The commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces is calling on President Joe Biden to stop a looming Turkish ground offensive that he said will devastate northern Syria and disrupt the fight against the Islamic State.
In an interview with POLITICO, Gen. Mazloum Abdi said the United States has not done enough to prevent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from carrying out his threats to launch a cross-border operation in retaliation for last week’s deadly bombing in Istanbul.
He noted that during Biden’s presidential campaign, the candidate said he would not betray the Kurds as then-President Donald Trump did when he withdrew American troops from northern Syria in October 2019, allowing Turkey to launch a deadly operation that displaced 300,000 people.
“We believe that it is a political and humanitarian responsibility of the administration and the president himself protecting the cities protecting the Kurds and the families of the 12,000 martyrs” that died fighting alongside U.S. soldiers against ISIS in Syria, the general said.
