The defense of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is steadily collapsing under pressure from the Turkish Armed Forces and Turkish-backed militant groups, branded as the National Syrian Army.
Since the start of Operation Peace Spring, Turkey-led forces have captured 42 settlements from the SDF. Most of them were abandoned by Kurdish fighters after a series of artillery and air strikes by the Turkish military. The most intense clashes took place in the towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tell Abyad, and on the chunk of the M4 highway between Aywah and Sahi Ruwaydat.
Turkish forces started a storm of Ras al-Ayn in the evening of October 11. On October 12, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced that its forces got a full control of the town. On the same day, a powerful SDF counterattack forces Turkish-backed militants to withdraw to the southern part of Ras al-Ayn. On October 13, an intense fighting there continued, with the town remaining contested. By October 14, Turkey-led forces had established control of most of it.
Another area of heavy clashes was Tell Abyad. The Turkish military and the NSA advanced on the town of October 12 and captured its center on October 13. The success in the area was predetermined by previous advances of Turkey-led forces that besieged the town from the eastern and western directions.
On October 12 and 13, forward units of the NSA were working to cut off the M4 highway stretching along the Syrian-Turkish border. According to photos and videos released online, when Turkish-backed militants first reached the highway they captured and executed a number of civilians, including Hevrin Khalaf, the head of the SDF-linked political party – the Future Syria Party. The SDF tried to push Turkish-backed forces back, but failed to do so.
The shape of the current Turkish military efforts demonstrate that at the first phase of the advance Ankara seeks to capture the border area between Ras al-Ayn and Tell Abyad, and reach the M4. After this, they will likely push towards Kobani and Manbij.
The Turkish Armed Forces already deployed Leopard 2A4 battle tanks on the eastern bank of the Euphrates and floating bridge equipment near the Sajur river, north of Manbij.
According to Ankara, about 500 members of Kurdish armed groups have been neutralized since the start of the operation. At the same time, Turkish sources admit that 6 Turkish soldiers and up to 2 dozens NSA members were killed. Pro-SDF media outlets report about tens destroyed Turkish armored vehicles and dozens of surrendered NSA members. Proofs are barely provided by both sides.
785 ISIS-linked persons fled the SDF-run Ain Issa camp after SDF members had withdrawn from the area. The SDF accused Turkey for the incident and claimed that the prisoners fled thanks to help from ‘Turkish mercenaries’. Meanwhile, Ankara already declared that it’s ready to take responsibility for detention centers with ISIS members and their relatives in northeastern Syria after it takes control of them.
Washington is not going to assist the SDF in repelling the Turkish offensive despite SDF loud statements about their role in the war on ISIS and the US strategy in the region. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told CBS News on October 13 that the US is “preparing to evacuate” about 1,000 troops from northern Syria “as safely and quickly as possible”. The withdrawal of US troops is another sign that the Turkish operation against the SDF was in fact coordinated with and approved by the Trump administration.
The last chance of the SDF to keep control of their remaining areas along the Syrian-Turkish border is to get help from the Syrian Army and Russia. If this is not done anytime soon, the real SDF resistance to the Turkish advance will likely remain only in the few Kurdish-populated areas of northeastern Syria.
On October 13 evening, the SDF announced that it had reached an agreement with the Assad government, and the Syrian Army will enter a large part of its areas, including Manbij and Kobani, and help the Kurdish-led group to limit the further offensive of Turkish forces. The implementation of this agreement may become a turning point in relations between Damascus and the SDF.
[Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/7L7lOom.png)
This Cartoon says it all
Show how the Kurds keep selling their @ss to the enemy of every country they live in
No this is more accurate:https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGx5o2RWsAAVbQ_.jpg
I don’t see the Yankee and Israeli traitors in the ‘toon……………….. perhaps your vision is blinkered ?
I think they are represented on the right side…
This is not accurate at all, moreover it is stupid joke.
The Kurds had no problems working together with Assad before and during the civil war. It was only after the US started to whisper sweet nothings in their ears that they fell like a virgin for a pickup artists and became antagonistic with Assad. They only have themselves to blame for their current mess.
