NORTHEAST SYRIA – The Trump administration warns Syria may face full-scale civil war within weeks. When CBN News visited the front lines of the battle-scarred country, we discovered the new war has already begun.
Fighting rages across northern Syria with Turkish-backed forces clashing with Kurdish units at the Euphrates River while sectarian battles erupt in the south. All this comes as the new regime led by a former al-Qaeda commander struggles to unify the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “It is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authorities, given the challenges they’re facing, are maybe weeks, not many months, away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions.”
CBN News recently visited the Tishreen Dam which has been in the news as the scene of some heavy fighting between the Turkish-backed forces and HTS and the Kurds. Now the Kurds hold the dam, and there’s a ceasefire that just recently came into effect, which they’re hoping will hold. The only problem is the Turks aren’t abiding by the ceasefire, so drone strikes and artillery shelling are still happening on a daily basis out here.
Mohammad Ahmed of the Free Burma Rangers said, “Daytime and nighttime… we hear the airstrikes destroyed all this building. They never stop.”
Syrian Democratic Forces respond by fortifying cities across the region—digging tunnels, building barriers, and erecting camouflaged walkways to evade drone strikes.
In urban combat, you don’t want to walk down the street because you’ll get shot. So the fighters break holes in the walls to go between buildings without exposing themselves on the street. We also found an underground entrance that leads to miles and miles of tunnels that go under the city of Kobani and all over this whole region.
Syriac Military Council President Aram Hanna said his group won’t surrender to terrorists or tyrants.
“HTS and the Assad regime, and even the FSA and SNA—they attacked us by airplanes or by air attacks. And the Turks are doing the same. There’s no difference. We won’t accept to let our guns down now. I think we will give our guns to who? ISIS, which is ruling Syria now? I mean, it’s impossible for us,” Hanna said.
The Kurds fought and lost over 12,000 lives to defeat ISIS. Now, they say the “transitional government” resembles the very caliphate they helped destroy.
“I can’t believe them because they, before, now ISIS when us support the new government. For me, it’s so surprise why they do that. You know him (Ahmed al-Sharaa), what he done before now,” Kurdish civilian Samira told us.
Hanna said, “We’ll stay fighting until we have a real plan that contain us all—as the Syrians, Christian Syrians, Syriac Syrians, Armenian Syrians, Kurdish Syrians—and all of us. It’s our country.”
Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian group operating in Syria since 2016, stresses the importance of continued U.S. support to prevent widespread bloodshed.
Dave Eubank, founder of the Free Burma Rangers, told CBN News, “The Euphrates River is the westernmost frontline for (Syrian)Democratic Forces and they’re holding that very tenuously. Without international support… just because of Turkish air power alone, the Syrian National Army will push the Kurds out, which means the Kurds, the Christians, the Yazidis, other minorities will be slaughtered.”
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As the U.S. reduces troops in the region, Kurds in the northeast grow increasingly nervous and distrustful of the new regime.
“Everyone is grateful and hopeful the U.S. will stay,” Eubank said. “(The) United States cannot solve the problem here, nor should it, but our presence has and continues to create a space for people to solve these problems. It creates a space with the Kurds, the Christians, the Muslims, the Azd are working together and they’re working together pretty well here in the SDF-controlled area.”
