Kurdish commander urges US to intervene in Syria, says he’d welcome Israeli help

Syrian government forces take country’s largest oil field despite US call to stop advance, as Kurdish-led SDF withdraws from areas it controlled since pushing out ISIS in 2017

The US should intervene more forcefully to end a Syrian offensive that has gained key territory from Kurdish fighters in recent days, the head of the main Kurdish force told Reuters.

Government troops launched an offensive on Saturday into territory run for the last decade by semi-autonomous Kurdish authorities in the northeast of Syria, capturing towns on both sides of the Euphrates River as well as the country’s largest oil field and a gas field, officials and security sources said.

Syrian state media said two civilians were killed by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northern city of Raqqa on Sunday, as a monitor reported clashes there.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes between the SDF “and local Arab tribal fighters” were taking place in some neighborhoods of the city, which has been under SDF control since the US-backed force pushed out Islamic State jihadists in 2017.

People’s Protection Units (YPG) commander Sipan Hamo said a Saturday meeting between US envoy Tom Barrack and Kurdish officials produced no roadmap to a ceasefire. He denied Syria’s Kurds wanted to secede or create an independent state and said their future was in Syria.

“Our greatest hope is that there will be a tangible outcome, especially from the coalition and the United States, meaning that they will intervene more forcefully in the existing problems than what they are currently doing,” Hamo said.

Syrian troops have continued to advance, despite a US military Central Command call on Saturday for them to halt.

Hamo said Kurdish authorities recognized that Washington now had to balance its years-long alliance with Kurdish forces, who helped defeat ISIS in Syria, with its newfound support for Syria’s government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

But given Kurdish “concerns about the changes taking place,” the US should offer assurances of protection to them, he said.

“In the current situation and the chaos we are living in, the only ones who can offer guarantees are the United States or the coalition,” Hamo added in a rare interview from Hasakeh province, which is still under Kurdish control.

“We believe that the responsibility for everything currently happening inside Syria lies with the Western countries, and especially the United States of America,” he said.

Hamo denied that the YPG was receiving support from Iran or Russia, while suggesting a hope that Israel would intervene on behalf of Syria’s Kurds.

“Of course, we consider Israel a powerful state in the region with its own agenda. We hope that the same stance taken by other countries in the region towards certain minorities in Syria will be extended to the Kurds as well,” Hamo said.

Asked if he was referring to Israel’s stance towards the Druze minority last summer — when Israel carried out airstrikes on the defense ministry, near the presidential palace in Damascus and on Syrian troops advancing on Druze cities — Hamo said, “of course.”

Syrian government takes control of largest oil field

Kurdish-led forces withdrew on Sunday from Syria’s largest oil field, a conflict monitor said, as government troops extended their grip over swaths of territory in the country’s north and east.

The push came after Sharaa issued a decree granting the Kurds official recognition in an apparent goodwill gesture, even as his Islamist government seeks to assert its authority across Syria after the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in late 2024.

The Kurds’ de facto autonomous administration, which controls large parts of the northeast, has said the announcement fell short, while the implementation of a deal to integrate Kurdish forces into the state has been stalled for months.

Early Sunday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) suddenly withdrew “from all areas under its control in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside, including the Al-Omar and Tanak oil fields,” the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.

He said the SDF withdrawal in Deir Ezzor and Raqqa provinces came as “fighters from local tribes, including Arab fighters who are part of the SDF, advanced in coordination with government troops.”

The areas are now effectively controlled by government forces, the Observatory said.

Al-Omar is the country’s largest oil field, and was home to the United States’ largest base in Syria. It had been controlled by Kurdish-led forces since 2017 after ISIS was pushed out.

The Kurds’ reported withdrawal from Al-Omar follows the government’s announcement that it had retaken two other oil fields, Safyan and Al-Tharwa, in Raqqa province.

Macron talks to Sharaa, calls for ‘permanent ceasefire’

France’s President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday he’d urged Sharaa in phone conversations to reach a “permanent ceasefire.”

“I conveyed to him our concern about the escalation in Syria and the continuation of the offensive carried out by the Syrian authorities,” Macron wrote on X. “A permanent ceasefire is necessary, and an agreement must be reached on integrating the [Kurdish-led] Syrian Democratic Forces into the Syrian state.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.