Gen. Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), recently spoke with Fox News about the ongoing attacks on his Kurdish forces by the Turkish military and its allies. The SDF, a key U.S. ally, is currently responsible for overseeing 45,000 ISIS militants and their families in camps and prisons in Eastern Syria. Despite a ceasefire deal brokered by the U.S. on Wednesday, the attacks have not ceased.
According to Gen. Mazloum, the Turkish military and the Turkish-supported opposition forces known as SNA continue to launch assaults on the SDF. He revealed that the Kurdish forces face around 80 drone attacks daily from the Turkish military, along with intense artillery shelling. These relentless attacks have severely impacted the SDF’s ability to carry out counterterrorism operations effectively.
The aggression from the Turkish military towards the SDF has escalated following the fall of Bashar Al Assad on December 8. Gen. Mazloum expressed his concerns that if his Kurdish fighters are forced to retreat, it could pave the way for the resurgence of ISIS in the region. The stability and security of the area heavily rely on the SDF’s presence and their ability to contain the ISIS detainees.
He added the following warning: “We expect those Islamists, different factions to unite, to fight with ISIS and that will bring back tougher extremists, terrorist organizations back to the country.”
The SDF Commander fears another bloody civil war could start if the new Syrian government in Damascus does not include different minority groups, like the Syrian Kurds.
Displaced Kurds leave the refugee camp in the north of Aleppo, fleeing to Afrin, on December 4, 2024. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Images/Abaca/Sipa USA(Sipa via AP Images)
“So any new government in Syria needs to be representative, needs to be inclusive and contain and include all different parties of Syria. So if not that takes us to a bloody civil war in the country and that will put us in huge stage of escalatory path that no one can predict the fate of that,” Gen. Mazloum told Fox.
Facing the Turkish fighter jets, the SDF mistakenly shot down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone in Syria on Monday, the result of “friendly fire,” a U.S. defense official told Fox News. “The U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters who are under attack from the Turkish military misidentified the drone as a threat,” the official said.
