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SYRIAN GOVERNMENT TROOPS will deploy along the border with Turkey to help Kurdish fighters fend off Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria, the Kurds said, hours after President Donald Trump ordered all US troops to withdraw from the area to avoid getting caught in the middle of the fast-escalating conflict.
The announcement represents a major shift in alliances for Syria’s Kurds after they were abandoned by the US, with whom they were long-time partners in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Adding to the turmoil, hundreds of Islamic State families and supporters escaped from a holding camp in northern Syria amid heavy clashes between Turkish forces and the Kurds.
The dizzying developments reflected the rapidly growing chaos that has unfolded in the week since Trump ordered US forces in the region to step aside, clearing the way for the Turkish attack on the Kurdish fighters it considers terrorists.
Trump’s decision has been broadly condemned at home and abroad by critics who accuse him of betraying the Kurds, who long fought alongside the U.S. to help defeat the Islamic State group in Syria.
‘Untenable situation’
US defence secretary Mark Esper said all American troops will withdraw from northern Syria because of the increasing danger posed by the fighting.
“We have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancing armies, and it’s a very untenable situation,” he said on CBS’ Face The Nation.
He did not say how many would withdraw or where they would go but that they represent most of the 1,000 US troops in Syria.
The peril to American forces was illustrated on Friday, when a small number of US troops came under Turkish artillery fire at an observation post in the north. No Americans were hurt.
Dealing with @LindseyGrahamSC and many members of Congress, including Democrats, about imposing powerful Sanctions on Turkey. Treasury is ready to go, additional legislation may be sought. There is great consensus on this. Turkey has asked that it not be done. Stay tuned!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2019
Esper said it was unclear whether that was an accident.
Trump, in a tweet, said: “Very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish Border, for a change.
“Those that mistakenly got us into the Middle East Wars are still pushing to fight.
“They have no idea what a bad decision they have made.”
Meanwhile, Esper said the US also has come to believe that the Kurds are attempting to “cut a deal” with the Syrian army and Russia to counter the invading Turks.
Shortly afterward, Kurdish officials announced they will work with the Syrian government to fend off the Turkish invasion, deploying side by side along the border.
Syrian TV said government troops were moving to the north to confront the Turkish invasion but gave no details.
A Syrian Kurdish official and a war monitor also said Syrian government forces were poised to enter Kurdish-controlled towns from which US troops are pulling out, following a deal reached through Russia.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deal covered the towns of Kobani and Manbij.
US troops were deployed in the towns after they were cleared of Islamic State militants in 2015.
The Kurdish fighters had few options after the United States abandoned them, and it had been anticipated they would turn to the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and its Russian allies for support.
The Syrian troop movements raise the risk of a clash between Syria and Turkey.
In addition, a return by Assad’s forces to the region where Syrian Kurds have built up an autonomy in the north would be a major shift in Syria’s long-running civil war, further cementing Mr Assad’s hold over the war-ravaged country.
Airstrikes
It would also mean that US troops no longer have presence in an area where Russia and Iranian-backed militias now have a role.
Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency, meanwhile, said Turkey-backed Syrian forces have advanced into the centre of a Syrian border town, Tal Abyad, on the fifth day of Turkey’s offensive.
Turkey’s defence ministry tweeted that its forces had taken control of the main road running between Hassakeh, a major town and logistics hub, and Ein Eissa, the administrative centre of the Kurdish-held areas.
Casualties mounted.
Yesterday, at least nine people, including five civilians, were killed in Turkish airstrikes on a convoy in the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ayn, according to the Observatory and Syrian Kurdish officials.
Images of the attack showed bodies and severed limbs strewn in the street.
Some of those killed appeared to be carrying guns.
Activists said the gunmen were guarding the convoy.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday ruled out any mediation in the dispute with the Kurds, saying Turkey will not negotiate with “terrorists”.
Nato member Turkey views the Syrian Kurdish fighters as terrorists because of their links to the Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.
The fighting has raised fears that some of the thousands of Islamic State members and sympathisers held by the Kurds will escape or be released in the chaos, allowing the battered extremist group to make a comeback and sow terror at will.
Yesterday, heavy fighting reached a displaced-persons camp in Ein Eissa, some 20 miles south of the border, that is home to some 12,000 people, including around 1,000 wives and widows of Islamic State fighters and their children, held in a special detention area.
The Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria said in a statement that 950 IS supporters escaped after attacking guards and storming the gates.
