Turkish troops today unfurled their flag over a former Kurdish headquarters in northern Syria as Ankara stamped its authority on the border zone at the centre of the Middle East crisis.
The Turks and a group of Syrian rebels made the provocative display today in Ras al-Ain, a border town where Kurdish fighters have been forced out by Turkey’s offensive.
Russian military police also arrived in the area today to begin clearing out the last Kurdish fighters under a ‘historic’ agreement between Moscow and Ankara yesterday.
Moscow has warned the Kurds they will be ‘mauled’ by the ‘Turkish military machine’ if they do not withdraw from the Turkish border.
Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said more euphemistically that his forces would take ‘necessary steps’ against the Kurds if they do not pull out.
Ankara said there was ‘no need’ to resume its operations when a five-day ceasefire expired last night.
But the Kurds claim the attack is still going on and Syrians in Ras al-Ain suffered horrific burns in a blast yesterday, before the ceasefire ended.
Trump, whose withdrawal of U.S. troops prompted Erdogan’s invasion, hailed today’s developments as a ‘big success’ and said sanctions on Turkey would be lifted.
But a top State Department official contradicted his optimism by warning that more than 100 ISIS prisoners had escaped in the chaos since Turkey invaded.
With American forces gone, the border zone is now a tinderbox of Turkish, Russian and Syrian forces as well as anti-Assad rebels – shattering Kurdish hopes of autonomy.
Provocation: The Turkish flag (right) and the emblem of anti-Assad rebels in Syria (left) are unfurled on the roof of a former Kurdish headquarters in the town of Ras al-Ain today
Turkish presence: Two of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s soldiers patrol the northern Syrian town of Tal Abyad on Wednesday as Turkey stamps its authority on the border zone
Russian presence: Members of the Russian military police patrol in the north-eastern Syrian city of Kobane today as Moscow’s forces arrive to help escort Kurdish fighters out of the zone
Kurdish presence: A member of the Kurdish Internal Security Force stands guard during a protest in Qamishli, which remains under Kurdish control
A map showing the area that will be patrolled by Russian and Turkish forces under the agreement struck between Putin and Erdogan yesterday
On another day of tense political exchanges over Syria:
- Moscow savaged Washington for ‘betraying’ the Kurdish people after Donald Trump pulled out U.S. troops and paved the way for Erdogan’s invasion;
- A top U.S. official said that more than 100 ISIS prisoners have escaped in Syria in the chaos since Turkey’s invasion
- Trump said the Kurds are ‘safe and have worked very nicely with us’ and insisted captured ISIS prisoners had been ‘secured’
- A top U.S. diplomat said the U.S. was counting on both Turkey and its Kurdish opponents to fight ISIS;
- Turkey and Russia are said to be in talks about extra sales of Russian-made missile defence systems to add to the deal they struck yesterday;
- Former U.S. military head Mick Mullen said Turkey would not have invaded if U.S. forces had stayed in Syria;
- Washington and NATO gave a cautious welcome to a German plan for an internationally-enforced safe zone in Syria;
- Experts said the Turkey-Russia agreement had shattered Kurdish hopes of autonomy.
Today Russian troops crossed the Euphrates River in Syria and will start patrolling the area alongside Syrian forces, under the deal struck in Sochi yesterday.
Russian patrols have already begun near the city of Manbij, where U.S. troops were manning a base until two weeks ago.
From today, Russian military police and Syrian border guards will ‘facilitate the removal’ of Kurdish fighters and their weapons from within 18 miles of the border.
This withdrawal must be finalised within 150 hours, according to a text of the agreement released after the talks.
The Russians entered the city of Kobani in a particularly symbolic blow to the Kurds, who fought ISIS for control of it in 2014-15.
Moscow’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin said he hoped the Kurds would go voluntarily, avoiding the dire fate predicted by the Kremlin which said they would be ‘mauled’ by Turkish forces if they remained in the zone.
Once the Kurdish fighters have withdrawn, Russian and Turkish forces will then begin joint patrols along the Turkish-controlled zone.
The two countries are also said to be in talks about extra deliveries of Russian-made S-400 missile defence systems to Ankara.
In the Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishli – excluded from the Sochi agreement – hundreds demonstrated against the deal on Wednesday, saying it amounted to ethnic cleansing and genocide.
In the early hours of Wednesday, Turkey said it had been informed by the U.S. that their withdrawal from the border areas had been ‘completed’.
‘At this stage, there is no further need to carry out a new operation,’ the defence ministry said in a statement.
However, Erdogan vowed that Turkey would take ‘the necessary steps’ if Russian and American promises to push Kurdish fighters away were not kept.
Erdogan wants a buffer zone on the border against the Kurdish fighters, whom he considers terrorists.
Trump declared today that captured ISIS prisoners had been ‘secured’ as he hailed the deal and said the Kurds were ‘safe and have worked very nicely with us’.
However, a a top U.S. official warned that more than 100 ISIS prisoners had escaped since Turkey’s invasion began.
James Jeffrey told Congress that the State Department ‘does not know where they are’, amid fears of a mass jailbreak amid the chaos in the region.
