Heavy fighting continues to rage in northern Syria’s Aleppo Governorate, as Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) forces attack Kurdish SDF forces. The most intense fighting has been reported southeast of Manbij, on the approach to the Tishreen Dam.
The SDF reported that the most serious fighting occurred between Friday evening and late Saturday morning. During this time 23 SNA fighters and 3 SDF fighters were killed. Additionally, 36 SNA fighters were reported wounded. Turkey supplied air support for the SNA offensive, but ultimately the SDF claimed to have repelled the attacks.
Turkey also used heavy artillery positioned in the area to fire on the area around Tishreen Dam, where SDF forces have set up multiple positions. One of two major dams on the Euphrates River, the Tishreen Dam provides substantial electricity in northeastern Syria and would be a strategic goal for the SNA.
Turkey is keen to see the SNA seize the area, and has vowed the SDF should be totally wiped out. While Turkey has threatened cross-border operations, the SDF has proposed turning the area around the city of Kobani into a demilitarized zone, and seeks US and French support for guarding the north Syrian border with Turkey.
Turkey has reacted with anger to the SDF proposal, particularly with respect to French involvement. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says Turkey doesn’t take “small countries like France” seriously and sees them bringing “no real benefit” to the region.
Fidan further accused France of turning a blind eye to Turkey’s military interests in northern Syria, and that stated Turkey has “the strength, the capacity and above all the determination to eliminate all threats to its survival at the source.”
Interestingly, France never actually commented on the proposal to put its troops at the Syria-Turkey border. President Emmanuel Macron did say in comments last week that France would not abandon the SDF, which Turkey, with its demands that everybody abandon support for the SDF, sees as a threat.
Turkey has been raging at the US presence in SDF territory, and demanding it scrap that support. Though policy may change when President-elect Trump is inaugurated, the US shows no signs of moving away from the current position, with reports of military assets being sent into Kobani in very recent days.
For the present, though, Turkey and the SNA will continue attacking the area between Manbij and the Tishreen Dam, with eyes on moving further east when the opportunity presents itself. Turkish warplanes reportedly carried out an airstrike on the countryside outside Kobani, killing a civilian and his two of his daughters. His wife and five other children were wounded in the strike.
Turkey has been pumping up the “threat” posed by the Kurds, with Turkish media claiming that Iran intends to send 1,500 suicide drones to the YPG, the largest faction within the SDF. There is so far no evidence this claim of Iranian drones is true, however, and indeed Iran has historically been relatively hostile to Kurdish secessionist movements in the region.
