Syria’s Kurds struggle Turkey months then Assad’s fall

To achieve north-east Syria, we move a rickety floating bridge over the River Tigris. Our minibus rattles because it takes us from Iraqi Kurdistan thru Syrian oil grounds, the place jacks pumping crude oil layout the roads.

This a part of Syria is managed by way of Kurds, who name it Rojava – which means western Kurdistan. Since 2012, then the outbreak of civil battle, they’ve run it as a self-declared self sustaining patch, safe by way of Kurdish-led military.

However Bashar al-Assad’s regime by no means recognised it and, regardless of his fall from energy, its past left-overs unsure.

In addition to greater than a decade of civil battle, the Syrian Kurds have confronted years of battle with its northern neighbour, Turkey – a struggle they’re nonetheless preventing.

A decade in the past, the Islamic Surrounding crew (IS) swept thru this patch, shooting towns and villages with modest resistance – till it reached the town of Kobane, nearest to the Turkish border, in September 2014.

IS militants didn’t govern to go into the town, however they imposed a brutal siege that lasted for months.

Kurdish-led factions, supported by way of the US-led army coalition, beggarly the siege in early 2015. This January, I fasten the town’s citizens as they mark the 10-year annualannually.

On the front to Kobane, ladies of their 50s, armed with AK-47 attack rifles, defend the checkpoints. Ladies performed a a very powerful position within the combat in opposition to IS – many volunteered within the all-female Ladies’s Coverage Gadgets (YPJ).

As we power across the town, the scars of battle are nonetheless ocular, together with posters of younger women and men who misplaced their lives.

However in the primary sq., the temper is festive. Younger boys and girls, wearing vibrant Kurdish outfits dance hand in hand, making a song as they honour.

For the used week, regardless that, this can be a bittersweet occasion. “Last night I lit candles for my martyred brother and others killed in Kobane,” says Newrouz Ahmad, a 45-year-old mom of 4. “It is a joyful day, but also a painful one. I wish he was here to see it.”

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declared victory over IS in north-east Syria in 2019. However independence from IS hasn’t introduced lasting ease.

Turkey and a coalition of Turkish-backed rebellion teams referred to as the Syrian Nationwide Military (SNA) have introduced a number of army operations in opposition to SDF-controlled territories since 2016, and captured a swathe of range operating alongside loads of kilometres of the border.

Turkey considers the biggest detail within the SDF – the Society’s Coverage Gadgets (YPG) – an extension of the Kurdistan Employees’ Birthday party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey for many years and is indexed by way of Ankara as a terrorist organisation. The rustic needs to push the SDF again from its border.

Because the Assad regime collapsed in overdue 2024, the Turkish-backed SNA introduced a fresh offensive to seize range west of the River Euphrates from the SDF.

Now battles have reached boxes related Kobane. A Kurdish commander within the town quietly tells me: “Don’t film here, we have built tunnels beneath the city to prepare for another siege.”

Within the town, the odor of gas fills the wind, and the boisterous pitch of turbines may also be heard in all places. Locals inform me that lots of the energy stations, refineries, or even telecommunications antennas had been destroyed by way of Turkish wind moves over the month two years.

Newrouz Ahmad says that having “defeated IS in Kobane… we won’t allow Turkey and its proxies to occupy our city, we will defeat them too”.

At a cafe, the occasion population realise we don’t seem to be locals, they encompass us. I ask an vintage guy with gray hair and a stick in his fingers how vintage he’s. I supposition he’s about 80, however the resolution he provides embarrasses me. “I am 60,” he says.

It’s cloudless that population right here had been exhausted by way of battle, having witnessed such a lot demise and bloodshed.

And now the blackmail of some other struggle is looming.

Turkish-made drones and Turkish jets have focused SDF positions and provide routes across the town. Even civilians protesting had been strike.

In a regional health facility, I to find one of the most wounded – Lea Bunse, a 28-year-old German ease activist who has been volunteering at a ladies’s refuge in Rojava for over two years.

She presentations me a video of an assault on an indication she says she used to be a part of in January. The pictures presentations two projectiles losing from the sky and hitting a family of population dancing.

The protest used to be held related the strategic Tishreen Dam, the place preventing has been ongoing. The SDF says six civilians had been killed, and dozens extra injured.

“An old man next to me was also injured,” she tells me from her mattress.

“I lost some blood… but when we got into the ambulance, another drone attack was carried out next to our ambulance,” she provides.

Human Rights Monitor has condemned an assault that strike a Kurdish Purple Crescent ambulance as an “apparent war crime” by way of the Turkish-SNA coalition.

The Turkish overseas ministry advised the BBC that “reports claiming Turkey is involved in the attacks against civilians and critical infrastructure do not reflect the truth” including that the SDF sends civilians to a “conflict-ridden area on purpose” to worth them as “human shields… in order to not to lose control on the said dam”.

It accused the SDF of the use of “violence and terror” to pursue “its own separatist agenda”, violating a ceasefire and preventing technical groups from having access to the dam for maintenance.

Syria’s fresh chief, Ahmad al-Sharaa, is caught between a rock and a dehydrated playground.

The period in-between president – whose Islamist crew Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led the rebellion offensive that overthrew Assad – has been promising to mode an inclusive govt in Damascus, and he has requested all armed factions to put indisposed their guns. Negotiations are reportedly being held with the SDF to discover a answer for the north-east.

However the inclusion of the Kurdish factions places Sharaa in a hard place with one in every of his major allies – Turkey.

And when Sharaa opened a convention for nationwide discussion on Syria’s past on Tuesday, the Kurdish self sustaining management used to be absent – it mentioned it had now not been invited.

Chatting with me from a discreet location related an American bottom in Hassakeh province within the north-east of Syria, SDF commander Gen Mazloum Abdi tells me he has met Sharaa in Damascus sooner than.

However the two aspects have nonetheless now not reached an pledge.

“In reality, we are still at war with Turkey and its proxies. Turkish jets and drones continue to bomb us,” he says, including: “In Damascus, it remains unclear what steps the new government will take. Their statements are positive, but they are under pressure from Turkey to act against the areas under our control.

“However america, France, and a few Arab countries are pushing them to acknowledge Kurdish rights,” he says.

For the US, SDF fighters have been the most reliable allies in the fight against IS.

Today, hundreds of US troops remain in Kurdish-controlled areas, to counter IS sleeper cells.

But the Kurds now fear President Donald Trump might withdraw these troops, leaving the region vulnerable to any Turkish military operation, and a possible IS resurgence.

It’s estimated that there are still about 40,000 IS family members and up to 10,000 jihadist fighters held in SDF-controlled camps and prisons in the north-east, says Gen Abdi.

“If Turkey assaults, we will be able to don’t have any selection however to redirect our forces,” he warns. “That will give IS a chance to assault prisons and detached its opponents.”