Do a quick search for mainstream news about Syria right now, and you’ll see lots of headlines about the ‘rebel’ gains in recent days. One BBC headline even said the “rebel offensive is astonishing”. But you’ll see little focus on the fact that these ‘rebels’ actually seem to be “an international jihadist force” in cahoots with NATO’s second-largest army. Nor are you likely to see news emphasising how extremist advances around the city of Aleppo have left 250,000 civilians facing “the threat of a massacre“.
Religious extremism, with the backing of a NATO superpower
Amid the anti-government uprising of 2011 in Syria, the country very quickly turned into a proxy war battleground. There were legitimate reasons for Syrian people to be angry at Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but other forces saw an opportunity they could exploit for their own reasons.
The US and Israel, for example, had long wanted to get rid of the Assad dynasty because of its consistent support for Palestinians. And religious extremists had long opposed its commitment to secularism. But it was clear from early on that extremists were the driving force of resistance to Assad.
Now, amid the biggest anti-Assad offensive in north-western Syria since 2020, this reality is clearer than ever. As Syria’s allies were focusing energy elsewhere, an al-Qaeda offshoot shattered the idea that the war was coming to a close.
The group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has a totalitarian stronghold in Idlib, and has spent years inserting itself into Turkish-occupied areas of north-west Syria too, sometimes “with tacit Turkish approval”. And NATO superpower Turkey, which has been adding to Syria’s suffering for years via its anti-Kurdish campaign of ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation in northern Syria, has joined in.
The Syrian National Army (SNA), essentially under Turkish control, has long absorbed or protected Daesh (Isis/Isil) fighters in the territories they occupy and oppress. And in recent days, it has encircled the Şehba (al-Shahba) region, along with refugee tent camps in the area.
Turkey had previously displaced many of these refugees in its 2018 invasion of Afrin. Amid the new assault, Turkish proxies reportedly blocked attempts to create a humanitarian corridor for civilians, but Kurdish-led forces have been leading efforts to evacuate them successfully to safe areas. There are also reports of Turkey attacking the area.
The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) responded by saying:
The Turkish state is pursuing genocidal and racist ambitions to eliminate the Kurdish people and democratic governance in Syria
“A new form of ISIS terrorism” that’s a threat beyond Syria
The left-wing, Kurdish-led Rojava revolution emerged in northern Syria at the start of country’s conflict. Assad’s forces had retreated, and the local multi-ethnic (but largely-Kurdish) communities had to defend themselves from jihadist attacks.
The region’s self-defence forces defeated Daesh, despite Turkey putting up obstacles. Turkey had long repressed its own Kurdish population, so it couldn’t accept an independent Kurdish-led revolution on its border. It thus increased its efforts to suppress the movement at home and abroad. And in doing so, it committed numerous war crimes.
It sought to demonise its opponents by calling them terrorists, but the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) has actually been the victim of a Turkish terror campaign that has caused a humanitarian crisis there.
AANES diplomat Ilham Ahmed has insisted that the current jihadist advances are more than just a proxy war. In particular, she worries about the “systematic targeting of diverse cities like Aleppo”.
The hostilities, she said, are putting “its rich social fabric and pluralistic identity” at risk, “endangering coexistence and the cultural mosaic of Syria’s most diverse city”. HTS has taken control of parts of Aleppo, but the Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and AshrafiehIn are still resisting its siege.
The AANES has also sent a message to the world, stressing that the current jihadist-Turkish offensive:
represents a threat not only to Syria, but is a new form of ISIS terrorism that will have serious regional and global repercussions
The Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) added:
Turkish-backed forces have launched attacks on Kurdish areas, including Shahba [Şehba] and Tel Rifaat, where many refugees from Afrin [Efrîn] are sheltering. People in these regions are under attack and face the threat of a massacre
Describing the HTS as “an international jihadist force” and the SNA as a Turkish operation, the KNK stressed that:
Their victory would transform Syria into a base for jihadist and Salafist forces, destabilising the region further… The success of HTS and the SNA would mean a scenario similar to the rise of ISIS, turning Syria into a hub for extremist forces
And while the US may have designated HTS a terrorist organisation, you don’t have to go far back to find it being in cahoots with the group, either. It is believed that HTS provided the US-led Coalition Against Daesh intelligence that led to the killing of two former al Qaeda leaders in an airstrike by the in Idleb province on 20 September 2021.
Featured image via the Canary
