@#$!Syrian Democratic Forces#@!

23 min readDec 25, 2020

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF; Arabic: قوات سوريا الديمقراطية‎, romanized: Quwwāt Sūriyā al-Dīmuqrāṭīya (QSD, قسد); Kurdish: Hêzên Sûriya Demokratîk‎ (HSD); Classical Syriac: ܚܝ̈ܠܘܬܐ ܕܣܘܪܝܐ ܕܝܡܩܪܛܝܬܐ‎, romanized: Ḥaylawotho d’Suriya Demoqraṭoyto) is an alliance in the Syrian Civil War [107] composed primarily of Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian/Syriac militias, as well as some smaller Armenian, Turkmen and Chechen forces.[108][11] The SDF is militarily led by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a mostly Kurdish militia.[109] Founded in October 2015, the SDF states its mission as fighting to create a secular, democratic and federalised Syria. The updated December 2016 constitution of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) names the SDF as its official defence force.[110]

The primary opponents of the SDF are the various Islamist and Arab nationalist forces involved in the civil war, in particular the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Syrian National Army (TFSA), al-Qaeda affiliates, the Turkish Armed Forces, and their allies. The SDF has focused primarily on the Islamic State,[111] successfully driving them from important strategic areas, such as Al-Hawl, Shaddadi, Tishrin Dam, Manbij, al-Tabqah, Tabqa Dam, Baath Dam, and ISIL’s former capital of Raqqa.[112][113][114][115][116][117] In March 2019, the SDF announced the total territorial defeat of the Islamic State in Syria, with the SDF taking control of the last stronghold in Baghuz.[118]

Since the defeat of the Islamic State, the SDF has increasingly been involved with combating the growing Turkish occupation of northern Syria.

Establishment[edit]

Foundation[edit]

The establishment of the SDF was announced on 11 October 2015 during a press conference in al-Hasakah.[119] The alliance built on longstanding previous cooperation between the founding partners.[120] While the People’s Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, YPG) and the Women’s Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Jin, YPJ) had been operating throughout the regions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, the other founding partners were more geographically focused.

Geographically focused on the Euphrates Region were the YPG’s partners in the Euphrates Volcano joint operations room, several mainstream Syrian rebel factions of the Free Syrian Army, who had helped defend the Kurdish town of Kobanî during the Siege of Kobanî. Liwa Thuwwar al-Raqqa had been expelled by the al-Nusra Front and ISIL from the city of Raqqa for its alliance with the YPG. The group participated in the capture of Tell Abyad from the Islamic State.

Geographically focused on the Jazira Region in northeast Syria were the Assyrian Syriac Military Council (Mawtbo Fulhoyo Suryoyo, MFS) and the al-Sanadid Forces of the Arab Shammar tribe, both of whom had cooperated with the YPG in fighting ISIL since 2013.[121] The MFS is further politically aligned with the YPG via their shared secular ideology of democratic confederalism, which in the Assyrian community is known as the Dawronoye movement.[122]

Geographically focused on the Manbij Region was the Army of Revolutionaries (Jaysh al-Thuwar, JAT), itself an alliance of several groups of diverse ethnic and political backgrounds, who had in common that they had been rejected by the mainstream Syrian opposition for their secular, anti-Islamist views and affiliations.

Signatory groups[edit]

The following groups signed the founding document:[119]

People’s Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, YPG)
Women’s Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Jin, YPJ)
Al-Sanadid Forces
Syriac Military Council (Mawtbo Fulhoyo Suryoyo, MFS)
Liwa Thuwwar al-Raqqa
Euphrates Volcano
Army of Revolutionaries (Jaysh al-Thuwar, JAT)
99th Infantry Brigade
Brigade Groups of al-Jazira

Political representation[edit]

On 10 December 2015, after a two-day conference, the Syrian Democratic Council was established. Human rights activist Haytham Manna and Ilham Ehmed were elected co-chairman/woman at its founding.[123] The Assembly that established the Syrian Democratic Council was made up of 13 members from specific ethnic, economic and political backgrounds.

Size, growth and composition[edit]

2015[edit]

At the time of its founding in late 2015, The Economist described the SDF as “essentially a subsidiary of the Kurdish YPG”.[124] At the end of October, the al-Shaitat tribal militia, the Desert Hawks Brigade, joined the SDF to fight ISIL in the southern countryside of Hasakah Governorate.[125] In November, the FSA group Euphrates Jarabulus Battalions announced its accession to the SDF.[126] In December, members of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate-based Arab tribe al-Shaitat joined the SDF, sending fighters to al-Shaddadah.[127]

2016[edit]

Hussam Awak, a former brigadier general in the Syrian Armed Forces who resigned in 2005 and joined the SDF in October 2016, later leaving in December 2017

