The Syrian government is arming a Kurdish group to fight against the Turkish invasion

ANHA News via Now Lebanon

BEIRUT – A recently-formed group with ties to ruling Kurdish authorities in northern Syria has touted that it will soon launch attacks against Turkish forces backing Free Syrian Army factions.

“The Syrian National Resistance is preparing military operations to fight the Turkish intervention in Syria,” the shadowy organization’s leader, Rezan Hedo, told Sputnik News on October 23.

Hedo vowed in his interview with the Moscow-owned outlet that the Syrian National Resistance will “very soon begin to unify military efforts.”

“Military actions will start soon in the areas occupied by Turkey,” he added, in reference to the strip of territory in northern Aleppo controlled by FSA-linked rebels supported by Ankara.

The Syrian National Resistance chief further proclaimed that although his group “received many offers [of aid] from several parties,” it decided to “only welcome the Syrian army’s weapons and support,” echoing the organization’s previous convivial  rhetoric toward the Bashar al-Assad regime.

In late August, Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield with the goal of pushing back both ISIS and Kurdish-led fighters from the northeastern Aleppo countryside.

Days later, the Syrian National Resistance announced its formation, proclaiming in  a speech replete with nationalistic rhetoric that it will “confront the Turkish occupation and deter it from achieving its objectives.”

While the Syrian National Resistance has made no mention of the SDF or Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in its public announcements, a number of its leading members, including Hedo, belong to the SDF’s political wing.

ANHA News via Now Lebanon

The ruling Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) has made no official statement on the formation of the Syrian National Resistance, which was covered extensively by the ANHA news agency, which is close to Syria’s Kurdish fighting forces.

Pro-Assad media outlets, for their part, have given coverage to the Syrian National Resistance, with the Hezbollah-affiliated Central Military Media-Syria previously posting tweets of its statements.

Meanwhile, Al-Akhbar, a Lebanese daily supportive of Hezbollah, published an article discussing the group on October 20, reporting that “work was underway” for the Syrian National Resistance to launch “at the right moment.”

NOW's English news desk editor Albin Szakola (@AlbinSzakola) wrote this report. Amin Nasr translated Arabic-language material. 

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