With Syria in flux, Turkey attacks US-backed forces

The Turkish military fired on US-backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria this past weekend, a war monitoring group and a spokesperson for the Kurdish group said Sunday, illuminating the tangle of competing interests and alliances in Syria in the wake of the government’s collapse.

Fighting erupted Saturday in Manbij, a Kurdish-controlled city near Syria’s border with Turkey, between rebel groups, one backed by the United States and the other by Turkey. At least 22 members of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces were killed in and around Manbij, and 40 others were wounded, according to the Kurdish group.

The clashes preceded a call Sunday between Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Turkish counterpart, Defense Minister Yasar Guler.

The other fighters, the Syrian National Army, were supported in their assault of Manbij by Turkish air power, including warplanes, according to a spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Forces. And a Turkish “kamikaze drone” exploded at a Kurdish military base Saturday, according to the monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Turkey and the United States are allies, sworn to protect each other as members of the NATO alliance. Although both countries celebrated Sunday’s ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, their interests diverge over support for the Kurds in northern Syria, far from Damascus, the capital.

In their call Sunday, Austin and Guler agreed that coordination was necessary “to prevent further escalation of an already volatile situation, as well as to avoid any risk to US forces and partners,” according a readout of the conversation released by the Pentagon. The United States also acknowledged Turkey’s “legitimate security concerns.”

The Kurds have been instrumental partners for the United States in fighting the Islamic State group, an Islamist terrorist organization that rose to power early in Syria’s civil war, more than a decade ago.

The Kurds now control much of Syria’s northeast under an autonomous civil administration. About 900 US troops are deployed to Syria to support the Kurdish forces. US forces have patrolled around Manbij with Turkey in the past, but it was not immediately clear if any US troops were in the city this past weekend during the Turkish bombardment.

On Sunday, the United States announced it had conducted one of the largest strikes against Islamic State group targets in months.

Turkey views armed Kurds so close to its border as a threat. For decades, Turkey has fought Kurdish separatists, who seek to carve out an independent country.

Turkey has backed several rebel groups in Syria, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group of seemingly reformed al-Qaida members whose lightning-fast push to Damascus toppled the authoritarian government Sunday. Turkey also has backed the Syrian National Army, a ragtag force made up of mercenaries and criminals, to help maintain a buffer zone along its border with Syria to guard against the activities of Kurdish militants.

Turkey and its proxies in the Syrian National Army “are looking to utilize the current chaos to rewrite the map in Turkey’s favour,” said Devorah Margolin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “They are using the distraction of Damascus to continue to grab power during this time of chaos and to undermine the SDF, ensuring its negotiating power is weakened.”

The power vacuum created by the fall of Damascus presents an opportunity for Turkey to increase its power and influence in Syria generally but particularly along its border, said Natasha Hall, a senior fellow with the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The weekend’s fighting was condemned by the Kurdish-run civil administration of northern Syria.

“The other part of Syria is liberated from the tyranny of Assad,” said Sinam Mohamad, who represents the Kurdish autonomous region in its dealings with the United States.

Turkey and its proxies, he said, “want to create another conflict,” adding, “We don’t want to have conflict in the region.”