QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – As the recent Turkish escalation against northeast Syria has overwhelmingly devastated the region of north and northeast Syria; the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they suspended their operations against sleeper cells of the Islamic State (ISIS).
SDF Commander in Chief Mazloum Abdi said they could not be engaged on two fronts at the same time; with the escalating Turkish shelling and cells of ISIS.
He warned that any Turkish attacks would directly impact his forces’ ability to keep hold of the camps and prisons that house ISIS militants and families.
“Our forces would be busy protecting our own people and families and we wouldn’t be able to guard the camps,” he stressed.
In November 20, intense and wide spread aerial operation were carried out by the Turkish forces against north and northeast Syria which has claimed tens of lives and destroyed facilities and infrastructure along the whole border strip from Aleppo northern countryside in the northwest up to Derik (al-Malikiyah) in the northeast.
While the death toll included SDF fighters and Syrian government soldiers as well as civilians, vital facilities and infrastructure were wholly destroyed in the days long Turkish campaign.
The Turkish operations on the ground are impacting the joint operations between the SDF and the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. The operations could backfire if it takes a longer time.
Statements by Turkish officials and intelligence reports indicated that Ankara was preparing for a ground invasion against the region.
On November 30, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters they had reduced the number of partnered patrols with the SDF.
In the aftermath of the Istanbul explosion, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened – in retaliation – a ground incursion. Though Erdogan specified Kobani, Tel Rifaat and Manbij as alleged targets of his operation, he did not specify when it would be launched.
While the US and other international partners voiced opposition to Erdogan’s offensive and urged de-escalation, such statements seemed “not enough” and short of SDF’s commander expectations from the US to halt the Turkish invasion.
According to some observers, the unexpected move by the SDF Commander in Chief was a pressing card against the Global Coalition and the international community, a well employed one though as the whole region remained for long days under constant and deadly aerial campaign by the Turkish forces.
Allegedly, owing to “strong” US opposition to Erdogan’s operation, relative calm has returned to the region but concern still prevail.
On December 4, a patrol of the Coalition was mounted. However, as it largely focused on inspecting the sites and facilities damaged by the Turkish escalation, it remains out of original context.
On November 23, the SDF announced suspending its mission against ISIS due to the Turkish escalation against the region.
However, amid such a status of the affair, ISIS sleeper cells could be given an impetus to rise more ferociously in areas where the group seems to be still garnering popular support and drawing attention.
This seems to have its foundations on the ground, as on November 25, the US military said two rockets targeted the Coalition forces at bases in the Syrian town of Shaddadi resulting in no “injuries or damage to the base or coalition property.”
Whatever the doer, this indicates a vacuum could be created in the region at any moment.
Notably, on December 6, US officials told Washington Post the US troops would expand patrols in Syria. The move was to prevent a potential Turkish incursion in the first place.
On December 11, the US Central Command announced in a press release it killed two ISIS officials in a successful helicopter “unilateral” raid in east Syria.
Anas, one of the slain ISIS officials was said to be involved in “facilitation operations” by the group in eastern Syria, the statement noted. This seems significant in the sense that Anas could have been a driving force and a mastermind behind the kick and run operations carried out by ISIS cells.
While the statement signaled no SDF fighters took part in the operation, it adumbrated that the United States “remains committed to countering the global threat from ISIS in partnership with local forces.”
“ISIS continues to pursue an aggressive operational agenda, including external attacks that threaten US allies and partners in the region and beyond,” it read.
In a relevant issue, the Sochi Peace Talks stipulated joint patrols between Russian Military Police and the Turkish forces remain stalled for the third consecutive week. An indication signifying tension has roots.
Since the self-proclaimed ISIS caliphate was ended in the territorial sense of the word in the town of Baghouz in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor Governorate, eastern Syria, in March 2019, about 900 US troops remain deployed to Syria, which along with the SDF fighters have kept ISIS sleeper cells at check to regain territories.
However, since that date the group has largely been depending on kick and run tactic making use of the vast Syrian Desert and along the porous Syrian-Iraqi border which remains a transit route between Syrian and Iraq.
Since the SDF has suspended its ISIS-related operations, people in northeast Syria have voiced their growing concerns of an ISIS resurgence that – if happens – could set the whole region on the brink of collapse, in the wider sense of the word.