Syrian Kurdish forces cede Tell Rifaat, claims Turkish press
Ankara is already celebrating its victory over the Syrian Kurdish militia in Tell Rifaat today as dreams of a corridor under Kurdish control evaporate.
The United States’ Syrian Kurdish allies face further reversals by Turkish-led forces amid reports that they were being pushed out of the mainly Arab town of Tell Rifaat today.
The Turkish media reported that an offensive heralded on Sunday by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against Tell Rifaat had begun amid unconfirmed reports that the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) had withdrawn without a fight. Turkish military sources quoted by the mainstream NTV news channel, however, denied that Tell Rifaat had been captured.
A commander of the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is the US-led coalition’s top ally against the Islamic State in Syria, confirmed in a telephone interview with Al-Monitor that Tell Rifaat had not yet fallen, though he revealed that Syrian regime forces had withdrawn from the town last night. The SDF official acknowledged, however, that the YPG would likely pull out of Tell Rifaat as well because “there are a lot of civilians, including thousands displaced from Afrin, and we do not want them to come to any harm.” The commander speculated that the Turkish-led forces would next target the Menagh air base near Tell Rifaat, saying, “The Turks and the Russians have struck a deal. They want to punish the Kurds for cooperating with the Americans.”
The Turkish advance came amid news that Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had spoken over the telephone. The call was reportedly initiated by Erdogan to condole the Russian leader over the fire that killed at least 64 people in a mall in the Siberian town of Kemerovo. The pro-government Yeni Safak quoted unnamed Turkish presidential sources as saying the presidents were “in full agreement” on a wide range of bilateral issues and had discussed their forthcoming meeting in Turkey on April 4, at which they are due to be joined by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, to pursue the so-called Astana process to resolve the seven-year-old Syrian conflict.