It was not immediately possible to confirm that figure.
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the Kurds are attempting to “cut a deal” with the Syrian army and Russia to counter the invading Turks.
I really hope they succeed.
In the meantime where have the ISIS released prisoners escaped to and who released them?
@saoirse janneau: they weren’t prisoners, they didn’t escape, they weren’t ISIS terrorist – there are women and children of the IS state that came under attack and a small percentage fled the camp in fear.
Truth and facts is what we need
@Jim Buckley Barrett: ” Escaped from a holding camp” if they weren’t prisoners why would they be escaping? Just because they are women doesn’t mean they haven’t participated in atrocities, in fact only last week it was reported 2 murders had taken place within the camp.
@Jim Buckley Barrett:
The Kurds are recruiting captured Islamic State terrorists into their ranks.
_
https://twitter.com/TheGray1776/status/1183652257990152192?s=09
@Philip Siggins: “if they weren’t prisoners why would they be escaping” maybe it had to do with bombs dropping on them and the expectations of the turks rolling into the holding camp any day now. Turks have a great record of being humanitarians….
@saoirse janneau: They are being redeployed to Xinjiang in China, to further destabilise that country
@Jim Buckley Barrett:
Fled in fear? This is the camp where Lisa Smith is being held. If you walked through this camp or the one at Al Hol you’d be aware it’s not all innocent women and kids. What’s safer, to be in a UN camp or to be running around the hills and streets? Qamishlo prison was conveniently mortared which enabled the instigator of the Paris attacks and 4 other IS heavyweights to leg it. Also just this morning Turkish backed Syrian mercenaries stormed a prison killing the guards and freed 100 IS
The island of Ireland needs to be able to close it’s sea border soon, before the effects of this escalating war engulf us.
@Fachtna Roe: ROFLOL!
@Brendan Cooney: ^^^This^^^
@Fachtna Roe: Right course we can, sure we have those beasts of potato gun fighters from the air force to protect us and the already underpaid and underappreciated members of the Irish Navy will be glad to close the sea border with all 5 ships we have……be some blockade
@Fachtna Roe: close its sea borders ? you do know that leo intends to bring in over 1 million MORE asylum seekers and refugees ? you do know that those fleeing from the turks will now head towards europe and in turn some will be directed to ireland by the eu ? far from ‘closing ‘ our borders WE will be letting even more people in ! ireland has ALREADY been linked to a couple of i.s. terrorist plots -more will follow !
@Eric Davies: Christ, 1 million more refugees and asylum seekers! How was this missed by the press here? Please share a link to this so we can spread the word and defend this great nation from your dreadful fake news. Hurry Eric, get that link up!!
@Michael Patrick Newell: 8 ships
@Clifford Brennan: it was announced some time back that varadkar would allow 1 million more refugees and asylum seekers into ireland -sorry i dont have a link to it – it is NOT my fake news as it was reported in national media as well as on here – maybe you were asleep when it happened or busy with your ffg troll mates !
@Fachtna Roe:
There’s 144 nations in the 1951 refugee agreement, they are all taking people. We’ve agreed to take 4,000, a rather pitiful amount if you take Lebanon, which is just over twice the size of Donegal hosts over 1 million refugees. We’ve only accepted half our quota to date so relax the cacks
Wow I agree with Trump. America getting involved in those wars was a mistake. All of them. While he’s on his high horse he should stop selling weapons to both sides.
@SC: Turkey is a net exporter of arms. Well capable of fighting conflicts such as this without buying single round of ammunition from the US
@SC: ah come on, you don’t seriously believe the US illegal occupying forces are leaving Syria. The US have one priority mission in the Middle East that hasn’t changed in decades…to keep the region destabilised, which is exactly what has happened with every action they’ve taken.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin:
Right now there’s 4 US hummers blocking the bridge at the Euphrates so the Syrian Army can’t go through. Out but not all out
@SC:
America didn’t get involved in these wars, they started them
Bit of a head scratcher for the pro regime change commenters on here, The Syrian government potentially coming to the rescue of the Kurds. Hopefully they both drive the Turks out of Syria.
Its like Putin is pulling all the strings now. Have to hand it too him.
About time
Wheres Ross and haligan surely they will negotiate on be half of the kurds
with i.s.i.s almost on the brink of defeat in syria and a possible end to the conflict in sight , america decides to pull out its troops and kick start the problems all over again !! its ALMOST as if it deliberate to keep the war going and sell even more weapons !!!
have your say