Posted on 12/29/2018 4:41:20 AM PST by McGruff
Rumors began on Friday morning that the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish group that had been partners with the US in fighting ISIS, was withdrawing from Manbij. Manbij was liberated from ISIS in 2016 by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the YPG is a part. However Turkey, which views the YPG as a terrorist group linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) vowed to stop the SDF’s progress, launching an operation in the fall of 2016 dubbed Euphrates Shield. Since then Turkey has agitated for the US and the SDF to hand over Manbij. In the summer of this year the US and Turkey announced joint military patrols around the city. On December 12 Turkey vowed to launch an operation in northern Syria and clear the border of a “terrorist corridor.” A week later US President Donald Trump announced the US was withdrawing from Syria.
Trump’s decision set up a scramble for influence and control in the areas held by the SDF, around one third of Syria. The SDF reached out to France, Russia, Egypt and the Syrian regime in Damascus to discuss what might come next. It was worried about a Turkish military operation because Turkey had launched a similar operation in the Kurdish area of Afrin in northwest Syria in January 2018 and forced the YPG out. 15,000 Syrian rebels had also signed on to help Turkey’s operation.
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
Feeling betrayed by the United States, its Kurdish allies in Syria asked the Syrian government on Friday to protect them from possible attack by Turkey.
The request surprised some American officials and could help open the way for the forces of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, backed by Russia and Iran, to start retaking the Kurdish-held part of the country near Turkey’s border.
That would be a big step toward Mr. Assad’s goal of reclaiming all of Syria, upended by almost eight years of war.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/world/middleeast/syria-kurds-turkey-manbij.html
Russia said Syrian government forces are in control of a strategic area close to the border with Turkey that had been under the command of a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia before President Donald Trump announced his withdrawal from the country ten days ago.
“The Syrian army has taken control of Manbij,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters Saturday on a conference call
Once again we see it is risky business for foreign groups to throw in their lots with America.
How long should we stay in that snake pit? At some point the ME is going to have to take care of itself and this is that point.
When will the west realize that Turkey has not been any true ally to them since Erdogan was first elected. I think Assad and Russia will make reasonable terms with the Kurds, Erdogan will not. I think Assad will allow the Kurds more local autonomy than Erdogan ever would. If it came down to pitched battles between forces backed by Assad and Turkish forces, I would not defend the Turks.
CNN Breaking News
Verified account @cnnbrk
34 minutes ago
Russian and Turkish officials have reached an “understanding” on military coordination in Syria following a high-level meeting in Moscow, Russian state news outlets say
In the very first paragraph around 1/2 dozen godless Mideast tribes are mentioned. Not a single one worth a single American dollar, nor a single American life. Not a single drop of blood... not even a stubbed toe.
It's time to get our foreign policy back from the globalists, military industrial complex and chicken hawk. They've cost enough blood and money. Time to stop. Now.
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