QAMISHLI, Syria: Turkish forces and their proxies pushed deep into Syria on Sunday, moving closer to completing their assault’s initial phase, while Washington announced it was pulling out 1,000 troops from the country’s north.
The Kurdish administration in northern Syria said that Turkish bombardment near a camp for the displaced led to nearly 800 relatives of Daesh members fleeing.
Fighting raged but Turkish-backed forces made significant progress along the border on the fifth day of an offensive that has provoked an international outcry and left dozens of civilians and fighters dead.
In the face of the Turkish advances, state media in Damascus said the Syrian army was sending troops to “confront” the offensive on the country’s territory.
There were no immediate details but a Kurdish official said on condition of anonymity that negotiations were under way between the Kurds and the Damascus government.
“All options are being examined,” the Kurdish official said.
Kurdish authorities and foreign powers have warned repeatedly that the hostilities could undermine the fight against Daesh and allow militants to break out of captivity.
Fighting has engulfed the area since Wednesday when Ankara launched a long-threatened offensive against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who it considers “terrorists” linked to insurgents inside Turkey.
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday that President Donald Trump had ordered the withdrawal of up to 1,000 troops from northern Syria.
“I can’t give a timeline because it changes hourly. We want to make sure that we do so in a very safe, deliberate manner,” he told the CBS network.
“And at this point in time in the last 24 hours we learned that they (Turkey) likely intend to expand their attack further south than originally planned and to the west.”
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself, shrugging off the threat of sanctions, said the aim was to establish a “security zone” that would extend 30 to 35 kilometers (20 to 25 miles) into Syria and run from Kobani to Hasakah, a stretch of 440 kilometers.
Trump has been accused of abandoning a loyal ally in the fight against Daesh after ordering American troops to pull back from the border, which Ankara took as a green light to move in.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 26 civilians were killed on Sunday in northeast Syria, including an unidentified journalist who died in an air strike on a convoy of vehicles transporting civilians and journalists.
At least 60 civilians have now died in violence on the Syrian side of the border, with Turkish reports putting the number of civilians dead from Kurdish shelling inside Turkey at 18.
The Observatory monitoring group said pro-Ankara fighters “executed” at least nine civilians on Saturday near the Syrian town of Tal Abyad.
The Kurds said a female Kurdish party official and her driver were among those killed.
Aid groups have warned of another humanitarian disaster in Syria’s eight-year-old war if the offensive is not halted.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said the exodus sparked by the fighting had grown to 130,000 people and it was preparing for that figure to more than triple.
“We have moved into a planning scenario where up to 400,000 people could be displaced within and across the affected areas,” spokesman Jens Laerke told AFP.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron, at a joint news conference with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, said the Turkish offensive — over which both countries have decided to suspend arms exports to Ankara — risked creating an “unbearable humanitarian situation.”
Some 12,000 Daesh fighters — Syrians, Iraqis as well as foreigners from 54 countries — are detained in Kurdish prisons, according to official Kurdish statistics.
Displacement camps meanwhile host some 12,000 foreigners — 8,000 children and 4,000 women.
“The brutal military assault led by Turkey and its mercenaries is now taking place near a camp in Ain Issa, where there are thousands (of people) from families of IS,” a Kurdish administration statement said, referring to another acronym for Daesh.
“Some were able to escape after bombardments that targeted” the camp, it said. The Kurds also charged its guards had been attacked and the gates of the camp flung open.
The statement said the Ain Issa camp was “now without guards” and 785 relatives of Daesh militants had fled.
The SDF, a coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters, was the main partner on the ground in the US-led campaign against Daesh.
According to the Observatory, at least 104 of its fighters have been killed since the start of the Turkish offensive.
Turkish forces and their proxies captured Tal Abyad on Friday afternoon, which left Ras Al-Ain, further east, as the last major target in the offensive.
Turkey announced it had seized the key M4 highway, which looks like it might mark the southern limit of its advance in this initial phase of the invasion.
It lies 30 to 35 kilometers deep in Syrian territory.
SDF fighters have taken mounting losses against the vastly superior military firepower of Turkey, which has defied mounting international protests and the threat of US sanctions in pressing on with its offensive.
