The Kurdish-dominated main armed coalition in Syria on Tuesday (November 22nd) called on the United States and Russia to work for de-escalation after deadly raids by Turkey against its fighters and Turkish threats of a ground operation.
On Saturday evening and Sunday, the Turkish air force launched a series of raids in northern Syria mainly against positions of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) considered a “terrorist groupby Ankara.
Eleven civilians killed
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), 37 people were killed in the raids, the vast majority of them Kurdish fighters, as well as 16 Syrian soldiers. Local Kurdish authorities reported 11 civilians killed.
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The Turkish operation dubbed “Sword Clawcame after a deadly attack on November 13 in Istanbul, attributed by Ankara to the YPG and the Turkish Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who both denied responsibility.
“Our efforts are focused on de-escalation and we will do everything in our power to achieve this through contact with the parties concerned.“Said the commander-in-chief of the SDF, Mazloum Abdi, reached in northern Syria from Beirut by AFP.
Control the North and Northeast regions
The Kurds control parts of northern and northeastern Syria, a country fragmented by the war that started in 2011.We are ready to defend our regions but we call on all parties, including the Russians or the Americans, to respect their commitmentsto avoid a new Turkish operation, added the Kurdish commander. The United States musttake a firm stance to at least stop the shelling of civilians“, he said.
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The SDF, with the help mainly of the United States, has spearheaded the fight against the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) ousted from its strongholds in Syria in 2019. It is formed mostly of Kurdish fighters and includes Arab fighters. Hundreds of American soldiers are deployed in areas of northern Syria.
Istanbul attack
The military leader again denied any connection to the Istanbul bombing, accusing Turkey of using it as “pretextto attack his forces. “We were also surprised by the very weak position of the Syrian regimewhich merely announced the death of an unknown number of its soldiers in the Turkish raids, he added.
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On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country is deploying troops to border areas in Syria, threatened to launch a ground operation against Syrian Kurdish forces. An ally of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, Russia called on Turkey the same day for restraint.