Detention camps in Syria are believed to be holding more than 10,000 militants, including some 2,000 foreign fighters.
Kurdish fighters have previously warned they do not have the resources to guard the prisons but are still doing so at the moment, the special envoy said.
Jeffrey had said yesterday that the U.S. was counting on both Turkey and the Kurds to help fight ISIS in the region.
‘If they are not forced to face off against each other, we can rely on both of them against ISIS,’ he said.
‘We’ve done a pretty good job of bringing this attack to a halt. Turkey has not really gained all that much from this.’
Turkey said there was ‘no need’ to resume its military onslaught when a five-day ceasefire ended last night – but Syrians were injured by a blast in the border area
A young girl is carried away with an injured leg after an explosion in the border area in Syria
A Syrian man sits in hospital with horrific burns on his face after badly wounded by an explosion in a border town yesterday
Patients were seen with horrific burns on their faces and bodies at the hospital in Tal Tamr
A Syrian Arab man injured by an explosion while entering the town of Ras Al-Ain is treated at a hospital on Tuesday
A patient receives medical treatment at a hospital in Tal Tamr near the border tow of Ras al-Ain
Kurdish fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were key to defeating ISIS in Syria earlier this year.
However, Turkey regards the Kurdish fighters as terrorists and wants a buffer zone against them on its southern border.
President Trump abruptly pulled out U.S. forces earlier this month, clearing the way for the long-planned Turkish offensive.
His decision has been widely seen as a betrayal and Trump invited ridicule by declaring that the Kurds ‘didn’t help us with Normandy’.
A senior Russian diplomat said today that Moscow expects the United States to shut down its one remaining military base in southern Syria.
The ‘illegitimate’ U.S. presence should end to let the Syrian government fully reclaim control over the country, deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin said.
Since the Turkish offensive began on October 9, at least 114 civilians have been killed and some 300,000 people have been displaced.
Vladimir Putin’s presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, joined in that criticism today.
‘The United States was the closest ally of the Kurds over the past few years. But in the end, the US abandoned the Kurds, actually betraying them,’ he said.
‘The US opted to abandon the Kurds on the border, almost forcing them to fight against the Turks.’
A former head of the U.S. military made the same point. Retired Admiral Mike Mullen said Erdogan ‘would not send those troops across that border if the Americans were there.’
The Kurds claim that Turkish operations are continuing and a mystery explosion in the border town of Ras al-Ayn caused injuries yesterday
Medics wipe a man’s face after he was injured in the blast in Ras al-Ain – which took place despite Turkey’s claims that it has stopped its military offensive
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Vladmir Putin meet in the resort of Sochi for a summit to discuss the future of Syria
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the area of the ‘safe zone’ was calm late on Tuesday.
Erdogan had earlier threatened to resume Ankara’s military offensive if the Kurds did not withdraw.
The Turkish operation ‘is ending, and everything will depend now on the implementation of these agreements,’ Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Russian forces moved in last week to support the Syrian army, whose help against Turkey was requested by the Kurds.
Moscow is a key ally of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who yesterday branded Erdogan a ‘thief’ for his incursion into Syria.
Assad called the Turkish President a ‘thief who robbed factories, wheat and fuel and is today stealing territory’, according to state media.
Erdogan said last week he was not bothered by the Damascus regime’s return.
Ankara has also said that some of the 3.6million Syrian refugees in Turkey can be rehoused inside the safe zone.
Today the U.S. and Nato gave a cautious welcome to a German proposal for an internationally enforced security zone.
‘I welcome that NATO allies have proposals on how to move forward,’ NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison said it was ‘certainly a positive’ but indicated that Washington would not be involved.
German chancellor Angela Merkel threw her support behind the idea yesterday, telling conservative MPs that the idea was ‘very promising, even if there are many questions’.
Angry Kurds have blocked US troops in the streets as they cross from Syria into Iraq in a display of hostility after Washington pulled the plug on their support
U.S. troops leaving Syria and heading to Iraq yesterday in a withdrawal which has opened the way for a Turkish invasion and thrust Syria back into the international spotlight
‘We cannot just stand by and watch and not do anything,’ Berlin’s defence minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told German television.
But the defence minister’s plan – which could even see German troops deployed – has already met with resistance from Merkel’s coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD).
In addition, the use of military force remains a highly sensitive subject in Germany because of the legacy of World War II.
The U.S. has indicated that some of its withdrawn troops may stay in western Iraq to continue the fight against ISIS.
But Iraq appeared to throw those plans into disarray yesterday by saying the Americans had no permission to stay there.
Angry Kurds have blocked U.S. troops in the streets as they cross from Syria into Iraq after Washington pulled the plug on their support.
American troops were even pelted with potatoes as they passed through a Syrian town on their way to Iraq on Monday.
The Pentagon is now considering keeping a small U.S. force in north-eastern Syria to protect oilfields.
The United States currently has 5,200 troops posted in Iraq, deployed as part of a Washington-led coalition against the ISIS jihadists.
The U.S. presence at several bases across Iraq is already controversial, with numerous political groups and pro-Iran Shiite armed groups demanding their expulsion.