CENTCOM confirms it is no longer providing support for Operation Euphrates Shield now that fighting has focused on US-backed SDF.
The bodies of American volunteers who sacrificed their lives to liberate Manbij from ISIS leave Rojava.
PKK have announced if Turkey's attack on Rojava continues, PKK will deploy more forces there. PKK will defend Rojava by any means necessary.
Since Turkey came in and took Jarablus, Kurds in the west are pushing east in an attempt to connect the cantons.
Turkey's military push against Kurds in northern Syria risks escalating the conflict, French President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday, calling on all parties to stop fighting and return to peace talks. Hollande told an annual gathering of French ambassadors that almost a year after Russia intervened in support of Bashar al-Assad's government, "today it is Turkey that has made the choice to deploy its army on Syrian territory to defend itself against Daesh (Islamic State). "But also to carry out actions against Kurds who themselves have confronted Islamic State with the support of the coalition. These multiple, contradictory interventions carry risks of a general flare-up," Hollande said. The United States scrambled on Monday to get its feuding allies, Turkey and the Kurdish YPG militia, to focus their firepower on Islamic State instead of each other, after clashes that have threatened to unravel America's war strategy in Syria. Hollande, who has special forces operating in Syria alongside Kurdish and Arab forces as part of an international coalition fighting the militant group, said it was a matter of absolute urgency to stop the bloodshed. France says Turkish action against Syrian Kurds risks escalation
Kurdish fighter Faris Xanî martyred from ISIS IED; becomes the 6th member of a family martyred for Rojava.
I'm seeing some chatter that Erdogan is going to oust Kurdish politicians and replace them with Pro-Ankara ones. Everything from low level politicians, mayors, governors, etc.
Erdogan allowed IS to stay on the Turkish-Syrian border for nearly 3 years, AND DID NOTHING, yet when SDF closes in to liberate Jarablus from IS, all of a sudden, he cares about "terrorism."
Western members of YPG reject Turkish attacks on Rojava, but won't fight Turkey - ARA News HASAKAH – Macer Gifford, a British volunteer with the Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, says he will not fight Turkey. On 24 August, the Turkish army and a group of Turkey-backed Syrian rebels took the town of Jarablus in northern Syria, and later attacked the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which led to clashes between the SDF and Turkish-backed forces. The clashes on Tuesday after a ceasefire was reached under pressure by the US-led coalition. The Turkish government considered western volunteers that joined the YPG-SDF as ‘terrorists’. However, most volunteers say they signed up with YPG to fight ISIS, not to fight against Turkey. “Only in the minds of right wing and nationalist politicians in Turkey could the volunteers ever be called terrorists,” Gifford told ARA News. “The Turks have allowed ISIS on their border for years, smuggling weapons and supplies to ISIS. Now that the secular and democratic Kurds are advancing, Turkey is unilaterally intervening in the conflict for their own selfish national interest,” the British volunteer said. However, Gifford, who was once called as one of the ‘James Bonds in PKK’ by the Turkish media, said he will not fight against Turkey, which is a part of NATO. “I am a passionate humanitarian and strong Kurdish supporter. Everything I do conforms to British law. I have regular meetings with police and counter terrorism units in the UK. I intend to only use peaceful resistance and political campaigning to oppose the recent attacks by Turkey on Syria,” he told ARA News. “The international volunteers in Rojava [Syria’s Kurdish region] believe in democracy, equality and justice. They oppose the evil ideology of hate that makes up the Islamic State and they support humanitarian efforts in Rojava,” he said. Speaking to ARA News, Joe Ackerman, a former British soldier from Halifax who had joined the YPG before returning to the UK, said that he told his commanders when he was still in Syria that he would combat Turkey. “I always said to my commander which he and the other guys agreed … I would not fight Turkey if the YPG attacked them. But I would defend and fight back along with YPG, if we were attacked by them,” he said. “If that makes me a terrorist for defending [Rojava] against an attack by the Turks then so be it,” he said.
YPG arrests a group of Turkey-backed rebels in Syria's Jarablus - ARA News ALEPPO – Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) arrested on Thursday a number of Turkey-backed rebel fighters near Syria’s border city of Jarablus, military sources said. The rebels captured by the YPG were members of the pro-Turkey Sultan Murad Brigade, that has been fighting alongside Turkish army forces in Jarablus. “Our forces have detained several mercenaries from the Turkey-backed groups in the vicinity of Jarablus on Thursday,” a spokesman for the YPG told ARA News, adding: “The operation comes in response to the detention of four of our fighters who have been tortured and publicly humiliated by those mercenary groups.” According to the YPG leadership, four of its fighters were arrested by Turkey-backed rebels last Monday while they were trying to evacuate civilians from war-torn parts of the Jarablus city in northern Syria. After their arrest, the Kurdish fighters have been paraded across Jarablus without clothes and exposed to torture in public. “We promise our people and our fighters, that we will hold these terrorists accountable for their evil deeds against our imprisoned fighters,” the Kurdish leadership said an earlier statement. In the meantime, dozens of civilian casualties were reported in Turkish artillery shelling and airstrikes near the border city of Jarablus, according to local activists. Turkey-backed rebels and the Turkish army captured the city of Jarablus from ISIS on 24 August without a fight. Immediately afterwards, clashes started to erupt between US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) –led by YPG– and the pro-Turkey factions. “After invading Jarablus city, Turkey tries to cut off the YPG-SDF supply routes in northern Syria and prevent those forces from eliminating ISIS terrorists,” Ali Battal, member of the Syrian National Democratic Union, told ARA News.