At a time when Turkey is warning the US to end its support for Syrian Kurds, the US and its coalition partners appear to be heading in the opposite direction. The US is reportedly building a new military base in the Kurdish-majority city of Kobani, right on the Turkish border.
The US has been backing the Kurdish SDF for years, to the chagrin of Turkey and its allies in the self-proclaimed Syrian National Army (SNA). In recent weeks, intense fighting has erupted between the SDF and Turkey and their partners in SNA.
So far, the fighting has centered around the city of Manbij, which is further west than Kobani but also along the Syria-Turkey border. Turkish military officials are quoted as saying they believe they are close to achieving victory in Manbij.
Not that the fighting in and around Manbij is actually slowing down. The SDF has launched artillery strikes against the outskirts of Manbij, and the SNA is conducting heavy attacks against SDF positions near Tishreen Dam, even further west.
Even if the fighting in and around Manbij is settled, that won’t be the end of the SNA or Turkey’s offensive into Kurdish territory. Kobani is clearly at the top of their list of targets after Manbij, and villages near Kobani were reported shelled by Turkey. The SDF also reported shooting down a Turkish drone near Kobani.
Turkish officials say their goal is to wipe out the YPG, a Kurdish faction which is the largest constituent of the SDF. Turkey backed the recent regime change in Syria, and their new Islamist leadership in Damascus is talking about how the Kurds can’t be allowed to retain the autonomy they carved out during the Syrian Civil War.
Where the US fits in all of this fighting over northern and northeastern Syria remains to be seen, but that the US is setting up another base smack in the middle of this suggests it’s going to be insinuating itself into the situation one way or another.
The Pentagon, however, continues to insist the “ceasefire” between Turkey and the SDF is holding, despite Turkey insisting the ceasefire never existed in the first place, and both sides are in open warfare against one another. For now, at least, this has prevented anyone from asking the Pentagon tough questions about what its intentions in the region are.
