On November 20, Turkey launched “Operation Claw-Sword,” an extensive campaign of airstrikes on northeast Syria. Turkey targeted over 265 sites, including civilian infrastructure, destroying a school, hospitals, grain silos, electrical and water plants, and oil facilities. Ankara’s attack led to twenty-eight deaths, including fourteen civilians. Most stunning was the airstrike on the joint base of the U.S.-led Coalition to Defeat Daesh and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), just 130 meters from American personnel. As the United States called for de-escalation, Turkey continued airstrikes targeting security forces guarding the Al-Hol Camp, which holds over 50,000 relatives of ISIS fighters. Fortunately, only a few families escaped and were later re-captured by security forces.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced plans for a ground invasion of northern Syria. During Turkey’s invasions in 2018 and 2019, multiple organizations documented horrific atrocities, with Turkish and Turkish-backed forces targeting religious and ethnic minorities, including Yazidis, Christians, and Kurds, especially women. Genocide Watch said, “Turkey has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Northern Syria. In areas under Turkey’s control, civilians have been subjected to horrific crimes against humanity committed by Turkish forces and Turkish supported militias.” Amy Austin Holmes, then a fellow at the Wilson Center, testified that members of religious minorities “have been killed, disappeared, kidnapped, raped, detained, subjected to forced religious conversion, and held for ransom until their families pay exorbitant sums of money to secure their release. Their places of worship have been destroyed, defaced, and looted. Even their cemeteries have been demolished and vandalized.”
These war crimes continued even after the invasion was complete, with atrocities carried out in areas governed by Turkish-backed Islamist militias. United Nations war crimes investigators warned that “Turkey must rein in Syrian rebels it supports in northern Syria who may have carried out kidnappings, torture and looting of civilian property.”
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Why should the United States care enough about northeast Syria to stop the ongoing Turkish attacks and another invasion? For starters, the SDF has been the United States’ main partner in the fight against ISIS. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) first partnered with the United States during the battle of Kobani, which ended in January 2015 and turned the tide as the first victory against ISIS. With continued American air support and weapons, they bravely retook Manbij, Raqqa, and other areas from ISIS, culminating with the final battle of Baghuz in February 2019. By this point, they had become the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) that is majority Arab including Syriac-Assyrian Christian units as well.
Read more: National Interest
