Top Kurdish commander warns of 'bloody civil war' in Syria as Turkey & Islamists continue attacks

General Mazloum Abdi, the commander of Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has warned that the country may be headed into another round of a “bloody civil war” if Turkey and Islamist groups continue carrying out attacks inside the country.

Turkey and groups its sponsors inside Syria, such as Syrian National Army (SNA) comprising mercenaries and criminal bands, have been attacking Kurds in northern and eastern Syria. They have also been joined by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the main opposition group that led the offensive against the Assad regime, in attacks against Kurds.

Together, the Turkish, SNA, and HTS forces have attacked Kurds in at least three towns since the weekend.

Kurds are an ethnic group spread across Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. Most of the Kurds are Sunni Muslims but they also practice Christianity and Zoroastrianism among other religions. In Syria, Kurds run a regional government in northeastern Syria called Autonomous Administration of. North and East Syria (AANES). While Kurds are the main US ally in the region in the war against Islamic State (Isis), Turkey considers them enemies.

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Turkey equates SDF with the Kurdish group PKK , which it blames for an insurgency inside Turkey and considers a terrorist group. Therefore, Turkey has for years attacked Syrian Kurds and has sought to limit the size of AANES and push them farther from the Turkish border.

Kurdish commander warns of ‘bloody civil war’

As Turkish military and Syrian militias have joined hands against Kurds, General Abdi said the SDF is under “constant attack”.

“We are still under constant attack from the Turkish military and the Turkish-supported opposition which is called SNA,” said Mazloum in an interview with Fox News.

Mazloum said that Turkey is carrying out up to 81 drone attacks a day amid “intensive” artillery bombardment. He went on to say that such an offensive has “paralysed our counterterror operation”.

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If the new Syrian regime is not inclusive and if violence continues as it is, then Syria is headed into another “bloody civil war”, warned Mazloum.

“So any new government in Syria needs to be representative, needs to be inclusive and contain and include all different parties of Syria. So if not that takes us to a bloody civil war in the country and that will put us in huge stage of escalatory path that no one can predict the fate of that,” said Mazloum.

Fears of Islamic State’s resurgence

Mazloum also warned that the spiralling violence in Syria could also be fertile grounds for the resurgence of the Islamic State.

In addition to safeguarding Kurdish territory and conducting regular operations against Isis, the SDF is also responsible of guarding several prison complexes where up to 45,000 Isis terrorists and their family members are put. Amid ongoing chaos in Syria in which Turkey has opened a front against Kurds, there are fears that attempts at freeing these prisoners could be made, which would be catastrophic for the region if it is successful.

Mazloum said half of his fighters guarding the ISIS camps had to withdraw in recent days.

Mazloum told Fox, “All of the prisons still are under our control. However, the prisons and camps are in a critical situation because who is guarding them? They are leaving and having to protect their families. I can give you one example like the Raqqa ISIS prison, which contains about 1,000 ISIS ex-fighters. The number of guards there have diminished by half which is putting them in a fragile position.”

Mazloum added, “We expect those Islamists, different factions to unite, to fight with ISIS and that will bring back tougher extremists, terrorist organisations back to the country.”

Mazloum further said that even though a ceasefire was reached with the Turkey-backed groups earlier this week with US mediation, the attacks have continued both from Turkey and militias.

Over the weekend, the Turkey-SNA combine attacked Kurds in Manjib in eastern Syria. 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.

Separately, Fox Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin quoted a Kurdish source as saying the community fears an ethnic cleansing amid ongoing attacks.

Turkey has a record of ethnic cleansing. Before Syria where Turkey supports anti-Assad and anti-Kurd groups, Turkey had sponsored Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“The Turks have begun moving toward Kobani. 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 Griffin.