With continuous growth in particular due to Arab groups and volunteers joining, in March 2016 only an estimated 60% of the men and women in the SDF fighting force were ethnic Kurds.[128] Growth in particular of Arab, Turkmen and Assyrian participation in the SDF has since continued. In an interview on the first anniversary of the SDF’s founding, spokesman Talal Silo, an ethnic Turkmen and former commander of the Seljuq Brigade, stated that “we started with 13 factions and now there are 32 factions”, and that “90 percent” of the SDF growth since it began its operations were ethnic Arabs.[129] In the context of the November 2016 Northern Raqqa offensive, The Economist said the SDF fighting force to be composed of “about 20,000 YPG fighters and about 10,000 Arabs”.[130] The next month in December 2016, Colonel John Dorrian, the Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman, stated that the SDF contained around 45,000 fighters, of which more than 13,000 were Arabs.[131]

On 6 January 2016 an additional 400 members of the Arab Deir ez-Zor Governorate-based tribe al-Shaitat joined the SDF, sending fighters to Al-Shaddadah.[132]
On 5 February 2016, a group called Martyrs of Dam Brigade from an Arab village called al-Makhmar (liberated by the Syrian Democratic Forces in the Tishrin Dam offensive) joined the Northern Sun Battalion and the SDF.[133]
On 28 February 2016, a group called Martyr Qasim Areef Battalion from Sarrin was formed and joined the Army of Revolutionaries and the SDF.[127]
On 10 March 2016, a group called the Soldiers of the Two Holy Mosques Brigade joined the Syrian Democratic Forces as part of the Northern Sun Battalion.[127] It was formerly part of the Army of Mujahideen’s 19th Division. The group operated in the northern Aleppo Governorate countryside, and also have a presence in Aleppo city and Kobani.
On 12 March 2016, it was reported that more than 200 locals from the earlier liberated areas around the town of Shaddadi joined the SDF, most of them Arabs.[134]
On 19 March 2016, it was reported that a group under the name of Liwa Ahrar al-Raqqa (“Free Raqqa Brigade”) joined the SDF.[135] The group had earlier been known under the name of Liwa al-Jihad fi Sabeel Allah (“Jihad in the Path of God Brigade”) and had in September 2014 been part of the Euphrates Volcano operations room.[136]
On 2 April 2016 the SDF established the Manbij Military Council with the goal of securing the city of Manbij and its surrounding countryside (Manbij offensive). The council also included previously unknown groups such as the Manbij Revolutionaries Battalion, or the Manbij Turkmen Brigade which joined the Northern Sun Battalion of the Army of Revolutionaries.[137]
On 20 June 2016, a group called the Tel Rifaat Revolutionaries Battalion, with 250 members, joined the Kurdish Front of the Army of Revolutionaries.[138]
On 23 June 2016 in the al-Shaddadah area, 158 al-Shaitat tribesmen from the FSA group Elite Forces, which was not yet an SDF component group at the time, defected to join the SDF component group, the Desert Hawks Brigade, consisting of members of that tribe.[139][140]
On 14 August 2016, after securing Manbij, the SDF established the al-Bab Military Council with the goal of securing the city of al-Bab and its surrounding countryside.[141]
On 21 August, in a similar fashion to the establishment of the Manbij and al-Bab Military Councils, the SDF established the Jarablus Military Council with the goal of securing the city of Jarablus and its surrounding countryside. The council also includes the newly established group, the Manbij Revolutionary Brigades.[142][143][144] The commander of the council, General Sattar Jader from Jarabulus Hawks Brigades, was assassinated the next day, a suspect was later arrested.[145][146]
On 13 September 2016 the al-Nukhbat Brigade, consisting of members from the al-Shaitat and Shammar tribes and led by Ahmad Jarba, joined the SDF. While some of its members already had earlier defected and joined the SDF, the event was called a major political coup for the SDF, as Jarba was the former President of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces and now agreed to work with the Syrian Democratic Council framework instead.
On 14 October 2016, the Free Officers Union, led by Hussam Awak, said to number in the hundreds joined the SDF.[18][19]
On 31 October 2016, an all-female battalion was established within’ the al-Bab Military Council.[147]
On 8 December 2016, the Deir ez-Zor Military Council was established.[22] The founding members consist of remnants of the former Free Syrian Army council of the same name, expelled from the city by the Islamic State in 2014, having joined the SDF in November 2016.[148]

2017[edit]

According to a March 2017 statement of the Spokesman for the International Coalition forces, U.S. Colonel John Dorrian, 75 percent of the SDF forces fighting in Operation Wrath of Euphrates to isolate ISIL’s de facto capital of Raqqa were Syrian Arabs, a reflection of the demographic composition of that area. “The Syrian Democratic Forces are a multi-ethnic and multi-sectarian organization, and that is one of the reasons why we’re working with them and they have continued to build the Arab element of their force.”[149] Concerning the SDF in general, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend in the same month said that “I’m seeing what is probably a pretty broad coalition of people and the Kurds may be providing the leadership, because they have a capable leader who’s stepped up to this challenge. And they are providing some of the organisational skill, but I see a large contingent about 23 to 25, 000 so far and growing, Arabs, who are marching to liberate their part of northern Syria. So, I don’t see a Kurdish state. I see a multi-cultural, multi-party, multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian Syrian region being liberated from ISIS. Over.”[150]

