ANKARA: The Kurdish Hawks Brigade, dubbed the “red berets”, will reportedly join Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch in Syria’s Kurdish-held northwestern province of Afrin, where it will take part in fighting in Afrin city center.
The brigade was formed by the Hamza Division, which is affiliated to the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The brigade includes 400 Kurdish fighters from Syria’s Azaz region, and 200 Arabs.
“God willing, we will liberate our people in Afrin from PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) oppression,” said Kurdish Commander Hassan Abdullah Kulli, Turkish state-run agency Anadolu reported.
In a similar move, about 180 state-funded Kurdish village guards recently joined Turkey’s operation.
Kurdish village guards are used by the Turkish state in operations against Kurdish militants in the country’s southeast.
Turkey has been conducting Operation Olive Branch for more than five weeks against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara sees as a terrorist group affiliated with the PKK, which is waging an insurgency against the state.
Turkey says the Afrin operation is not covered by Sunday’s UN Security Council resolution that demands a 30-day truce across Syria to allow aid access and medical evacuations.
“Although the Kurdish Hawks Brigade is a special unit that would have a better understanding of the local culture, language and geography, it’s hard to estimate how many of them are really from this region and know its topography,” Salih Bicakci, a Middle East expert from Kadir Has University in Istanbul, told Arab News.
“But their military training will probably help the FSA gain the upper hand in the looming urban warfare.”
However, Bicakci said the YPG also gained considerable urban warfare experience during the four-month siege of the northern Syrian town of Kobani, which was captured from Daesh.
Aaron Stein, senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, told Arab News that after taking Afrin, “Ankara will then have to administer and rebuild damaged areas, as is the case in Euphrates Shield territory. Afrin is small, but the population will be hostile.”
Last March, Turkey ended its seven-month Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria against Daesh and the YPG.
Dr. Magdalena Kirchner, Mercator-IPC fellow at the Istanbul Policy Center, told Arab News: “Keeping a seat at the Astana table with the other guarantor countries Russia and Iran, and having a role as a guarantor power in Syria, requires Turkey to resist pressure from the Syrian regime, which aims to create a new narrative that Kurds are only safe under its rule.”
Using local village guards in Afrin is less costly and risky than deploying Turkish troops, she added.
“They’re familiar with the area and could accelerate, through better communication, the PKK’s withdrawal from the city,” she said.
But the political gains for Ankara will be less than it expects due to the small number of Kurds fighting on its side, Kirchner added.
Kurdish brigade to fight for Turkey in Syria’s Afrin
Kurdish brigade to fight for Turkey in Syria’s Afrin
UN peacekeepers say Israeli forces fired on them in southern Lebanon
- “Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF soldiers in a Merkava tank,” UNIFIL said
- It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese territory
BEIRUT: The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said Wednesday that Israeli forces fired on its peacekeepers a day earlier in the country’s south, urging Israel’s army to “cease aggressive behavior.”
It is the latest such incident reported by the peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, where UNIFIL acts as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon and has been working with Lebanon’s army to support a year-old truce between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.
“Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF (Israeli army) soldiers in a Merkava tank,” a UNIFIL statement said, referring to the de facto border.
“One ten-round burst of machine-gun fire was fired above the convoy, and four further ten-round bursts were fired nearby,” the statement said.
It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese territory at the time of the incident and that the Israeli military had been informed of the location and timing of the peacekeeping patrol in advance.
“Peacekeepers asked the IDF to stop firing through UNIFIL’s liaison channels... Fortunately, no one was injured,” it said.
Last month UNIFIL said Israeli soldiers shot at its troops in the south, while Israel’s military said it mistook blue helmets for “suspects” and fired warning shots.
In October, UNIFIL said one of its members was wounded by an Israeli grenade dropped near a UN position in the country’s south, the third incident of its kind in just over a month.
“Attacks on or near peacekeepers are serious violations of (UN) Security Council Resolution 1701,” UNIFIL said on Wednesday, referring to the 2006 resolution that formed the basis of the November 2024 truce.
“We call on the IDF to cease aggressive behavior and attacks on or near peacekeepers working to rebuild stability along the Blue Line,” the peacekeepers said.
Israel carries out regular attacks on Lebanon despite the truce, usually saying it is targeting sites and operatives belonging to Hezbollah, which it accuses of rearming.
It has also kept troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.
On Saturday, a UN Security Council delegation visiting Lebanon urged all parties to uphold the ceasefire.
It emphasized that the “safety of peacekeepers must be respected and that they must never be targeted,” after gunmen on mopeds attacked UNIFIL personnel last week.
