The request followed an announcement from the Kurdish forces, which are
allied with the United States in the fight against the Islamic State militant group,
that they intended to send 1,700 fighters from Deir al-Zour, a strategically important
eastern province, to the fight against Turkey in Afrin, a Kurdish enclave.
Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, said
his country had taken “the necessary steps” through official channels and “expected
from the U.S. that it should absolutely step in” to prevent the movement of the
Kurdish forces from Manbij to Afrin. “This is our most natural right,” Mr. Kalin
added.
It was not clear why Mr. Kalin had referred to Manbij, a city at the westernmost
point of the Syrian territory held by the Kurds, though it might have been cited as a
way station for the troops as they moved toward Afrin.
There was no immediate American response to the request by the Turks, an
American ally and NATO member that invaded Afrin in January and threatened to
drive the Kurds from the entire Syria-Turkey border. But the Turkish assault has
since bogged down.
The fighting in Afrin is creating problems for the United States. The transfer of
personnel from the Kurdish-led, American-backed militia known as the Syrian
Democratic Forces, or S.D.F., is a blow to Washington’s effort to stamp out the last
vestiges of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
On the diplomatic front, the Americans have insisted that although they are
allied with the S.D.F. in eastern Syria, they have no affiliation with the group in the
northwest and will not aid any of its operations there. But with its Kurdish coalition
allies now streaming to join the defenders in Afrin, that posture will be increasingly
difficult to maintain. As a result, in Afrin, the Trump administration is finding itself
awkwardly on the opposite side from Turkey.
The S.D.F. said in a statement on Tuesday that it had made a “painful decision”
to move the fighters from Deir al-Zour to Afrin, citing “the failure of the
international community” to pressure Turkey and “stop its madness within our
Syrian borders.”
The role in Afrin of the Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units,
or Y.P.G., which is the main component of the S.D.F., has raised tensions with
Turkey, which considers the militia an extension of a separatist group that is active
in Turkey and is listed as a terrorist group by both Ankara and Washington.
For six weeks, Turkey has mounted a campaign to wrest control of Afrin from
the Y.P.G., an offensive that has displaced some 10,000 people and killed several
hundred civilians and 41 Turkish soldiers. Mr. Erdogan said this week that 159
Syrians belonging to the Free Syrian Army, which is fighting alongside Turkish
armed forces, had also died.
The Y.P.G. has responded with cross-border shelling, leading to civilian deaths
in Turkey.
Adding to the complications, the Y.P.G., which has carved out a zone of de facto
autonomy from the Syrian government within Afrin and in a larger swath of
northeastern Syria, last week allowed some pro-government militias to enter its
territory to help the fight against Turkey.
The militias did not include formal army troops, but they flew the Syrian
government flag. State television in Syria said the militias were aiding in the defense
of the country’s borders but made no reference to Kurdish aspirations.
Turkey’s incursion came soon after the United States said that it would continue
to support the S.D.F. even after the fight against the Islamic State ends and that it
would help the group form a border force to protect the long frontier its territory
shares with Turkey.
Now, the movement of troops away from Deir al-Zour threatens two American
objectives there: preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State and curbing the
growing influence of Iran, which sponsors militias that fight for the Syrian
government.
In another crisis point in Syria, negotiations on Tuesday between the
government and Jaish al-Islam, the rebel group that controls the northern and
eastern parts of the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta, went nowhere. Despite
mass civilian casualties and major territorial losses, the armed groups in the enclave
refused to withdraw, according to antigovernment activists.
“The result of the negotiations which Jaish al-Islam took part in yesterday is
that the displacement and exit of the armed groups and civilians was refused
completely,” said Alaa al-Ahmad, an activist in eastern Ghouta, adding that rebel
groups had “refused a policy of displacement.”
Videos published by Syrian pro-government news media showed some residents
of the town of Hammouriyeh taking to the streets Wednesday afternoon calling on
the rebel fighters to leave. The videos, in which some people could be seen waving
Syrian government flags, could not be independently verified.
The residents of eastern Ghouta have lived under a harsh government siege
since 2013 and have borne the brunt of a heavy bombing campaign that has pounded
the enclave for weeks, claiming the lives of over 800 civilians to date. The
bombardment has continued despite a unanimously approved 30-day cease-fire
agreed to by the United Nations Security Council that was intended to provide
respite and an opportunity for civilians to evacuate.
After the failed negotiations, about 700 fresh pro-government troops arrived on
Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, in preparation for a
push into the urban heart of the rebel-held enclave.
Syrian and Russian authorities maintain that rebels have shelled the
humanitarian corridor and prevented civilians from leaving. The Russian Ministry of
Defense, in a briefing on Wednesday, maintained that only 17 people had thus far
been able to evacuate through the corridor.
Since the onslaught began less than a month ago, pro-government forces have
seized about 40 percent of eastern Ghouta, mostly rural areas. Government forces
have exploited loopholes in the cease-fire agreement to continue their advance.