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US
troops ‘leave’ Kobani as
Turkish incursion advances
and Kurds
make deal with
Damascus
RT,
13 October, 2019
American troops have reportedly withdrawn from their observation post in the town of Kobani in northern Syria as Turkish army advances deeper south and Damascus says it sent the Army to the area.
The
pullout began after 3 pm local time, Turkey’s Anadolu new agency
reported citing security sources. There have been no confirmation
from Pentagon. The American observation post in Kobani, the strategic
town also known as Ayn Al-Arab, came under Turkish artillery fire on
Saturday. No one was hurt and it’s unclear if the attack was
deliberate.
A
small number of US troops have also reportedly left their station in
the town of Ain Issa, a Kurdish administration center located an
hour’s drive south from Kobani. This happened as Turkish-backed
militias were advancing on the city. The troops were relocated to
other bases in Syria, according to Washington Post. Earlier reports
claimed that US troops in Ain Issa were left isolated after
Turkish-backed forces took control of the M4 highway, a key supply
route in northern Syria that runs through the city.
US
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said on Sunday that the US is
planning to evacuate about 1,000 troops from northern Syria. “We
have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancing
armies, and it’s a very untenable situation,” he
told CBS.
“There
is no way they could stop 15,000 Turks from proceeding south.”
The
Turkish Defense Ministry said Sunday that its troops have pushed
30-35km into the Kurdish-held territory, several kilometers beyond
its proposed 30-km ‘safe zone.’
Meanwhile
the Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria said it has reached
an agreement with Damascus for the Syrian government troops to be
deployed along the border with Turkey. The Syrian Army entered the
city of Manbij in the northern province of Aleppo late on Sunday,
Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen reported. They are said to be
planning to reach Kobani, some 60 kilometers away, within 48 hours.
RT’s sources in the region have confirmed the report
With
the Syrian Army on the move, the pressure is mounting on Turkey,
believes Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East
Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
“The
Syrian government is going to try to go across and get the oilfields,
the gas fields that are so crucial for Syria’s economic
well-being,” he said, adding that they also want to take control
over prime agricultural land and the Tabqa Dam that the Americans and
the Kurds have held. Landis fears that without enough diplomatic
efforts, an all-out war could break out between Turkey and Syria.
The
Turkish military has entered northern Syria as part of the so-called
“Operation Peace Spring,” with Ankara saying it would establish a
buffer zone for the return of Syrian refugees. However, it is also
aimed against the Kurdish militia that Turkey considers terrorist,
and had led to an exodus of Kurdish civilians from the area.
Ankara’s
move has been condemned internationally, and several Western
countries have halted their military supplies to Turkey in
retaliation. US President Donald Trump, who has come under heavy
criticism for pulling out American troops and thus “betraying
Kurdish allies,” on Sunday threatened to impose “powerful
sanctions on Turkey.” Those could personally target Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. However, Trump is unlikely to change
his mind about the pullout, which he says was needed to end the
“endless war.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan halt his military incursion into northern Syria. But why would the Turkish leader listen? After all, he has 3.6 million reasons not to.
Merkel demanded that Erdogan bring his military operation against Kurdish militias in northern Syria to an “immediate end” in a phone call on Sunday, a German government spokeswoman said.
Merkel’s admonishment comes as EU leaders prepare to meet in Luxembourg this week to plot a joint response to Erdogan’s ‘Operation Peace Spring’, launched on Wednesday following a withdrawal of US forces in the region. Turkish warplanes have been pounding Kurdish positions across the Syrian border, while ground forces backed by Syrian rebel groups have moved in to strike the Kurdish fighters, whom Turkey considers terrorists.
https://www.rt.com/news/470862-merkel-erdogan-syria-refugees/
President
Erdogan has shed light on some plans for his country’s offensive in
northern Syria, setting territorial limits to his troops’ advances.
He warned that nothing – including Western pressure – can stop
Turkey’s operation.
Turkish
forces will advance 30 to 35km into Syrian territory as part of
Operation ‘Peace Spring’, Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed in a
televised speech on Sunday. The army and allied Syrian rebels have
also taken under its control a 68-kilometer stretch of Syria’s
border, pushing back against the Kurdish resistance, he added.
He
spoke shortly after Ankara proclaimed seizure of an important border
town, Ras al-Ain, along with another settlement, Tal Abyad. Both
towns had been held by Syrian Kurdish militias.
“We
focused first on the 120-km (75-mile) area between Ras al Ain and Tel
Abyad. Thus, we will divide the 480 km terrorist corridor down the
middle,” Erdogan
was quoted by Reuters as saying.
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