Following last week's Turkish air-strikes on Kurdish forces in northern Syria, the autonomous administration in the region is said to have issued a call for a "no-fly zone." Tev-Dem [11], the self-governance structure for Syria's Kurdish autonomous zone [12], reportedly issued the call after Turkish raids killed at least 20 fighters of its militia force, the People's Protection Units (YPG [13]). Because US-backed Kurdish forces are basically calling for international protection from US ally Turkey, this development further heightens the contradictions [13] that Washington faces in northern Syria. It is telling that the Tev-Dem statement is aggressively touted by Kremlin mouthpiece Sputnik [14]. It has also been reported by Syria Deeply [15] and UPI [16].
The Kurdish-led YPG is the central pillar of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF [17]), the coalition that the US is backing against ISIS. In the latest clash, SDF fighters repulsed an ISIS attack on a displaced persons camp at Rajm al-Salibi, near the town of Shaddadi in Hassakeh governorate. At least 30 displaced persons and SDF fighters were killed. (BBC News [18], May 2)
Last week's Turkish air-strikes in Iraq, ostensibly aimed at forces of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK [13]), reportedly hit the only clinic serving the Yazidi people in the Sinjar [13] area (also rendered Shingal). "The Yazidis of Mountain Shingal are terrified. They feel threatened and unsafe. They thought ISIS days were almost done and they can return to their villages and towns, but now they face a bigger problem," Yakhi Hamza, Iraq country director of the 1st New Allied Expeditionary Force [19], a humanitarian nonprofit delivering medical aid to the Yazidis, told Fox News [20] after inspecting the damage at the clinic. "Turkey is a more dangerous threat than ISIS and attacking Yazidis from above."
If these reports are accurate, it is certainly a perverse irony. The Yazidis have been targeted for genocide by ISIS, and now also find themselves targeted by US ally Turkey. Sooner or later, something is going to have to give in the fundamentally contradictory US strategy against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
