See a video report from David Eubank:
Amid the permanent ceasefire announced four days ago, Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies continued their offensive Saturday against Kurdish villages in northeastern Syria.
“There’s a lot of fighting, a lot of wounded, and a lot of dead,” David Eubank, an American leading a team of medics on the frontline of the conflict, wrote on Twitter Saturday.
“There is no ceasefire and I wish the world would finally admit it,” he said. “I have the blood of dead Kurds on my clothes. That’s from today. That’s what’s really happening.”
Eubank, the founder of a humanitarian group based in war-torn Burma called the Free Burma Rangers, said that Saturday has been the biggest day of fighting in the current offensive.
“We’re near Soda Village, which has fallen, and have been hit by artillery and Turkish drones. Three Turkish armored vehicles came into the village with cannons, machine guns, and dismounted infantry,” said Eubank, a retired U.S. Army Ranger.
Eubank said forces of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army hit his team’s “casualty collection point.” However, his colleagues — including ethnic Karen medics with decades of experience in war zones in Burma — were able to evacuate the wounded.
“We’ve fallen back to evacuate more people, but the fighting is in front of us and behind us now, very close to Tel Tamir,” said Eubank.
The Free Syrian Army, a decentralized jihadist militia seeking to bring down the Bashar al-Assad regime, is allied with Turkey against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the SDF. The Kurdish-led SDF is fighting for self-rule in northeast Syria. But Turkey regards the fighters who form the backbone of the SDF — the People’s Protection Units, or YPG — to be allies of the Marxist PKK, an armed Kurdish separatist group in Turkey
The U.S. joined forces with the SDF against ISIS in Syria, declaring victory in March.
SDF chief: Turks violating ceasefire
The SDF’s commander, Gen. Mazloum Abdi, charged Thursday that the Turks and Free Syrian Army allies are violating the permanent ceasefire agreement made between Turkey and Russia.
“In spite of the Turks announcement of the END of military operations, they and their jihadists continue to VIOLATE and launch attacks on the eastern front of the Serêkaniyê,” the general wrote Thursday on Twitter. “The guarantors of the ceasefire must carry out their responsibilities to rein in the Turks.”
The current fighting began Oct. 9 after President Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. Special Forces troops deployed with the SDF. Turkish ground and air forces launched a series of assaults in an effort to remove the SDF from the 19-mile-wide, semi-autonomous buffer zone along the border populated mostly with Kurds, Christians, Yazidis and Arab Muslims.
With the U.S. no longer in a position of authority, Russia and Turkey reached a permanent ceasefire agreement Thursday in which Kurdish fighters are to leave the zone. Russia and Turkey then are to begin joint patrols along a narrower strip on the Turkey-Syria border.
President Trump on Wednesday announced the lifting of sanctions in response to the ceasefire agreement.
After two weeks of fighting, the U.N.’s humanitarian wing has estimated 180,000 have been forced to leave their homes or shelters, including 80,000 children.
In an interview with the Voice of America published Oct. 21 during the five-day ceasefire that preceded the permanent agreement, the SDF commander Abdi said his group’s trust in the United States is at its lowest, but the alliance against ISIS continues.
Abdi said Trump’s decision to pull out troops has caused “a major displacement of civilians.”
“It has allowed an ethnic cleansing of the Kurdish people. Our trust in the United States is at its lowest. However, our alliance with Washington to combat ISIS still continues,” he said.
The SDF commander said the U.S. “has not abandoned this partnership, but allowing the Turkish military to invade Syria has largely damaged this partnership.”
“We still want this partnership to continue. We want the remaining U.S. forces in Syria to make an international balance in this region and to prevent one side from taking control over our people,” he said.
“We still are of the belief that keeping U.S. forces in Syria is in the interest of the Americans and the Kurds.”
