Tag Archives: Kurdish
US military calls on Kurdish forces in northeast Syria
US military vehicles Saturday entered a Kurdish-held area in northeastern Syria and met with officials, AFP correspondents and a local source said, in the second such visit since an announced US pullout from the Turkish border area. Beige-coloured armoured vehicles flying the American flag pulled up at the headquarters of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces outside the city of Qamishli. A US-led coalition has for years backed the SDF in fighting the Islamic State group, but the announcement of an American withdrawal triggered a deadly Turkish invasion against the Kurds on October 9.
Syria's Assad says Kurdish controlled northeast of Syria to fall eventually under state control
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday his country’s ultimate goal was to restore state authority over Kurdish controlled areas in northeast Syria after an abrupt U.S. troop withdrawal but said this would happen gradually. In an interview with state television, Assad also said that a deal this month between Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin to drive out the Kurdish-led YPG militia from a 30 km (19 mile) “safe zone” along the border was a step that would help Damascus in that goal.
In a Kurdish prison, former IS fighters never see the sun
Just months ago, the most hardcore among them were still bent on defending the last sliver of the Islamic State group’s “caliphate” in Baghouz, Syria. AFP correspondents obtained exclusive access to the site in Hasakeh province. IS fighters were accused of carrying out beheadings, mass executions, rapes, abductions and ethnic cleansing in territory they held across swaths of Iraq and Syria.
U.S. Spies Say Turkish-Backed Militias Are Killing Civilians as They Clear Kurdish Areas in Syria
Russia warns Syrian Kurdish YPG to pull back as its forces move in
UPDATE 1-Turkey, Russia strike deal to remove Syrian Kurdish YPG, launch joint patrols
SOCHI, Russia/ANKARA, Oct 22 (Reuters) – Turkey and Russia agreed on Tuesday to remove the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia to beyond 30 km (19 miles) from the Turkish border, after which their troops will jointly patrol a narrower strip of land in a "safe zone" Ankara has long sought in northern Syria. Beginning at noon (0900 GMT) on Wednesday, Russian military police and Syrian border guards will move in to facilitate the removal of YPG members and weapons to beyond the zone in a mission that should take about six days, according to the deal. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hailed the deal as one that would end the bloodshed in the region, while Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had no designs on Syrian territory as it continued to push the YPG south.
