sdf kurds
© Delil Souleiman / AFPSyrian Democratic Forces fighters attend the funeral of four fellow fighters in the northeastern city of Qamishli in September.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will clear Syria both of a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia and Islamic State (IS) militants after the U.S. decision to pull troops out.

"In the following months we will see an operational style aimed at removing YPG [Kurdish People's Protection Units] and Daesh [IS] elements on the ground in Syria," Erdogan said in Istanbul on December 21.

On December 12, Erdogan announced that Turkey will launch a new military offensive against Kurdish militants east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria.


Comment: And yet Trump's announcement has prompted the Turks to delay their planned op against the Kurds in Syria:
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday that a military advance against Kurdish YPG forces in northeastern Syria would be delayed until the US pullout is over.

"We [chose to] delay our operation to avoid friendly fire after the US announced troop withdrawal from Syria", Cavusoglu said during a visit to Malta, as quoted by the TRT channel.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he had decided to put off the onslaught after a phone call last Friday with his US counterpart, Donald Trump.
Trump has essentially signalled that the Kurds will get no more US support in their territorial ambitions, thus lightening the threat they pose to Turkey. So despite Erdogan's bluster, there may not be any great need for such an operation now, especially if the Kurds engage in negotiations with Damascus and promise not to antagonize the Turks any further.


Meanwhile, Syrian Kurdish forces involved in the battle against IS remnants said they could withdraw from the front lines and redeploy to the Turkish border if the region they control is attacked by Turkey.

Ilham Ahmad, a leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the political wing of the Kurdish-led forces, warned that a Turkish attack could bring the battle against IS in Syria to a halt.


Comment: Big deal. The Syrian Army could clear the remaining territory occupied by ISIS in a matter of weeks.


The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian/Syriac militias, is militarily led by the YPG, which Turkey regards as a terrorist group. U.S. support for the YPG has strained ties between the two NATO allies.

The Kurds are seen as the big losers of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of Syria, a move that leaves Kurds who helped rout IS from most of Syria vulnerable to attack from Turkey.