Turkey and proxies advance deep into Syria
Turkey and proxies advance deep into Syria
- US military official says situation across northeastern Syria ‘deteriorating rapidly’
- Camp in Ain Eissa is home to some 12,000 people, including 1,000 wives and widows of Daesh fighters and their children
Analysis: The perils of ‘Sudanizing’ Yemen
- Allowing one faction to impose its will by force and foreign backing is viewed by political observers as a recipe for disaster
- Escalating developments in southern Yemen are raising regional concerns despite continued international calls for de-escalation
RIYADH: In a region already teetering on the edge, Yemen’s rapidly evolving situation on the ground is raising alarm bells. While international observers continue to place their bets on diplomacy and de-escalation, there is growing concern that the country may be inching toward a dangerous regional conflagration. At the heart of this anxiety lies the Yemeni government’s and the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen’s unwavering commitment to preserving territorial unity and preventing the rise of extremist safe havens that could destabilize not just Yemen, but the broader region and beyond.
It would be naive to view developments in southern Yemen in isolation. The parallels with Sudan — where the Rapid Support Forces have left a trail of devastation and a massacre in places like El Fasher — and with the recent Israeli recognition of Somaliland, are too stark to ignore. These cases serve as cautionary tales of what could unfold in Yemen if the Southern Transitional Council were allowed to unilaterally impose a new reality through force and foreign alliances.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry has struck a delicate but firm tone, drawing a clear red line when it comes to its own national security but acknowledging the just and historically rooted nature of the southern issue. Yet, it has also made clear that any resolution must emerge from consensus among Yemen’s diverse components — around the negotiating table, not on the battlefield. A military solution would only unravel years of painstaking efforts by the coalition and the internationally recognized Yemeni government to foster calm, even engaging with the Houthis in pursuit of a durable peace.
A Yemeni analyst familiar with the inner workings of the legitimate government noted that while southerners have a right to advocate for independence based on their historical and geographic claims, this cannot come at the expense of other Yemenis who believe in, and have arguments for, a united nation. Their voices, too, deserve to be heard.
“Historically, Yemen has been a unified and federated entity, from the Qasimid and Himyarite dynasties to the Rasulid state. The division of Yemen was not indigenous but imposed by colonial powers — most notably the British in the south, who ruled through a patchwork of emirates and sultanates, while the Ottomans held sway in the north. Even the city of Dhale was once under the rule of the imams. This artificial division persisted until 1990, when Yemen was reunited into its natural state,” he told Arab News.
To allow any group to redraw borders through armed force and foreign patronage is to invite catastrophe. It is worth recalling that these were precisely the conditions that sparked the last war, when the Houthis — backed by external actors — toppled the legitimate, UN-recognized government.
The analyst posed a sobering question: “If the STC is granted the right to establish a new state in the Arabian Peninsula under the banner of self-determination, what then of the Iran-aligned Houthis? They command a sizable following and control the historic capital. Should they too be allowed to dictate terms through force?”
He also asked: “Would the international community — and the US in particular — accept the emergence of a Houthi-Iranian state in northern Yemen? Would Washington tolerate a repeat of Sudan’s fragmentation before that tragedy is even resolved? And is the world prepared to bear the consequences of a prolonged war that threatens global shipping lanes, energy supplies, and regional stability — especially given the strategic importance of the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and the Red and Arabian seas?”
Recent history offers a grim verdict: Uncoordinated secessions without broad domestic consensus or clear international legal frameworks rarely yield stable states. Instead, they unleash prolonged chaos, institutional collapse, and open the door to armed groups and foreign meddling. Sovereignty becomes a mirage, replaced by a vacuum that breeds perpetual conflict.
In Yemen, the stakes are even higher. The country sits astride one of the world’s most vital maritime chokepoints, through which a significant share of global trade and Europe-bound energy supplies pass. Any security vacuum in southern Yemen would expose this artery to repeated shocks.
Moreover, such a vacuum would be a magnet for militant groups — whether terrorist networks or regional proxies — creating a new axis of instability stretching into the Gulf and threatening the security of maritime corridors. The STC, in this context, appears to be leaping into a void. It is not the sole representative of the south; other actors such as the Hadramout Alliance, the Southern Movement, and the Southern Coalition also hold sway. Many southern elites remain committed to a federal Yemen, as envisioned in the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference — the only viable blueprint for a united yet decentralized state.
In short, the path forward must be paved with dialogue, not division. The alternative is not independence — it is implosion.