Barba, it is a very complex problem, and the Kurds are not a homogeneous group when viewed politically. None of the nations involved, want to give up an inch of their land to accommodate a Kurdish nation, and there is no over coming the bestial hatred the Turks and Kurds have for one another………….. I reckon even Foreign minister Lavarov, whom I regard as a genius, would have his work cut out trying to find a workable solution. And the Kurds have let themselves be led by the nose for 20 years or more by the Yiddischers………………. a very bad mistake………….and then crowned it all by getting into bed with the Yankee whores. Assad is a very compassionate man, so it will be interesting to see what will come out of this .
F….. Ck you
Don’t worry about me shitkebap boy, its your own bumhole you should be worry about. The Kurds are after it !
Erdogan was saved from a military coup by Russia. All the MSM are screaming about abandoning our dear Kurds. My question is what did we want them for in the first place? We impose ourselves into places we are not wanted and then scream bloody murder for our kids to make a stand and die for nothing, Nothing but corporate profit and world conquest.
I can’t begin to unravel these events. What do you base it on, a well founded rumour? If the SAA attack the Turks will the US follow their NATO dictates? That the Kurds would turn for rescue to the same folks they told to fuck off not a month ago speaks to what?
I would like to think it’s some grand choreographed show, with Syria pretending to hate Turkey. All of them following Putin’s sage advice, with the ultimate goal to actually fight terrorism and it’s main sponsors. F.uk.us and evil co-conspirators. To free the world from the clutches of the despotic oligarchs.
Wishful thinking has never panned out for me. Every hopeful election is followed with a long drawn out return to reality. But this is different. The Democrats screaming for a military confrontation in Syria and a Republican pulling back. Joe Biden’s kid getting rich in the Ukraine, after the Dems organize and sponsor a coup there. To tighten the noose around Russia? Or do we just love enriching and empowering Nazis?
Interesting times. I saw the videos of the Assad’s being so thoroughly scrubbed from the internet. Wonderful people in the words of the videographer later forced to recant. In the end I do not believe they could keep the loyalty of the mostly Sunni SAA if the MSM is right.
So I root for them all. Including Turkey, US and the Kurds. Stop killing each other, learn to live in peace or go fuck yourselves instead of all the rest of us!
Nato § 5 is about an attack on Nato member on its soil is an attack on all Nato , so SAA defending an attack in there own soil is not gonna give a war with all Nato
And NATO’s rules – like those of every other artificial international coalition or agreement – only really apply to lesser members. The most powerful members will create new rules, change or reinterpret existing rules or simply ignore rules whenever it suits them. And the ‘most powerful members’ really means the current oligarch mafias that dictate the policy of those most powerful members
After all the grief Turkey brought Syria could the SAA be blamed for wanting and taking a buffer zone of their own. Same for the Golan!
Name the videos. Titles,any links to that you are reffering to?
https://gawker.com/asma-al-assad-a-rose-in-the-desert-1265002284
This is a print article about Bashar’s wife Asma. Has lots in it about Bashar. The video, which was extraordinary has vanished. I believe it originated with Vanity Fair. This article is fairly comprehensive. Will read again and welcome your take on it should you read as well.
For one thing they both speak excellent English. She is accomplished and wealthy in her own right and certainly did not have to marry Bashar. She does not seem like the type who would live with a butcher.
Not sure but seems the video was titled Rose of the Desert.
Regarding NATO dictates, this is a war where Turkey is attacker and Syria defender so they don’t apply. Still, I think like someone mentioned, kurds will go back to fold and Syria will recover the gas and oil fields in the East. Arab league may again resurrect trade and diplomacy with Syria.
We could be at the dawn of new era of peace and relative prosperuty in the Middle East, with USA removed.
Well keep going as it was and WW III seemed a done deal. Interesting how the MSM sees doom and gloom over the Kurds while here we celebrate the possibility of peace because of Trumps actions. Quite the disconnect!
Excellent commentary
God please free Syria from all foreign terrorist. Lets see what Putin will do.
