The US-backed Kurdish-dominated forces in northeast Syria had a surprise loss today, when Brig. Gen. Talal Silo, one of their few high-ranking non-Kurdish commanders, defected to Turkey.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have always been a vast majority Kurdish YPG fighters, but the small Arab allies within the group have long been emphasized, primarily to try to spin them ot Turkey as something other than a Kurdish faction.
In practice, the Kurds have been calling the shots, and that’s repeatedly led to tensions with their smaller Arab allies, who sometimes feel their goals aren’t being given enough consideration. It’s not clear if that’s what provoked this particular defection, but it certainly underscores those mounting fault-lines within the group.
No one in the US or Turkey is yet commenting on Silo’s specific status, but it’s likely that Silo will be able to provide substantial intelligence on the Kurdish YPG to Turkish forces. Given Turkey’s long-standing interest in picking a fight with the Kurds, they may see this as an opportunity to catch them off-guard.
There have been many other defections. A few months back two commanders, and their units, defected to Syrian Army. Lately, the area US is bringing Kurds in — with the intention of holding onto energy sources — has seen a great number of tribes joining militias and assisting Syrian Army. It appears that all of this is in reaction to the unexpected US approval of Kurdish occupation of Arab regions. Kurds are far out of their terfotory, and do not have the manpower to fight ISIS. It turned out that US and Kurdish units are walking freely around ISIS area, taking over villages and towns from ISIS, while ISIS is being freed up to fight progress of Syrian Army tooth and nail. And as if on a cue, the old Al-Qaeda popped up its head again — to liven things up. This is prompting Arab forces — never too big to start with — to abandon the Kurd nation building project. It is hard to understand US objective here. No Syrians (called Arabs not to offend Kurds that are also Syrians, but are hoping not to be Syrians at an earliest opportunity) would accept the “opportunity” to get under Kurd occupation. This is what happens when one falls for one’s own propaganda. As Syrian Arabs of any Sunni branch, Christians or Kurds are not supposed to support Assad —