Syrian Kurdish groups on the back foot as power balance shifts

Syrian Kurdish groups on the back foot as power balance shifts
Giant independence-era Syrian flags hang on the facade of a building in Syria’s northern city of Manbij on December 21, 2024. Islamist-led rebels took Damascus in a lightning offensive on December 8, ousting president Bashar Assad and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria. (AFP)
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Updated 22 December 2024
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Syrian Kurdish groups on the back foot as power balance shifts

Syrian Kurdish groups on the back foot as power balance shifts
  • Syrian Kurds established autonomy early in civil war, Turkiye views their main group as national security threat
  • Syrian Kurdish leader asks Trump to prevent Turkish incursion

QAMISHLI: With hostile Turkish-backed groups mobilizing against them in Syria’s north, and Damascus ruled by a group friendly to Ankara, Syria’s main Kurdish factions are on the back foot as they seek to preserve political gains carved out during 13 years of war.
Part of a stateless ethnic group straddling Iraq, Iran, Turkiye, Armenia and Syria, Kurds have so far been among the few winners of the Syrian conflict, controlling nearly a quarter of the country and leading a powerful armed group that is a key US ally in countering Islamic State.
But the power balance has tilted against them since the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) swept into Damascus this month, toppling President Bashar Assad, two analysts and a senior Western diplomat told Reuters.
The seismic change in Syria is expected to yield deeper Turkish sway just as a change of US administration is raising questions over how long Washington will keep backing the country’s Kurdish-led forces.
For Turkiye, the Kurdish factions represent a national security threat. Ankara views them as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and is deemed a terrorist group by Turkiye, the United States and other powers.
The Syrian Kurdish groups “are in deep, deep trouble,” said Aron Lund, a fellow at Century International, a US-based think tank.
“The balance has shifted fundamentally in Syria to the advantage of Turkiye-backed or Turkiye-aligned factions, and Turkiye seems determined to exploit this to the fullest.”
The shift has been reflected in renewed fighting for control of the north, where Turkiye-backed armed groups known as the Syrian National Army (SNA) have made military advances against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Fanar Al-Kait, a senior official in the Kurdish-led regional administration, told Reuters that the ouster of Assad, whose Arab nationalist Baath Party oppressed Kurds for decades, presented a chance to stitch the fragmented country back together.
He said the administration is ready for dialogue with Turkiye, but the conflict in the north showed Ankara had “very bad intentions.”
“This will certainly push the region toward ... a new conflict,” he added.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he expected foreign states would withdraw support for Kurdish fighters following Assad’s toppling, as Ankara seeks to isolate the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish militia that spearheaded the SDF alliance.
Responding to questions from Reuters, a Turkish official said the root cause of the conflict is “not Turkiye’s view toward the region; it is that the PKK/YPG is a terrorist organization.”
“The PKK/YPG elements must lay down their arms and leave Syria,” the official said.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, in a Reuters interview on Thursday, acknowledged the presence of PKK fighters in Syria for the first time, saying they had helped battle Islamic State and would return home in the event a total ceasefire was agreed with Turkiye. He denied any organizational ties with the PKK.
Feminism and Islamism
Meanwhile, in Damascus, the new leadership is showing warmth toward Ankara and indicating it wants to bring all Syria back under central authority — a potential challenge to the decentralization Kurds favor.
While Turkiye provides direct backing to the SNA, it along with other states deems HTS a terrorist group because of its Al-Qaeda past.
Despite this, Ankara is believed to have significant sway over the group. A senior Western diplomat said: “The Turks can clearly influence them more than anyone else.”
HTS leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa told a Turkish newspaper that Assad’s ouster was “not only the victory of the Syrian people, but also the Turkish people.”
