Syria Support Movement solidarity with the Syrian people
from the News Desk, at The Cradle, September 5, 2024
Editor’s Note: I suppose it could qualify as “good” news that Syria’s enemies and hopeful occupiers are busy fighting among themselves at the present. Not pretty, though; and not so nice for the local residents who mostly don’t support any of the players. {jb}
Turkiye has deployed Syrian mercenaries to fight in northern Iraq alongside the Turkish army against militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Kurdish journalist Honar Ahmed reported on 2 September.
The Turkish army launched a large-scale campaign, known as Operation Lock Claw, against the PKK in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan Region in 2022. The Turkish campaign intensified in July with assistance from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), one of the two major political parties in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR).
According to local villagers speaking with Ahmed, many of the soldiers present with the Turkish forces now fighting in the Metina Mountains in the Amediya district of Duhok Governorate speak Arabic with a Syrian accent. The estimated number of Syrian mercenaries working with Turkish forces exceeds 600, Ahmed stated.
Turkiye has used former members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and ISIS to fight in various conflicts, including in Libya and Azerbaijan.
According to reporting from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the majority of these soldiers belong to Syrian factions, such as the Sultan Murad Division, the Sultan Suleiman Shah Division, and the Al-Hamza Division.
Turkish intelligence initially supported these groups to fight against the Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad and to assist in its occupation of territory in northern Syria.
“We have received this information from numerous reliable sources within the Turkish-backed groups,” Rami Abdulrahman of SOHR said, adding that the fighters are trained and equipped by the Turkish military before being deployed to operations outside Syria.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a rival of the KDP in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, has claimed that Turkiye is using ISIS fighters in its operations in northern Iraq.
PUK spokesperson Saadi Ahmed Pire stated on 2 July, “We have conclusive evidence with names and photographs showing that more than 300 ISIS members are with the Turkish occupying forces in the Barwari region of Duhok Governorate.”
🔴#FLASH | Over 300 ISIS fighters have joined the Turkish Armed Forces and Erbil’s KDP special forces invading the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s Barwari region, a top Iraqi-Kurdish official Saadi Ahmed Pire has said. “I have their names and faces. I will provide them to anyone who… pic.twitter.com/19tYFwN0bw
— MedyaNews (@medyanews_) July 2, 2024
He said that ISIS fighters have joined both the Turkish Army and the special forces of the KDP in their invasion of the Barwari region in the IKR.
“I have their names and faces. I will provide them to anyone who wants,” he added.
On Monday, the Syrian PKK offshoot, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), released 50 Syrian prisoners accused of belonging to ISIS as part of a general amnesty deal, The Arab Weekly reported.
Thousands of detainees suspected of belonging to ISIS, including hundreds of foreigners, are being held in prisons run by the US-backed SDF, which occupies northeast Syria and helps US forces steal Syrian oil.
In July, the civilian administrative arm of the SDF granted a general amnesty “for crimes committed by Syrians in accordance with the law on combating terrorism as well as crimes that undermine the security of the region.”
The SDF has been holding around 56,000 people, including 30,000 children, in 24 detention centers and two camps, Al-Hol and Roj, in northeastern Syria.
The Arab Weekly adds that the Yezidi community in Syria has expressed fears about the amnesty, in that some released prisoners may return to ISIS ranks or still hold extremist views.
In 2014, ISIS carried out a genocide against the Yezidis in the Sinjar region of western Iraq in cooperation with the Kurdish Peshmerga of the KDP, led by Masoud Barzani.
