The loosely-knit coalition of Syrian rebel groups known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), are armed, trained and backed by the U.S. The group is currently engaged in the early stages of battle in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria.
Syrian Kurdish militia member of the YPG patrols near a Turkish army tank in Esme village in Aleppo province, Syria. (AP/Mursel Coban)
The Trump administration’s policy in Syria was always confused, but now it is beginning to appear downright incoherent.
The Untied States heeded recent Kurdish requests for increased support and consequently plans to heavily arm the Kurdish YPG forces which comprise the core of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SFD).
The announcement came as US Defence Secretary James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis was in Copenhagen meeting with Turkish officials whom Mattis said were also US allies.
The Kurds have released a number of statements with regards to the Astana Memorandum that appear to contradict each other. On the one hand, they referred to the decree calling for safe zones in Syria a ‘crime’, claiming that it would lead to sectarian partition and federalisation. But isn’t partition indeed what the Kurds – or at least many of them want and always wanted? In this instance, they share the same objective as the terrorist factions: to divide and conquer albeit to a much smaller degree and for vastly different reasons.
(ZHE) Just three days after Turkish warplanes killed at least 20 US-backed Kurdish fighters along the Turkey-Syria border, as well as several Kurdish peshmerga troops on Mount Sinjar in northwestern Iraq, footage posted by Syrian activists showed the US has deployed troops and APCs in the contested region, in a move that could potentially drag the US in a conflict where
U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces raise their flag in the center of the town of Manbij after driving ISIS out of the area, in Aleppo province, Syria. (ANHA via AP)
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The most tragic element of the conflict in Syria is that it is not a civil war but instead a series of proxy wars between militant groups representing regional and global powers, all being fought over the bones of Syrian civilians.
Now though, the proxy war is taking an ever darker twist.
Technically Turkey is a US ally, although Turkey and America are increasingly finding themselves on opposite sides in Syria.
The Pentagon says the supply order had been 'in the works for some time.'
