FILE IMAGE: Russian Military Police service members are in Syria.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had refused a Russian request to withdraw its fighters from a section of the strategic M4 highway in northeastern Syria and hand it over to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), the al-Mayadeen TV reported on July 24, citing a source familiar with the issue.
The M4 is the spine of transportation in the northeastern region. The highway links Aleppo with Raqqa and al-Hasakah.
“Russian forces asked the SDF to evacuate a section of the international highway M4 near the town of Ain Issa [in the northern Raqqa countryside] and hand it over to the SAA,” the unnamed source said. “The SDF leadership rejected the Russian request, which led to tension in the area.”
Tensions between Russian forces and the SDF near the town of Ain Issa were indeed reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. According to the London-based monitoring group, SDF fighters besieged the Russian Military Police base in the area for around two hours.
At the time, a group of locals from Ain Issa were protesting in front of the base against the lack of any response by Russia to recent Turkish artillery and drone strikes.
The Russian request to the SDF was likely meant to prevent Turkey from using the group’s presence along the M4 as an excuse to launch a new military operation in Syria.
The Turkish military has been preparing to launch a new operation against the SDF since May. On the other hand, Moscow and Damascus have been making much efforts to prevent Ankara from going on with its military plans.
The SDF’s refusal shows that the group is still determined to keep its control over as much territory as possible despite the looming Turkish threat. The group appears to be more inclined to lose its territory to Turkey than to handed over to the SAA.
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