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Unclear international strategy surrounding the battle of Ain al-Arab

October 30, 2014 at 10:51 am

In recent weeks, Western media has focused on the battle in the city of Kobani (Ain al-Arab), northern Syria, between Syrian rebels and Kurdish factions on the one side and the Islamic State (ISIS) on the other.

Since the United States and its Arab allies initiated their first airstrike against ISIS in Ar-Raqqah, an ISIS stronghold in Syria, the extremist group has dispersed, effectively expanding its presence. ISIS began fighting on new fronts and has recently reached the front lines of the city of Kobani.

The battle has drawn the support of the international coalition against ISIS. Within the city of Kobani, however, there are complex political factors to be addressed as the city enters the global battle against terrorism.

Ain al-Arab, also known in Kurdish as Kobani, is a Syrian city with a majority Syrian Kurdish population but which is also home to Arabs, Turkmen and Armenians.

Since 2012, Kobani has been under the control of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD). The party was a strong ally of the Assad regime in northern Syria at the start of the Syrian revolution.

Numerous Syrians consider the PYD a “separatist” group and have serious concerns that the PYD intends to establish a “Syrian Kurdistan” in the north of the country. This idea has caused many revolutionaries to be skeptical of the party, questioning whether it has lingering connections with the Assad regime.

The PYD “might have had connections [with the Assad regime], but they cut them because of the regime’s silence on the war that ISIS started on Kobani,” said Mustafa Ebdi, a Syrian-Kurdish journalist and the managing editor of KobaniKurd.

The PYD has gained control of three major parts of northern Syria, which some believe is a step towards the formation of a “Syrian Kurdistan”. The areas comprise: Al-Jazeera, which includes Al-Hasakah and Qamishli, Afrin and its suburbs, and Kobani.

“We used to consider the party as autocratic, because it only accepted its own beliefs, arrested activists, and fought with the media,” Ebdi explained, noting that the way the people used to see the PYD has changed since the battle started.

“With ISIS getting closer, things have changed. The party [PYD] is now fighting to protect the city.”

It is critical that the history and motivations of the PYD be taken into consideration as the international community intervenes and determines which factions to support on the ground. This will be especially important as US funds are allocated to rebels who will lead the next phase and fill the ISIS gap in the north.

Unquestionably, ISIS wants to expand its control over Syria, and Kobani would be a substantial gain for the group. The Kurdish city is the last step in their battle to gain control over the border with Turkey, which has become the escape route for more than 100,000 Syrian Kurds who fled during the first three days of fighting.

“ISIS wants Kobani to complete their control over the border and to get rid of the Free Army and the Kurdish forces,” explained Ebdi.

Ebdi, who is currently reporting from within Kobani, told MEMO that Kurdish forces have unified in the fight against ISIS.

ISIS has been attacking Kobani from three sides since they took control of Ar-Raqqah in May 2013.

Turkey and Iraq’s Kurdistan

Earlier this week, Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani agreed to send Peshmerga fighters to Ain Al-Arab to “assist the PYD in the fight against ISIS”.

Regardless of the fact that they are helping Syrians in their fight against terrorism, this support is still considered a foreign intervention on Syrian soil.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country will allow Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters to join the battle in Kobani, entering Syria through Turkey. This decision signifies a change in Ankara’s relations with the Kurds, given the fact that Turkey has viewed PYD as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a party it has been in conflict with for 30 years.

In addition to the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has already sent fighters to fight against ISIS in Kobani, led by prominent FSA leader Abdul Jabbar Al-Oqaidi. In a press conference in Ankara last week, Erdogan said he welcomes the FSA to fight in Ain Al-Arab.

“We clearly said that our approach is very positive towards the Free Syrian Army’s fighting in Syria. We always said that they were our first preference in Syria,” Erdogan said.

The intention of the FSA has always been to maintain Syria as one united country. The FSA has been fighting alongside the Kurds against ISIS in Kobani, despite the fact that this involvement might push the regime to advance on the rebels in other areas, such as in Aleppo.

“Syrians, regardless of their religion and ethnicity, are siblings by blood and soil,” said Wael Al-Khatib, the general coordinator of a Free Officers group – composed of defected officers from the Syrian military. Al-Khatib told MEMO via Skype that the FSA went to Kobani to deliver a message of unity to the people.

“Our first concern is to keep Syria as one,” he stressed.

He said Kurdish forces are not lacking or in need to equipment, ammunition or soldiers.

“To the people of Kobani, our hearts are with you,” written on a banner on Thursday in the liberated areas of Homs, central Syria.

International and US involvement

After several weeks of airstrikes by the US-led coalition in and around Kobani, the United States decided to provide aid to Kurdish fighters in the city. Last week, US helicopters dropped weapons, ammunition and medical aid via parachute to the Kurds in the city. Mistakenly, items landed in the hands of ISIS fighters, according to a video published by an ISIS account on YouTube.

The US has been hesitant to arm moderate rebels, concerned that weapons would fall into the hands of extremist groups.

“The West has interests in Syria that are above everyone,” explained Al-Khatib. “They [the West] want to accomplish their aims through Kurds not for Kurds.”

Recently, an anonymous US senior official told the Washington Post that Syria’s rebel forces will be trained by the US military and its coalition partners to “defend territory” that is already in rebel control, and not to defeat ISIS. The official, however, did not mention who would fill the ISIS gap in the future.

Regarding US intervention, the official spokesperson of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), Salem Al-Meslet, last week published a statement criticising the US for its “unclear” strategy of arming specific groups rather than arming a national body. According to the statement, the strategy “represents an additional threat to the revolution’s path and to the unity and sovereignty of the Syrian territory.”

“The West doesn’t sympathise with Kurds or others, but they support their own interests,” Al-Khatib added.

In another statement, the SNC described the US-led coalition’s strategy to be a “selective policy” that would harm the “national interests” of Syria.

The US strategy in Syria, particularly with regards the Kurds, is contributing to the threat of splitting Syria into many states, causing conflicts among Syrians. Ending dictatorships and terrorism in Syria, as the US claims is its intention, must be pursued through the creation of a national army representative of all factions that believe in the principles and values of the Syrian revolution, countering terrorism, and achieving the Syrian people’s aim for freedom, justice and dignity.

Abdulrahman Al-Masri is a Syrian freelance journalist. Follow him on twitter.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.