The Turkish official said HTS was not and never had been under Ankara’s control, calling it a structure “we were communicating with due to circumstances” and adding many Western states were also doing so.
Syrian Kurdish groups led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the affiliated YPG militia took control of much of the north after the uprising against Assad began in 2011. They established their own administration, while insisting their aim was autonomy, not independence.
Their politics, emphasising socialism and feminism, differ starkly from HTS’ Islamism.
Their area grew as US-led forces partnered with the SDF in the campaign against Islamic State, capturing Arab-majority areas.
The Turkiye-backed SNA groups stepped up their campaign against the SDF as Assad was being toppled, seizing the city of Manbij on Dec. 9
Washington brokered a ceasefire, but the SDF has said Turkiye and its allies have not abided by it, and a Turkish defense ministry official said there was no such deal.
US support for the SDF has been a point of tension with its NATO ally, Turkiye. Washington views the SDF as a key partner in countering Islamic State, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned will try to use this period to re-establish capabilities in Syria. The SDF is still guarding tens of thousands of detainees linked to the militant group.
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said last weekend that Turkiye saw no sign of a Daesh resurgence in Syria. On Friday, Turkiye’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, told his German counterpart during talks in Ankara that alternatives needed to be found for the management of camps and prisons where the detainees are being held.
Separately, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf said on Friday that Washington was working with Ankara and the SDF to find “a managed transition in terms of SDF’s role in that part of the country.”
President Joe Biden’s administration has said that US troops will stay on in Syria, but President-elect Donald Trump could remove them when he takes office on Jan. 20.
Letter to Trump
During his first administration, Trump attempted to pull out of Syria but faced pressure at home and from US allies.
In a Dec. 17 letter to Trump, reviewed by Reuters, top Syrian Kurdish official Ilham Ahmed said Turkiye was preparing to invade the northeast before he takes office.
Turkiye’s plan “threatens to undo years of progress in securing stability and fighting terrorism,” she wrote. “We believe you have the power to prevent this catastrophe.”
Asked for comment, Trump-Vance transition spokesman Brian Hughes said: “We continue to monitor the situation in Syria. President Trump is committed to diminishing threats to peace and stability in the Middle East and to protecting Americans here at home.”
Trump said on Dec. 16 that Turkiye will “hold the key” to what happens in Syria but has not announced his plans for US forces stationed there.
“The Kurds are in an unenviable position,” said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma. “Once Damascus consolidates its power, it will move on the region. The US can’t remain there forever.”
HTS leader Sharaa told British broadcaster the BBC that Kurds were “part of our people” and “there should be no division of Syria,” adding arms should be entirely in the state’s hands.
Sharaa acknowledged one of Turkiye’s main concerns — the presence of non-Syrian Kurdish fighters in Syria — and said: “We do not accept that Syrian lands threaten and destabilize Turkiye or other places.”
He pledged to work through dialogue and negotiations to find “a peaceful formula to solve the problem,” saying he believed initial contacts had been established “between the Kurds in northeastern Syria or the SDF organization.”
Kait, the Kurdish official, said his administration wanted “a democratic Syria, a decentralized Syria, a Syria that represents all Syrians of all sects, religions and ethnicities,” describing these as red lines. The SDF would be “a nucleus of the coming Syrian army,” he added.
SDF commander Abdi, in his Reuters interview, confirmed that contact had been established with HTS to avoid clashes between their forces but said Ankara would try to drive a wedge between Damascus and the Kurdish-led administration.
Still, he said there was strong support from international parties, including the US-led coalition, for the SDF joining “the new political phase” in Damascus, calling it “a great opportunity.”
“We are preparing, after a total ceasefire between us and between Turkiye and the affiliated factions, to join this phase,” he said.


