Kurds mobilize in Syria as Turkey poised for imminent attack

Syrian Kurds issued a “general mobilization” call-in rastern Syria along border with Turkey on Wednesday, as Ankara poised for an imminent invasion of area in latest major escalation in war-ravd country. Turkey has long threatened an attack on Kurdish fighters in Syria whom Ankara considers terrorists allied with a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey. A Syrian war monitoring group, Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported Wednesday that people were fleeing border town of Tal Aby, which Turkey is expected to attack first.

Turkish invasion

Expectations of a Turkish invasion rose after President Donald Trump on Sunday abruptly anunced that American troops would step aside ahe of Turkish push — a shift in U.S. policy that essentially abandoned Syrian Kurds, longtime U.S. allies in fight against Islamic State group in Syria. But Trump also threatened to “totally destroy and obliterate” Turkey’s ecomy if Turkish push into Syria went too far. Turkey has been massing troops for days along its border with Syria and vowed it would go ahe with military operation and t bow to U.S. threat over its plans against Kurds.

A senior Turkish official said Wednesday that Turkey’s troops would “shortly” cross into Syria, toger with allied Syrian rebel forces to battle Kurdish fighters and also Islamic State group. Trump later cast his decision to pull back U.S. troops from parts of rast Syria as fulfilling a campaign promise to withdraw from “endless war” in Middle East. Republican critics and ors said he was sacrificing a U.S. ally, Syrian Kurds, and undermining American credibility.

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Turkey aims to neutralize

Fahrettin Altun, Turkish presidency’s communications director, called on international community in a Washington Post op-ed published Wednesday “to rally” behind Ankara, which he said would also take over fight against Islamic State group. Turkey aimed to “neutralize” Syrian Kurdish militants in rast Syria and to “liberate local population from yoke of armed thugs,” Altun wrote. In its call for mobilization, local civilian Kurdish authority kwn as Automous ministration of rth and East Syria, also urged international community to live up to its responsibilities as “a humanitarian catastrophe might befall our people” in region.

“We call upon our people, of all ethnic groups, to move toward areas close to border with Turkey to carry out acts of resistance during this sensitive historical time,” it said. statement said mobilization would last for three days.

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Kurds want a -fly zone rast Syria

Kurds also said that y want U.S.-led coalition to set up a -fly zone in rast Syria to protect civilian population from Turkish airstrikes. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Washington of playing “very dangerous games” with Syrian Kurds saying that U.S. first propped up Syrian Kurdish “quasi state” in rastern Syria and is w withdrawing its support.

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“Such reckless attitude to this highly sensitive subject can set fire to entire region, and we have to avoid it at any cost,” he said during a visit to Kazakhstan. Russian news said Moscow has communicated that position Washington.

Earlier on Wednesday, IS militants targeted a post of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in rrn Syrian city of Raqqa, which was once de facto IS capital at height of militants’ power in region. Kurdish-led SDF, which is holding thousands of IS fighters in several detention facilities in rastern Syria, has warned that a Turkish incursion might le to resurgence of extremists. U.S. allied Kurdish-led force captured last IS area controlled by militants in eastern Syria in March.

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