Juan Cole : Syrian Kurds frantically turn to Moscow for Protection from Turkey

By Dilip -
Anton Lavrov, a military analyst, writes in the pro-Putin Russian newspaper Izvestia (via BBC Monitoring), writes that the withdrawal of US troops from northeast Syria will mainly affect the fate of the Kurds. He notes that the US has provided the YPG with armored vehicles and antitank missiles and a great deal of ammunition. These medium armaments, he says, were useful in defeating the ISIL ‘caliphate,’ but won’t be enough to fend off the Turkish army or the Syrian Arab Army once the US is out.

He argues that for the past year, the fight against the largely defeated ISIL has become a sideshow to the main event, which was US and coalition protection for their Kurdish YPG allies from the Turkish army on the one hand and the Syrian Arab Army on the other. Both have mounted exploratory expeditions toward YPG Kurdish territory in the past twelve months, but have been dissuaded by the US. In the case of Turkey, the US and France positioned troops in the way of a Turkish offensive. In the case of the Syrian Army, the US at Tanf in the southeast used air power to block a Syrian advance.


In his view, the primary effect of a US withdrawal will not be to allow a resurgence of ISIL, which he thinks is now a mere terrorist group that will require some years finally to roll up. Rather, the US withdrawal sets up a potential clash between the al-Assad regime and the Kurds on the one hand, and between the Kurds and Turkey on the other... read more:
https://www.juancole.com/2018/12/abandoned-frantically-protection.html

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