Syrian Kurds arrive in safe areas after Turkish-backed offensive
by AFP Staff Writers
Beirut, Lebanon (AFP) Dec 2, 2024

Syrian Kurds fleeing an onslaught by Ankara-backed groups that seized the town where they were living began arriving Monday in Kurdish-held safe areas further east, a local official said.

The US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had said earlier on Monday that it was seeking to evacuate Kurdish civilians around Aleppo province to areas it controls.

"A small batch of people has arrived in Tabqa. The remaining displaced people will arrive successively within hours," SDF spokesman Farhad Shami told AFP.

He said a convoy of about 200 vehicles was headed for the Kurdish-held town.

Syria has been locked in a civil war since 2011, following a crackdown on democracy protests by President Bashar al-Assad.

The conflict morphed over time, drawing in foreign powers and jihadists, killing 500,000 people and displacing half of the population.

Syria's Kurds have suffered multiple waves of displacement since 2011, and have again found themselves on the front lines in the latest violence.

Last week, the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and allied factions launched a lightning offensive from northwestern Syria near the Turkish border, wresting swathes of territory from government control, including Syria's second city Aleppo.

Days later, Turkish-backed groups launched an attack on the strategic Kurdish-held Tal Rifaat area.

A Syria war monitor said late Sunday that around 200,000 Syrian Kurds were "besieged by pro-Turkey factions" who took over the town of Tal Rifaat and nearby villages in Aleppo province.

And on Monday, the head of the SDF, Mazloum Abdi, said his organisation was looking to move Kurds living in Tal Rifaat and parts of Aleppo to areas under Kurdish control in Syria's northeast.

"The situation in northwest Syria has developed rapidly and suddenly, with our forces facing intense attacks from multiple fronts," the SDF commander in chief said in a statement.

"Following the collapse and withdrawal of the Syrian army and its allies, we intervened to establish a humanitarian corridor between our eastern regions, Aleppo, and the Tal Rifaat area, with the aim of protecting our people from potential massacres.

"However, the attacks of the armed groups backed by the Turkish occupation have disrupted this corridor."

Abdi said that despite the offensive, "our forces continue to resist to protect our people residing in the Kurdish neighbourhoods of Aleppo".

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