Trump is Chabad, Putin is Chabad, Erdogan is Dönmeh (that’s also Chabad), Rouhani is Hojjatieh (Thats freemason therefore sort of Chabad). The last three made a deal on the 16of September in Ankara, to reuite Syria under a new federal Syrian constitution. This constitution was written by Russians mostlikely Russian jews, because it obligates Syria to hold friendly relations with all it’s neighbours, including Israel -therefore making it impossible to ever get the Golan Heights back. So you see Chabad is control – one more war with large regional destruction, and one step more in the direction of the Yinon Plan (same same since wourld war one and two).
Sorry no English, Chabad fan and freemason Meyssan made it that way, so the Joe Averages could not read it, and theater could be played:
https://www.voltairenet.org/article207820.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoQhXh_Q0AU
So who is chagood?
Even from who one thinks that he is good, is Cha bad… so no Chagood here…
Great news, Nsa is finished. SAA, stepping in.
The logo of the Future Syria Party looks a lot like the stylized maple leaf on the Canadian flag. Coincidence or is there a hidden Canadian connection?
White Helmets!
hevrin kalaf is the anarcho-atlantist feminist atheist and puppet americano-zionist
the kurds were not attacking the ottomans and they create this genocide out of nothing…
This seems like more theatre of the absurd. The SAA sent three soldiers in a pickup to stand by the side of the road in Manjib to prevent Turkey from coming into the town? After all the bombing by the Turkey, how much destruction has been reported, how many hospitals hit? Seems like a lot of smoke and mirrors.
Yeah lots of fishy business.
It is… https://www.voltairenet.org/article207820.html
Thanks for the link. I would agree.
It appears that everyone but the neocons and the Israelis (is there a difference?) have decided to end the chaos in Syria. It is the best (only?) way to meet the needs of the various parties. With stability, Turkey is able to send its 3 million refugees back home, Syria can begin rebuilding, and for the US and Russia, stability results in finally addressing the terrorist issue. As President Assad has stated before, its easy to kill the terrorist(jihadist) the key is to stop them from becoming terrorist in the first place. That requires peace/stability in the region.
What is interesting is President Trump has finally decided to overturn the neocons and pull the US troops mostly out of Syria. The US and UK MSM are going bonkers over this spreading their usual fake news of Kurdish massacre and release and resurgence of ISIS. Only Isreal benifed from the chaos in the ME. They are truly loathsome. It doesn’t matter why he finally decided to take action, as it also shows the impact of the US no longer being the world’s hegmony. Something the American public has not gotten the memo on.
I wonder if the Kurds will get more than the current two seats at the table of the UN sponsered Syrian Constitutional Committee?
extrapolate events from the day Putin and Russia stepped into the melee and this is where the thing is coming to an end – most enemies of Syria are on their way out, the kurds are back in the fold, or will be shortly, turkey will behave once the kurdish issue is settled, and the remnants of ISIS is just remnants and will not, like the bird phoenix be resurrected into a new life – all is well that ends well as the bard said and indeed a happy ending is possible, save that the israel and the unhinged states of A together caused the death of many hundred thousands, and misery galore and and and. it is unforgivable and should result in the complete termination of israel and the occupying scum there – return palestine to the palestinians and where the jews want to go is of little interest as long it is one hot hot place.
over a year ago, I long suspected that this situation will happen. Turkey would moved it’s troops and any fighters under its control to pound on the Kurds on north east Syria, forcing the Kurds to cede its foothold back to SAA, and ultimately breaking the Kurds opposition and putting it under SAA umbrella
Why would Turks do this? two big reasons 1. Secured border: Turkey would gain secured border on it’s southern border as SAA absorb and slowly disarmed Kurds fighter. They would have less trouble from PKK that way
2. Big money: With northeastern Syria region secured, natural gas pipes from Iran planned by the Russian and Iran could pass through to Turkey and eventually ended up supplying Europe This give Turks lots of money and leverage over Europe!!!
I suspected Russian and Turkey brokered this deal behind curtain for over a year. Syrians will get their land back but very slowly, and probably not all of it, but majority and important regions would eventually fall back to Syrian’s hand
ABORTION RIGHTS IN RAQQA!