Citing disappointment with the United States, the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they were pulling fighters off the front lines in the province of Deir al-Zour, where Islamic State fighters have been putting up a fierce fight in a pocket of territory on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.
According to a statement by the SDF, which has received arms and training from the United States, the fighters will relocate to the Kurdish-controlled enclave of ­Afrin in northwestern Syria to help fend off a six-week-old Turkish offensive that has reportedly killed hundreds of civilians, displaced more than 10,000 people and contributed to one of the worst crises in U.S.-Turkish relations in decades.
It is with “regret” that the “painful decision” has been made to pull fighters away from the battle in Deir al-Zour, the SDF statement said. The decision would not have been taken, it added, “were it not for the failure of the international community to curb the Turkish aggression and put real pressure” on the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to “stop its madness within our Syrian borders.”
The SDF withdrawal was a direct result of Kurdish frustration with the recent American rapprochement with Turkey and the lack of support Washington has given to the Kurds in their fight against Turkish troops in Afrin, according to Aldar Xelil, a senior official with the self-proclaimed Kurdish-led administration governing northeastern Syria.
“The international coalition let us down,” he said in an interview over Skype. “They did not do what we expected them to do for us after a very long partnership.”
“We are allies. The Americans should have helped us. We were allies for a very long time,” he added. “For one and a half months we have been under attack by Turkey. Turkey is using NATO weapons to attack an American ally. We were partners in the fight against [the Islamic State], and they did not do anything to help us.”
The redeployment involves about 1,500 to 1,700 fighters drawn mostly from Arab groups affiliated with the Kurdish-
dominated SDF. Thousands of Kurdish fighters had previously left northeastern Syria for Afrin, and operations against the Islamic State had already come to a standstill, Xelil said. Some SDF fighters will remain on the front line there, alongside U.S. troops, and will continue to defend their positions, he said.
In recent months, the Islamic State fighters have begun to regroup, Xelil warned. “There is a danger this will give IS a chance to revive, to come back to life, and they might even expand their territory again,” he said.
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