MANBIJ,
Syria —
Ghazwan Al-Atman thought he had found refuge in
Manbij after years of
displacement, but he now fears his family will be uprooted once again as a
threatened Turkish onslaught looms over the Syrian town.
اضافة اعلان
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has
repeatedly vowed to launch a new offensive in northern Syria in what he says is
an operation to protect his country from Kurdish militias who have been waging
a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
Turkey has launched a string of offensives in
Syria in the past six years, most recently in 2019 when it conducted a broad
air and ground assault against Kurdish militias after former US president
Donald Trump withdrew American troops.
“Our people are completely exhausted,” Atman
said, standing in his empty shoe store in downtown Manbij, which lies just 30km
from Syria’s border with Turkey.
“We enjoyed safety and security here. Now, we
don’t know where to go.”
The market where he set up shop is usually
bustling with customers, but they have now been reduced to a trickle.
Atman said his family settled in Manbij in
2018 having already been displaced “four or five times”.
The 43-year-old built a house and established
his business “from scratch”, but is now ready to flee again as he fears for the
lives of his children.
“War has destroyed me. ... All we want is
stability in this country,” he said.
The threat of a new assault has intensified,
with Turkey saying Thursday it never seeks “permission for our military
operations” despite failing to get the green light from Russia and Iran this
week.
Turkish media said any potential operation is
unlikely to take place before the end of August or early September.
Analysts have warned an attack on densely
populated Manbij would cause mass displacement and suffering.
‘Displacement
means ruin’
The
people of Manbij have been busy stocking up on food in preparation.
Hussein Hamdoush said customers have been
flocking to his grocery store to stockpile essentials like milk, rice, and
bulgur.
Hamdoush said he does not want to leave.
“Displacement means ruin,” he said. “Where
will we go? I would rather die in my home.”
Food prices have shot up in the Kurdish-run
town, residents say.
Umm Nidal, 48, said she feared displacement
as much as she feared for her four children.
“We are facing an economic war rather than
air strikes,” she said as she scanned supermarket shelves.
This is not the first time
Ankara has
threatened to attack Manbij, an Arab-majority town run by Kurdish fighters who
expelled Daesh terrorists in 2016.
Between 2016 and 2019, Ankara launched three
military offensives it said were to root out the Kurdish People’s Protection
Units, the main component of the autonomous Kurds’ de facto army, the Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF).
Analysts have told AFP that even without Moscow
and Tehran’s stamp of approval, Erdogan could still launch a limited attack.
“Turkish threats are nothing new in Manbij,
but the level of these threats ebbs and flows, and it has highly intensified
lately,” said Sherfan Darwish, a spokesman for the SDF-affiliated Manbij
Military Council.
Soldiers
deployed
The
SDF has dug trenches on the outskirts of Manbij in readiness for a potential
attack, AFP correspondents said.
“We have trained our forces ... based on our
experience fighting against (
Daesh), though the war against Turkish forces
calls for new tactics,” Darwish said.
The SDF has reached out to Damascus for help
in fending off a potential Turkish onslaught — as they have done in past
campaigns.
Government and Kurdish forces have struggled
to find common ground, because Damascus rejects Kurdish self-rule.
In the past few days, the regime has deployed
reinforcements near Manbij, as part of a Russia-mediated agreement, to act as a
buffer between Kurdish and Ankara-backed forces.
They have come bearing “heavy and
high-quality weapons”, Darwish said.
Regime flags were visible on the front lines,
while Manbij Military Council fighters were scattered farther back in small
numbers, hiding from possible Turkish drone strikes in the shade of olive
trees, an AFP correspondent said.
Syrian soldiers have trickled in over the
past two days, setting up camp in nearby villages.
Hamdoush said he hopes the army will be able
to protect Manbij, but others are skeptical.
“I wish we could have peace,” said Ali Abu
Hassan, a 50-year-old Manbij resident. “But this (war) is an international game
and we are the victims.
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