A young woman at the funeral of a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter in the predominantly Kurdish town of Kamechliye, Syria, August 10, 2022. DELIL SOULEIMAN / AFP
The threat of an offensive in northern Syria, which has been hounded by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since May, has not yet materialized. His plan to expand the 30-kilometer-deep “security zone” that the Turkish army and its Syrian auxiliaries have seized since 2016 has met with opposition from the US and Russia. At that time, the aim was to expel the Syrian-Kurdish fighters of the People’s Defense Units (YPG) – the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which control the Syrian north-east. Meanwhile, Turkey is waging a war of attrition against the Kurdish militia, which it regards as a terrorist group with ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Not a day goes by without bombardments and drone attacks on Kurdish fighters, which also claim many civilian lives. From the city of Kobané, which Kurdish forces took over from the Islamic State (IS) organization in 2015 with the support of the Washington-led international coalition, to Kamechliyé, no area is spared. According to the latest tally by the Airwars Collective, which lists only civilian casualties, there have been at least 54 attacks since the beginning of the year, killing nearly 120 people.
Kurdish fighters live under threat from Turkish drones. The Rojava Information Center, based in Kamechliyé, has listed at least 68 drone strikes since the beginning of the year, resulting in at least 41 deaths and 77 injuries. “Over the past year, Turkey has expanded its drone campaign to northeastern Syria and northern Iraq. Many within the Kurdish forces see this as a tacit agreement between Turkey and the United States, as an alternative to a ground offensive by Turkey,” said Dareen Khalifa of think-tank International Crisis Group (ICG).
“You feel infiltrated”
Several Turkish leaders of the PKK, but also Syrian leaders of the YPG, close to the Turkish separatist party, have been killed in Syria and Iraq. The Americans were only protesting the July 22 assassination by drone strike of Salwa Yusuk, an assistant to SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, in Hassakeh province. “Drone strikes have become a tactic in the fight against the YPG. Turkey tells them it has other means to attack them as long as military operation is not an option,” said Oytun Orhan, a researcher at the Orsam Center for Middle East Studies based in Turkey. These attacks, which lead to reprisals even on Turkish territory, are destabilizing the Kurdish leadership. “They feel exposed and infiltrated. Turkey needs to have whistleblowers on the ground, which creates distrust,” Ms Khalifa said.
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