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The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces would coordinate with Syrian authorities troops to fend off any Turkish invasion of the north, the SDF commander instructed Reuters on Sunday, saying Damascus ought to use its air protection programs towards Turkish planes.
Ankara has vowed a brand new offensive on swathes of northern Syria managed by the SDF, a Kurdish-led alliance that’s spearheaded by the Kurdish Folks’s Safety Items (YPG).
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The brand new threats have highlighted the complicated internet of ties in northern Syria: whereas Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group, Syrian Kurdish forces are backed by Washington and have additionally coordinated with Syria’s authorities and its ally Russia.
SDF head Mazloum Abdi mentioned on Sunday that his forces had been “open” to working with Syrian troops to struggle off Turkey however mentioned there was no have to ship further forces.
“The important factor that the Syrian military might do to defend Syrian territory can be use air protection programs towards Turkish planes,” he mentioned in an interview by phone from an undisclosed location in northern Syria.
Syria sees Turkey as an occupying power in its north and the overseas ministry in Damascus mentioned final month it could contemplate any new Turkish incursions as “struggle crimes and crimes towards humanity.”
Turkey has backed insurgent teams in clashes towards Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and the SDF. It has used warplanes and more and more drones to focus on territory held by the SDF, the place Syrian Kurdish authorities have arrange a governance system separate from Damascus.
Abdi mentioned extra navy coordination with Damascus wouldn’t threaten that semi-autonomous rule.
“Our precedence is defending Syrian territory, and nobody ought to take into consideration benefiting from that state of affairs to make positive aspects on the bottom,” he mentioned.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to seize the SDF-held cities of Tal Rifaat and Manbij in Syria’s northern Aleppo province, most of which is in any other case held by Syrian authorities troops.
Turkish-backed incursions in earlier years have ousted the SDF from the northwestern enclave of Afrin and a sequence of border cities additional east.
Abdi mentioned a brand new offensive would displace round a million individuals and result in “wider” zones of preventing, however wouldn’t say whether or not the SDF would reply with assaults in Turkish territory itself.
He warned it might additionally result in a resurgence of ISIS, which the SDF ousted from swathes of territory in northern and jap Syria with US air assist.
SDF fighters guard camps and prisons the place ISIS fighters andISIS-affiliated households are detained and re-deploying these guards to struggle Turkey might depart safety gaps.
“We can not struggle on two fronts,” Abdi mentioned.
He mentioned he hoped an upcoming assembly between the overseas ministers of Russia and Turkey might result in de-escalation however mentioned any negotiated settlement should embrace a halt to Turkish drone assaults in northern Syria.
“This may be certainly one of our important calls for,” he mentioned.
Learn extra: Explainer: What’s behind Turkey’s Syria incursion threats?
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