Turkish attack on Syria halts war against ISIS

Operations scheduled for the ISIS war in Syria have ceased after Turkey launched a cross-border military offensive, US and Syrian officials told Foreign Policy. "All of us have stopped now," a senior administration official said, noting that all intelligence and surveillance missions directed against the Islamic State terrorist group "are now focused on protecting our forces."

The Syrian Democratic Council's envoy to the United States, Bassam Sakr, said that counter-terrorism operations have now ceased, given that Kurdish fighters are moving north in large numbers to counter Turkish progress. This council is the political tool of the Syrian Democratic Forces, most of them Kurds. They played the main role in the fighting on the ground against ISIS in Syria, culminating in the defeat of the organization earlier this year. "We will do our best to fight our enemies," a council spokesman said.

The cessation of the war against IS came after Turkish ground forces crossed the border into Syria, while Turkish warplanes and artillery began pounding Kurdish positions, including border towns, and 25 kilometers into northern Syria. The town of Ain Issa, where the SDF headquarters and the Syrian Democratic Council are based, was bombed, officials said.

Turkey's progress in Syria comes after a call between US President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after which Trump announced the withdrawal of his troops from Syria, giving Turkey the green light to launch an attack on northern Syria. A senior administration official said that Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from northern Syria "is the worst political decision since the war on Iraq."

Senior Pentagon officials were "doing their best" to prevent Trump from making the decision to withdraw all US troops from Syria, according to the official, a plan the president reiterated last week. At the same time, IS has benefited from the Turkish invasion and attack on SDF positions, and has carried out several suicide attacks against SDF forces in Raqqa, according to these forces.

In fact, ISIS is not the only one that has benefited from the Turkish invasion of northern Syria. The Syrian government army has moved to the northern city of Manbij and to the Idlib region in the northwest, officials said. The Pentagon is particularly worried about a new threat from the north, as the SDF will leave prisons teeming with large numbers of ISIS fighters. A senior ministry official said: "We are very concerned about the prisons, where there are detainees of the organization, as the detainees will escape from these prisons when the Turkish army penetrates into northern Syria."

The White House said Turkey would control the prisons, which contain fighters from around the globe, who had come to Syria to join armed groups. But experts expressed skepticism that Turkey could accomplish this task properly.

The former member of the Turkish parliament, who now works for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, Ekan Erdemir, pointed out that many of the detention facilities are located inside Syrian territory, beyond the area that Turkey plans to occupy in the early stages of the process. “Can Turkey, and its Syrian opposition allies, hand over these key detention centers for ISIS fighters in Syria? "It will be an impossible task." "It is a recipe for producing a catastrophe, as we continue to see more ISIS fighters fleeing these camps, and then regrouping." At the same time, the United Nations is working to convince the world to convene an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Syria, at the request of Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom.

In a new statement, President Trump on Wednesday evening called the Turkish invasion of northern Syria a "bad idea," but repeated his withdrawal from the rest of the US troops in Syria, calling it "endless futile wars" in the Middle East. Trump said Turkey was committed to protecting civilians and minorities, and that the United States would "force it to do so." Later that same day, Trump reaffirmed his decision to withdraw US troops, saying that the Kurds did not support the United States in World War II.``Now the Kurds are fighting for their land, so you have to understand that they didn't give us help in the war, '' he said. Second World, they did not help us in Enza For (Normandy), for example ». "For me, all these feelings are frustrating," former Central Command chief Joseph Voutel, who retired in March, told a panel of experts in Washington. “It is frustrating to give up our partners, and perhaps help in a humanitarian disaster in this region, and that we are relinquishing a hard-won strategic advantage of playing an important role, while recognizing that it is a long-term problem, and it is very difficult to find a political solution in this The troubled region of the world.

Trump's withdrawal of US troops prompted a bipartisan backlash, which has vowed to punish Turkey with sanctions.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, and Republican Lindsey Graham, announced a tough bill targeting the money of senior Turkish officials in the United States, including Erdogan himself, as well as sanctions against Turkey's energy sector, a ban on US military aid, and additional sanctions. Under the 2017 law that targeted Russia, Iran, and North Korea. "These sanctions will be quick-acting and have serious consequences for Erdogan and his army," Van Hollen said in a tweet.

But Graham, a staunch ally of Trump, has not been directly and strongly criticized. "Let our Kurdish allies, whom the Trump administration shamefully abandoned," he wrote in a tweet on Wednesday. "This will ensure the re-emergence of ISIS."

Lara Selgman and Robbie Gramer are writers for Foreign Policy

The White House said Turkey would control the prisons, which contain fighters from all over the globe, who came to Syria to join the armed groups. But experts expressed skepticism that Turkey could accomplish this task properly.