Displaying items by tag: SDF

President Erdogan is giving signals of an imminent cross-border large-scale military incursion into Syria. Military equipment is on the frontier, and artillery shells now pound positions held by Syrian Kurdish armed forces. Senior officials and analysts believe operations against the groups will commence soon, hoping to conclude before the NATO summit on 29 June. ‘We will crack down on them suddenly overnight’, Erdogan told reporters. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it will coordinate with Syrian troops to fend off any Turkish invasion. An SDF commander said Damascus should use air defence systems against Turkish planes. Turkey’s vowed new offensive will be on areas controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia, a key part of the SDF. Syria warned Turkey there will be no compromise on territorial integrity. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organisation. Syrian Kurdish forces are backed by Washington, and co-ordinated with Syria and its ally Russia. See

The USA is working with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to create a border force, potentially 30,000 fighters, along the Turkey/Iraq borders and along the Syrian side of the Euphrates. Since 2014 it has led the coalition of nations using air strikes and specialist troops to fight IS across Syria and Iraq. IS has now lost most of that territory. For much of the war, the US and Turkey worked together against the Assad government. But this decision to back Kurdish fighters has enraged Ankara, and Syria denounced any new border force as an assault on its sovereignty, adding that Syrians joining the force would be ‘traitors’. Turkey vowed to ‘drown’ Kurdish border security forces in bullets, and Erdogan accused America of forming a ‘terrorist’ force on Turkey’s border. The fragile state of relations between the nations deteriorates.