Turkey multiplies attacks in the Kurdish areas, but a major action comes up against the reluctance of Washington, Moscow and Teheran.
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The threat of an offensive in northern Syria, agitated since May by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has not yet materialized. Its project to extend the “security zone”, 30 kilometers deep, which the Turkish army and its Syrian auxiliaries have conquered since 2016, comes up against the reluctance of the United States and Russia. It was then a question of chasing the Syrian Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (FDS), which control the Northeast Syrian. In the meantime, Turkey engages in a war of wear against the Kurdish militia, which it considers as a terrorist group linked to the Kurdistan workers (PKK).
More a day passes without bombings and attacks on the drone against Kurdish fighters, who also make many civilian victims. From the city of Kobane, which the Kurdish forces resumed the Islamic State (IS) Organization in 2015 with the support of the international coalition led by Washington, Kamechliyé, no zone is spared. According to the latest count of the Airwars collective, which lists only civilian victims, there would be at least 54 attacks that have made nearly 120 victims since the beginning of the year.
Kurdish fighters live under the threat of Turkish drones. The Rojava Information Center, based in Kamechliyé, has listed at least 68 drone attacks since the start of the year, which would have left at least 41 dead and 77 injured. “During the past year, Turkey has extended its drone campaign in northeast Syria and northern Iraq. Many in the Kurdish forces consider that this is a tacit agreement between the Turkey and the United States, as an alternative to Turkey’s pursuit of a terrestrial offensive, “says Dareen Khalifa, of the Crisis Group International Center for Reflection (ICG).
” They feel infiltrated ”
Several Turkish PKK executives, but also Syrian YPG executives, close to the Turkish autonomist party, were killed in Syria and Iraq. The Americans only protested during the assassination, in a drone attack on July 22 in the province of Hassaké, Salwa Yusuk, an assistant from the Mazloum Abdi FDS Commander. “Drone’s attacks have become a tactic to fight YPG. Turkey means to them that as long as military operation is not an option, it has other ways to target them,” said Oytun Orhan, researcher Center for Studies on the Middle East Orsam, based in Turkey. These attacks, which give rise to reprisals to Turkish territory, destabilize the Kurdish chiefs. “They feel exposed and infiltrated. Turkey must have informants on the ground, which creates a distrust,” said M me khalifa.
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