Turkey’s military deployed hundreds of vehicles and troops in areas surrounding a northwestern Syrian town that Ankara has long pushed the U.S. to clear of Kurdish militant groups.
The convoy of around 200 vehicles, including howitzers, armored personnel carriers and artillery, advanced to reinforce the military’s presence in areas close to Manbij, TRT said on Sunday. They were joined by forces of the Free Syrian Army, which has backed Turkish offensives against Syrian Kurdish militants, state-run Anadolu Agency said Monday.
Turkish state media broadcast video from the outskirts of Manbij, located on the western flank of the Euphrates River that splits northern Syria roughly into two halves. The town was a source of tension between the U.S. and Turkey because Ankara accused Washington of stalling on a June agreement to push Kurdish forces away from the area.
Since then Turkey has repeatedly vowed to capture Manbij and to extend its offensive against the Kurds eastwards, but U.S. troops in the region were a major obstacle to carrying out a military operation. President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw forces disappointed the Kurds and left them exposed to the Turkish military.
Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. decided its most reliable ally in the fight against Islamic State in Syria was the Kurdish militant group YPG, and gave it extensive support. Sunday’s military deployment could mark a rapid change in the dynamics between the two countries after Trump announced American forces would quit Syria following a Dec. 14 phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Trump said he had a "long and productive” call with Erdogan on Sunday, tweeting that they discussed "the slow & highly coordinated pullout of U.S. troops from the area. After many years they are coming home.” The two men also discussed expanded trade, Trump said.
Erdogan said he’d "provide all kinds of support to the United States, its NATO ally” in the anti-terrorism campaign in Syria, according to a readout of the call published by Turkey. The two leaders agreed to maintain coordination to avoid a power vacuum in the war-torn country, Turkey said.
Trump’s decision to withdraw drew cautious optimism from Turkish officials. While indicating an end to American support for the YPG, the withdrawal could also pave the way for a power grab by Iran and Russia, the two other key actors in the Syrian civil war.
No U.S. presence would make Russian President Vladimir Putin an even more pivotal figure in resolving the Syrian war and strengthen his hand across the Middle East. Trump’s declaration fulfills a long-standing Russian demand for a U.S. withdrawal from Syria.
In 2015, when the Syrian Democratic Forces were created under U.S. auspices to fight Islamic State, Kurdish YPG members formed its backbone. French President Emmanuel Macron Sunday praised the SDF’s role in combating the jihadists.
"We must not forget what we owe them,” Macron said Sunday on a visit to Chad. He said he regrets Trump’s pullout decision.
The SDF is dominated by Syrian Kurds, but it also includes Arab forces. France offered to mediate between Turkey and the SDF this year but Turkey rejected dialogue, citing the SDF’s affiliation with the PKK, which has fought the Turkish state for autonomy for decades and is designated a terrorist group by both the U.S. and EU.
TRT said Sunday that the U.S. has already pulled out all of the 300 to 400 soldiers it had in Manbij but Kurdish forces remained in their positions.
The broadcaster said the additional troops and military vehicles were sent to reinforce areas that were already in Turkey’s sphere of influence after a previous military operation called Euphrates Shield.
Sunday’s deployment is another sign that Erdogan has managed to become a more central player both in Middle Eastern politics and U.S. foreign policy, capitalizing on an American president eager to fulfill promises to extricate troops from quagmires.
Just months earlier, Trump and Erdogan were facing off over new American tariffs, Turkey’s refusal to release an American pastor and demands that the U.S. extradite a cleric it believes was behind a failed 2016 coup.