HRW says Syria must protect civilians after ‘killing spree’

HRW says Syria must protect civilians after ‘killing spree’
Updated 9 sec ago
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HRW says Syria must protect civilians after ‘killing spree’

HRW says Syria must protect civilians after ‘killing spree’
“Grave abuses on a staggering scale are being reported against predominantly Alawite Syrians,” said HRW’s deputy regional director Adam Coogle
“Government action to protect civilians and prosecute perpetrators of indiscriminate shootings, summary executions, and other grave crimes must be swift and unequivocal”

BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on Syria’s new authorities to ensure accountability for the mass killings of hundreds of civilians in recent days in the coastal heartland of the Alawite minority.
Violence broke out Thursday as security forces clashed with gunmen loyal to former president Bashar Assad, who is Alawite, in areas along the Mediterranean coast.
Since then, war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces and allied groups had killed at least 1,093 civilians, the vast majority Alawites.
“Syria’s new leaders promised to break with the horrors of the past, but grave abuses on a staggering scale are being reported against predominantly Alawite Syrians in the coastal region and elsewhere in Syria,” said HRW’s deputy regional director Adam Coogle.
“Government action to protect civilians and prosecute perpetrators of indiscriminate shootings, summary executions, and other grave crimes must be swift and unequivocal,” he said in a statement decrying the “coastal killing spree.”
The New York-based rights group said it was “not able to verify the number of civilians killed or displaced, but obituaries circulating on Facebook indicate hundreds were killed, including entire families.”
The wave of violence is the worst since forces led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) launched a lightning offensive that toppled Assad on December 8, capping a 13-year civil war.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who led HTS, has vowed to “hold accountable, firmly and without leniency, anyone who was involved in the bloodshed of civilians.”
The defense ministry announced on Monday the end of the “military operation” seeking to root out “regime remnants” in the coastal areas.
But according to the Britain-based Observatory, another 120 civilians have been killed since then, the majority of them in Latakia and Tartus provinces on the coast — where much of the earlier violence since last week had occurred.
Authorities have announced the arrest of at least two fighters seen in videos killing civilians, the official news agency SANA reported.
HRW said that “accountability for atrocities must include all parties,” including groups like HTS and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army that “now constitute Syria’s new security forces.”
“These groups have a well-documented history of human rights abuses and violations of international law,” it added.
HTS, which has its roots in the Syrian branch of jihadist network Al-Qaeda, is still proscribed as a terrorist organization by several governments including the United States.
Since toppling Assad and taking power, Sharaa has vowed to protect Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities.
In its statement, HRW called on the authorities to “fully cooperate with and ensure unhindered access to independent monitors.”
Syria’s presidency had announced that an “independent committee” was formed to investigate the killings.
The panel is due to hold its first press conference later Tuesday.

Uganda says it has deployed troops in South Sudan capital

Uganda says it has deployed troops in South Sudan capital
Updated 26 min 26 sec ago
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Uganda says it has deployed troops in South Sudan capital

Uganda says it has deployed troops in South Sudan capital
  • A Ugandan military spokesperson said the deployment was at the request of the South Sudan government
  • Tensions have risen in recent days in South Sudan

NAIROBI: Uganda has deployed special forces in South Sudan’s capital Juba to “secure it,” Uganda’s military chief said on Tuesday, as tensions between South Sudan’s president and first vice president stoke fears of a return to civil war.
A Ugandan military spokesperson said the deployment was at the request of the South Sudan government.
Tensions have risen in recent days in South Sudan, an oil producer, since President Salva Kiir’s government detained two ministers and several senior military officials allied with First Vice President Riek Machar.
One minister has since been released.
The arrests in Juba and deadly clashes around the northern town of Nasir are widely seen as jeopardizing a 2018 peace deal that ended a five-year civil war between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar in which nearly 400,000 people were killed.
“As of 2 days ago, our Special Forces units entered Juba to secure it,” Uganda’s military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, said in a series of posts on the X platform overnight into Tuesday.
“We the UPDF (Ugandan military), only recognize one President of South Sudan, H.E. Salva Kiir ... any move against him is a declaration of war against Uganda,” he said in one of the posts.
Felix Kulayigye, the spokesperson for the Ugandan military, said the troops were there with permission from the South Sudan government.
“Yes we did (deploy them) and they are there on the invitation of government of South Sudan. The situation will determine how long we’ll stay there,” he said.
He declined to give details of troop numbers.
South Sudan government information minister and the military spokesperson did not respond to calls seeking comment.
After the civil war erupted in South Sudan in 2013, Uganda deployed its troops in Juba to bolster Kiir’s forces against Machar. They were eventually withdrawn in 2015.
Ugandan troops were again deployed in Juba in 2016 after fighting reignited between the two sides but they were also eventually withdrawn.
Uganda fears a full-blown conflagration in its northern neighbor could send waves of refugees across the border and potentially create instability.


Syrian fact-finding committee for sectarian killings says no one above the law

Syrian fact-finding committee for sectarian killings says no one above the law
Updated 11 March 2025
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Syrian fact-finding committee for sectarian killings says no one above the law

Syrian fact-finding committee for sectarian killings says no one above the law

DAMASCUS: A Syrian fact-finding committee investigating sectarian killings during clashes between the army and loyalists of Bashar Assad said on Tuesday that no one was above the law and it would seek the arrest and prosecution of any perpetrators.
Pressure has been growing on Syria’s Islamist-led government to investigate after reports by witnesses and a war monitor of the killing of hundreds of civilians in villages where the majority of the population are members of the ousted president’s Alawite sect.
“No one is above the law, the committee will relay all the results to the entity that launched it, the presidency, and the judiciary,” the committee’s spokesperson Yasser Farhan said in a televised press conference.
The committee was preparing lists of witnesses to interview and potential perpetrators, and would refer any suspects with sufficient evidence against them to the judiciary, Farhan added.
The UN human rights office said entire families including women and children were killed in the coastal region as part of a series of sectarian killings by the army against an insurgency by Assad loyalists.
Syria’s interim president Ahmed Al-Sharaa told Reuters in an interview on Monday that he could not yet say whether forces from Syria’s defense ministry — which has incorporated former rebel factions under one structure — were involved in the sectarian killings.
Asked whether the committee would seek international help to document violations, Farhan said it was “open” to cooperation but would prefer using its own national mechanisms.
The violence began to spiral on Thursday, when the authorities said their forces in the coastal region came under attack from fighters aligned with the ousted Assad regime.
The Sunni Islamist-led government poured reinforcements into the area to crush what it described as a deadly, well-planned and premeditated assault by remnants of the Assad government.
But Sharaa acknowledged to Reuters that some armed groups had entered without prior coordination with the defense ministry.


