After toppling Assad regime, HTS & Turkey attack towns of US-backed Kurds in Syria

After toppling Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Syria’s main opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and Turkey have found a common enemy in US-backed Kurds.

Even before the HTS-led offensive captured Damascus and forced Assad to flee to Russia, Turkey and a militia it supports, the Syrian National Army (SNA), had opened a front against Kurds over the weekend, who run an autonomous administration in northeastern Syria called Autonomous Administration of. North and East Syria (AANES).

By Wednesday (December 11), the HTS and Turkey have attacked the Kurds in at least three towns.

Even though the United States and Turkey are allies and are joined in their opposition to Assad, their interests diverge regarding Kurds, an ethnic spread across the region in Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey.

Turkey & Syrian Islamists join hands against Kurds

While Kurds are key allies of the United States and are central to the war against the Islamic State (Isis) terrorist group in the region, Turkey is opposed to Kurds and equates their military, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with the Kurdish group PKK, which it blames for an insurgency in Turkey and labels as a terrorist group.

Turkey is believed to have indirectly supported the opposition forces’ offensive that began late last month and toppled Assad’s regime in less than two weeks.

In the chaos amid the ouster of Assad, Turkey appears to have joined hands with HTS, an Islamist authoritarian group that was once formally the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, to open a renewed front against Kurds. They have attacked Kurds in at least three places.

The Turkey-SNA combine attacked Kurds in Manjib in eastern Syria over the weekend. The attack in Manjib was followed by SNA’s offensive against the SDF in Kobani. Then, the HTS on Tuesday captured the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor from the Kurds, who had captured the city from Assad’s regime forces last week.

The SNA is a militia of mercenaries and criminal bands sponsored by Turkey. It functions as Turkey’s sword arm inside Syria.

The UAE-based The National reported that the SNA has captured Manjib and has driven SDF out of the city.

The newspaper quoted an SNA commander as saying that the group’s “goal is just to end the separatist project” of Kurds.

HTS & SNA to continue attacking Kurds

In a video in circulation, an HTS fighter is sharing that the group “will advance toward Raqqa and Hasakah and other areas in eastern Syria” in the coming days, according to The Times of Israel.

Raqqa is one of the cities that was central to the now-ousted regime of Islamic State in Syria. It was captured by the Kurds after a bloody battle with the terrorist group in 2017. Now, the HTS, whose leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani was once a member of the Islamic State , has eyes on the city.

Separately, Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin reported a source in the SDF as saying that the Turkish military is advancing towards the Kurdish city of Kobani. The source said that Kurds fear an ethnic cleansing may be on the cards if Turks capture the city.

“The Turks have begun moving toward Kobani (the Kurdish city). We need to stop this as quickly as possible. This is extremely dangerous and threatens the existence of the Kurds in Syria. Ethnic Cleansing ongoing and Civil War alarm bells start to ring,” the source told Fox Chief National Security Correspondent Griffin.