Washington's crises in eastern Syria as Turkey pounded Kurds – Middle East

The United States is facing crises in eastern Syria after a series of setbacks.

On Friday, a tribal leader from Raqqa was shot dead. Turkey also continued its shelling and sniper fire across the border in northern Syria, targeting positions of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and wounding two journalists, according to reports. local information. On the Euphrates River, the Islamic State has regained ground and American partners who are fighting ISIL are asking the United States to stop bombing by the Turks.

A year after ISIS was driven out of its Syrian capital, Raqqa, everything indicates that everything is not right.

"On November 3, Brett McGurk, anti-ISIS envoy, said on the death of Sheikh Bashir Faisal Al-Huwaidi in Raqqa," said the US anti-ISIS envoy. According to the writer of Kurdistan 24, Wladimir Van Wilgenburg, allegedly claimed this attack. The tribal sheikh, one of the most important of the Raqqa region, was injured by a muffler, which shows that it was a planned success.

The attack was celebrated by pro-Assad accounts on social media. It's odd if we consider that the Assad regime ostensibly combats the Islamic State, but the reality is that the tribal leader was an enemy of the regime and the government. Islamic State. He had been a friend of Syrian rebels before the takeover of the Islamic State in 2013. At his burial, a video showed members of tribes who were shouting against the YPG, who are part of the Syrian Democratic Forces and are partners of the Coalition against the Islamic State led by the United States. The competition for who will run Raqqa is just beginning. Last week, the Russian Ministry of Defense urged the United States to transform Raqqa into a hotbed of "anarchy, famine and devastation" that could fuel terrorism. Two days later, terror fell on Raqqa and the sheikh was murdered.

On Saturday, US envoy William Roebuck, McGurk's adviser on Syrian policy to the US State Department and coordinating stabilization efforts in Syria, found himself in a Manbij hospital. . Roebuck was on hand to visit a journalist who was shot dead and covering the bombing of northern Syria by Turkish forces. The journalist and another were shot by snipers. They claimed to have been deliberately targeted by the Turkish side.

The bombing by Turkey started last week and targeted areas controlled by the YPG in Syria. Turkey has said it wants to launch an operation in Syria to eliminate "YPG / PKK terrorists". The Turkish media has highlighted the Arab refugees who have left Tel Abyad near Kobani in eastern Syria, and are now "waiting for support from Turkey's terrorist district." This district is an area of YPG, associated with the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, had cleared the area in 2015. This group later became part of the SDF, the United States' main partner in Syria today. But for Ankara, name changes do not matter, because they see the YPG as part of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) – in other words, as a terrorist group. the United States and Turkey.

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In January, Turkey launched an attack against the YPG group against Afrin in northern Syria. Turkey also wants to play a role in Manbij, another area in northern Syria that the SDF helped liberate from the Islamic State in 2016. Over the weekend, the first joint US-Turkish military patrols around Manbij started. The SDF was wondering what the next step would be.

Turkish threats against northern Syria have caused major tensions with the SDF, which has pressured the United States to cancel the bombing of Turkey. The SDF conducted a fierce offensive against the last stronghold of the Islamic State in Hajin, southern Syria, in the Euphrates Valley, after suffering dozens of losses at the end of the month of October and sent special units to strengthen the battle. However, Turkish bombing forced the homeless to put an end to the offensive. The SDF understands that he can not be asked to fight ISIS while he is being bombed by an American ally of NATO. He wants the United States to send a message to Turkey, but Turkey wants the United States to choose a side. The Foreign Ministry in Ankara has called on Washington to "end its engagement" with YPG.

Washington is now in the worst crisis in Syria since taking over Raqqa last year. During the war against the Islamic State, the United States could inject resources into the war effort. But now he needs to win the peace – a process he calls "stabilization". It went well for six months, but the United States then began to let it be known that it would remain in eastern Syria until the departure of Iran.

The operation to defeat ISIS in its last bastion of the Euphrates Valley has slowed down at an accelerated pace. But the slowness of the process still leads to losses among the American partners. Kurdish partners are wondering whether the United States has their interests at heart or whether they are simply trying to buy time. Will they eventually put Eastern Syria back to the Syrian regime or to Turkey? The United States does not seem to know what their final plan is, but they have asked Saudi Arabia to help fund reconstruction efforts in Syria. Riyadh sent $ 100 million in October to help rebuild eastern Syria. This took place while Saudi Arabia and Turkey are at the heart of their own crises following the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate.

For the United States, the situation is now on a tightrope. Any false move on the northern border, Manbij, Raqqa or on the Euphrates could lead to a new conflict even before the end of the conflict with the Islamic State. At the same time, US sanctions against Iran come into effect on November 5th. The United States is preparing for mid-term elections when it will have the least means to be distracted by foreign policy issues. With Russia, the Syrian regime and Iran under surveillance, Washington can not afford to be wrong.

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