Syria Kurd forces chief says agreement with Sharaa ‘real opportunity’ to build new Syria

Syria Kurd forces chief says agreement with Sharaa ‘real opportunity’ to build new Syria
Updated 11 March 2025
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Syria Kurd forces chief says agreement with Sharaa ‘real opportunity’ to build new Syria

Syria Kurd forces chief says agreement with Sharaa ‘real opportunity’ to build new Syria

DAMASCUS: The head of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said Tuesday that an accord reached with the new leaders in Damascus is a “real opportunity to build a new Syria.” “We are committed to building a better future that guarantees the rights of all Syrians and fulfills their aspirations for peace and dignity,” Mazloum Abdi said in a posting on X.
The Syrian presidency announced on Monday an agreement with the SDF to integrate the institutions of the autonomous Kurdish administration in the northeast into the national government.


Israeli fire kills 8 Palestinians in Gaza Strip, 3 in the occupied West Bank

Israeli fire kills 8 Palestinians in Gaza Strip, 3 in the occupied West Bank
Updated 33 min 49 sec ago
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Israeli fire kills 8 Palestinians in Gaza Strip, 3 in the occupied West Bank

Israeli fire kills 8 Palestinians in Gaza Strip, 3 in the occupied West Bank
  • Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians who the army says had approached its troops
  • Israel last week suspended supplies of goods and electricity to the territory

WEST BANK: Israeli fire has killed eight people in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, Palestinian officials said, even as a fragile ceasefire with Hamas has largely held.
Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians who the army says had approached its troops or entered unauthorized areas in violation of the January truce.
Israel last week suspended supplies of goods and electricity to the territory of more than 2 million Palestinians as it tries to pressure the militant group to accept an extension of the first phase of their ceasefire. That phase ended March 1. Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.
Hamas instead wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.

An Israeli airstrike kills 4 in Gaza
Palestinian first responders say an Israeli airstrike killed four people, including two brothers, in the Gaza Strip.
The Civil Defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government, said Tuesday’s strike was carried out near the Netzarim corridor, where Israeli forces had carved out a military zone bisecting the territory before withdrawing from the area as part of a fragile ceasefire.
The Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike against a group of militants “engaged in suspicious activity.”
The fragile ceasefire has held since it began on Jan. 19, even as Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians. Israel says it has struck Palestinians who approached its troops, entered unauthorized areas or otherwise violated the terms of the truce.

Palestinians say settlers attacked a garage in West Bank
Palestinians say settlers attacked a garage in the occupied West Bank overnight, torching three cars.
Rafaat Sabah, the owner of the garage, said the attack overnight was not the first. He said settlers had broken into his garage previously and stolen oil, tools and other things. This time they set fire to cars belonging to his customers, he said.
The Israeli military said it was investigating the incident.
Marwan Sabah, head of the Umm Safa village council, said settlers have recently brought livestock to graze on village lands with the aim of eventually taking them over.
The West Bank has seen a surge in violence, including settler attacks on Palestinians, since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there.
Over 500,000 settlers with Israeli citizenship live in well over 100 settlements across the West Bank, ranging from hilltop outposts to fully-developed suburbs. The territory’s 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority administering cities and towns.

3 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank
The Palestinian Health Ministry says three Palestinians, including a 58-year-old woman, were killed by Israeli fire in the volatile West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday.
The Israeli military said troops killed two militants in an exchange of fire in Jenin and arrested 10 others. It said its forces eliminated a third militant who had fired at them during the operation and destroyed two vehicles loaded with weapons.
Israel launched a large-scale military operation centered on Jenin shortly after reaching a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip in January. Troops have destroyed homes and infrastructure, and tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes across the northern West Bank.