SDF Kurdish militia in north-east Syria under threat after fall of Assad

Mass demonstrations against rule by the SDF, a proxy militia of Washington, are expanding in the area

SDF fighters at government headquarters in Hasakah, north-eastern Syria, on the day the Assad regime fell. EPA

A Kurdish-dominated fief in north-eastern Syria run by a US-backed militia is facing the threat of quick extinction as an Arab uprising in the region gathers momentum and rebels who ousted Bashar Al Assad five days ago expand their rule to outlying areas of the country.

The militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and its forerunners were aligned with Mr Al Assad during the civil war and maintained channels of communication with Iran and Russia, the major losing powers from the Syrian president's downfall. The SDF helped the Assad regime crush a peaceful protest movement in 2011 and later capture rebel-held eastern parts of Aleppo city along with other areas. It has been running out of allies since Mr Al Assad's defeat on Sunday to rebels led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), an Al Qaeda offshoot.

Sources on both sides told The National that SDF chief Mazloum Abdi is seeking to meet HTS leader Ahmad Al Shara to negotiate territorial handovers and pledge co-operation in joining any new Syrian army. The SDF is seeking to preserve its hold on the overwhelmingly Kurdish areas in the ethnically mixed east, sources said. The area's population is two to three million.

Mr Al Shara "will not accept anything basically except a surrender", said an HTS field commander deployed in the east, who expected the SDF to pull out soon from the mainly Arab governorate of Raqqa. "The SDF will keep its arms for now but its rule will end."

Mr Al Shara has moved quickly to install a new government in Damascus, staying away from confrontation with the US. Washington created the SDF in 2015 as a ground component in the fight against ISIS in eastern Syria. ISIS and HTS are also enemies.

The US has been scrambling to deal with the fallout from the toppling of Mr Al Assad. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said international support for a new Syria hinged on continuing the fight against ISIS and protecting the country's minorities. Mr Al Assad's rule was underpinned by his Alawite minority, which has dominated Sunni-majority Syria since Alawite officers took power in a 1963 coup. His father, Hafez Al Assad, supported the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is still influential in the SDF.

More than 200 people have been killed, mainly by the SDF, since the Arab uprising started in the east shortly after Mr Al Assad's downfall on Sunday, with demonstrations in the city of Deir Ezzor spreading to Raqqa and Hasakah. This has already forced the SDF to withdraw from most of the governorate of Deir Ezzor and the city of Manbij to the north. HTS and an allied Turkish proxy militia have taken over.

Demonstrators in Raqqa and Hasakah started gathering again on Friday, resuming their disobedience movement, as SDF forces stayed away, the sources said.

The tribal east, especially in the Euphrates river valley, is Syria's breadbasket and the source of most of its oil and gas production. Oil output was 200,000 barrels per day before 2011 but has fallen by 75 per cent since. The area also contains the bulk of the US military presence in Syria.

Two major US enemies, Russia and Iran, had also carved zones of control in Syria before Mr Al Assad's downfall, along with Turkey, the main winner in the immediate aftermath of his removal.

An official in the SDF-run administration in the east said Mr Abdi would be willing to relinquish the province of Raqqa. Already the administration has switched from flying the regime flag to the rebel flag, in a sign of trying to placate Mr Al Shara.

The official expected Mr Al Shara would continue to avoid confrontation with US forces because he needs them to counter ISIS. Both ISIS and HTS are designated as terrorists by the US, together with the Marxist-Leninist PKK, but this has not prevented the US from co-operating with the PKK-linked SDF.

Since 2011, members of the eastern tribes and clans have been recruited by a number of players in the Syrian civil war: the regime, the Iranians, the Russians, ISIS, the US, Al Nusra – an HTS forerunner – and the Free Syrian Army, which was the nucleus of Syria's rebel forces when founded in 2011.

"The east will sink in a bloodbath if there is any [power] vacuum," the official said. "[Al] Shara does not have the forces to control it alone. For now he needs the SDF."