a wide swath of territory and enjoyed US military and financial support in their battle against the Islamic State.
On Monday, Trump suggested, without evidence, that Kurdish forces may have purposely released some Islamic State prisoners amid the fighting to prevent U.S. troops from withdrawing from the region. On Sunday, hundreds of Islamic State family members escaped a detention camp in Ain Issa after Turkish shellfire hit the area.
“Europe had a chance to get their ISIS prisoners, but didn’t want the cost, ”Trump said on Twitter, referring to citizens of European nations who had joined the Islamic State but are now in captivity in Syria.
“ Kurds may be releasing some to get us involved , ”He said. “Do people really think we should go to war with NATO Member Turkey?
Turkish officials view the Kurdish fighters – known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF – as terrorists for their links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long war for autonomy inside Turkey. Its military launched the operation with allied Syrian rebels last week to oust the SDF from the Syrian-Turkish border, where it planned to install a buffer zone. The operation has helped unravel the U.S. mission in northern Syria, prompting Trump to order the withdrawal of all U.S. troops in the coming weeks.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted Monday at a broadening of the Turkish offensive, saying Turkey was “in the process of implementing our decision on the subject of Manbij,” a Syrian town about 25 miles west of the Euphrates River. Turkey had long demanded that the United States expel Kurdish fighters from the town and complained that a deal struck with Washington to remove the fighters was not being implemented.
It was not clear whether Erdogan was suggesting that an offensive on the town was imminent, amid reports that Syrian government troops were also headed to Manbij. “When Manbij is evacuated, the real owners will enter there,” he said, referring to Syrian Arabs.
The announcement by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that they had reached an agreement with Assad’s Iranian- and Russian-backed government further undermined the prospect of any continued US presence in the country. The deal will bring forces loyal to Assad back into towns and cities that have been under Kurdish control for seven years.
“An agreement has been reached with the Syrian government – whose duty it is to protect the country borders and preserve Syrian sovereignty – for the Syrian army to enter and deploy along the Syrian-Turkish border to help the SDF stop this aggression ”by Turkey, the SDF said in a statement.
US officials declined to confirm local media reports that troops had pulled out of the towns of Manbij and Kobane, where local officials confirmed they had agreed to allow Syrian troops to deploy.
Witnesses said celebratory gunfire erupted in parts of the town of Qamishli as Syrian troop reinforcements flew into the local airport, according to a Kurdish security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of safety concerns. He said local Kurdish forces had been ordered not to confront Syrian troops, who arrived to bolster a small contingent of government forces that had remained in the city after Kurdish forces took it over in 2012.
The deal followed three days of negotiations brokered by Russia between the Syrian government and the SDF, which had reached the conclusion that it could no longer count on the United States, its chief ally for the past five years in the fight against the Islamic State, according to a Kurdish intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.
Events on Sunday highlighted the rapid deterioration of both the SDF’s and the United States’ ability to contain swifter-than-expected Turkish advances deep into Syrian territory.
As Turkish-backed Syrian rebels approached the town of Ain Issa, 20 miles from the Turkish border, hundreds of Islamic State family members escaped from a camp housing displaced people, taking advantage of the mayhem that ensued as Turkish artillery pounded the area.
The Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria said 785 people affiliated with the Islamic State escaped from a camp that had housed 12, 000 displaced people, mostly women and children.
About 1, 000 of those, almost all foreigners, had been identified as Islamic State supporters and had been housed in a separate section of the camp known as the Annex. That section is now “completely empty,” according to an aid worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak to the news media.
The claim that the Islamic State-linked families had escaped could not be independently confirmed.
Dadouch reported from Beirut.
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