Late June, an analysis by the Counter Terrorism Center at West Point said “growing acceptance of the SDF by Sunni Arab rebel groups” and more generally “growing legitimacy of the SDF”.[148] Another analysis as of late June described the YPG as “only one faction of many within the SDF”, however that “it’s the YPG that makes the SDF reliable and effective. The SDF’s other components function as auxiliaries to the SDF’s ‘backbone’, the YPG, which ensures effective, unitary command and control.”[151]

On 13 February, the first YPG/YPJ regiment in the Euphrates Region was declared. The second regiment, named Şehîd Şevger Kobanî Regiment was established on 18 February.[152] A total of 4 regiments were declared.[153]
On 25 February 2017, the YPG agreed to hand over security in the Assyrian towns along the Khabur River to the Khabour Guards and Nattoreh which joined the SDF.[10]
On 27 February 2017, the first YPG/YPJ regiment in the Afrin Region, named Martyr Xebat Dêrik Regiment was declared.[153]
On 8 April 2017, the Jazeera Knights Brigade was established.[28]
On 10 April 2017, two new YPG/YPJ regiments, named Martyr Gabar Regiment and Dêrik and Martyr Zana Regiment were established in the Jazira Region.[153]
On 4 May 2017, the International Anti-Fascist Battalion was renamed to the YPG International Battalion and became a part of the YPG.
On 17 May 2017, the Raqqa Internal Security Forces were established.[87]
On 8 June, between 60 and 70 Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army fighters, including several Sultan Murad Division commanders, defected to the Syrian Army and the SDF during infighting between TFSA factions.[154]
On 10 July, an all-female Arab SDF group was established in Deir ez-Zor, the Martyr Amara Arab Women’s Battalion, named after a female Arab SDF fighter that died in combat. Their area of focus will be the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. The group currently consists of 35 fighters from the cities of Hama, al-Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah, along with the town of al-Shaddadah.[23][24]
On 15 August, the Revolutionary Forces was formed as part of the SDF in northern Aleppo, with the intent to fight the Turkish occupation of northern Syria.[36]
On 25 August 800 fighters left the Elite Forces and were integrated into the ranks of the SDF and its Deir ez-Zor Military Council. The fighters said the Elite Forces were committing corruption. These forces consist of 7 units of al-Baggara and al-Shaitat tribal fighters stationed in the eastern Raqqa and southern Hasaka countrysides.[155]
On 4 September, a faction of the Northern Brigade, which is a TFSA unit, defected to the SDF.[156]
Around 10 September, dozens of militiamen of the pro-government Forces of the Fighters of the Tribes joined the SDF. These militiamen had previously been overrun by ISIL during the Central Syria campaign and retreated into SDF-held areas in order to avoid being captured by the Islamist militants. Feeling abandoned by their old commander, they eventually decided to stay with the SDF.[157]
At some point during the Battle of Raqqa (2017), the “Elite Forces” fell out with the SDF, and officially left the alliance. Thereafter, the group reportedly disintegrated.[158]
On 15 November 2017, Talal Silo, defected or surrendered to the Turkish Army, the nature of his leaving the SDF being up for dispute.[159][160][161]
On 27 November 2017, the Martyr Adnan Abu Amjad Regiment, consisting of 250 fighters was established and joined the Manbij Military Council
On 20 December 2017, Hussam Awak announced his resignation from the SDF on his Facebook page without providing any reasons.[17]

2018[edit]

This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2018)

SDF-controlled territory (green), claimed territory (red), Turkish-occupied territory (red) in October 2019

Press conference of the SDF on 22 January 2018, involving Kino Gabriel (center), spokesman of the SDF.

On 13 January 2018, it was announced that the US-led Coalition would train a group called the Syrian Border Security Force (BSF), and would aim to reach 30,000 fighters, half of those being composed by current SDF members.[162]
On 20 January 2018, Kino Gabriel, the spokesman for the Syriac Military Council, was also made the spokesman for the SDF.[2]
In early June 2018, the Brigade For The Liberation of Idlib and Afrin, and the Idlib Revolutionaries Brigade where established.
In July 2018, the first Sapper unit was established.[7]
On 1 August 2018, the first Special Forces Regiment was formed.[6]
On 24 September 2018, the Assyrian Democratic Party announced the creation of a united military leadership for Nattoreh and the Khabour Guards. The united force will known as the “Ashur Forces”.

2019[edit]

On 23 March 2019, the SDF announced the seizure of the last of ISIS territory in Syria after capturing the Syrian city of Baghuz.[163]
On 24 April 2019, the Armenian Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Brigade was founded in the Marziya Church in Tell Goran on the 104th Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.[11]
In June & July 2019, ten military councils were formed.[164][165]
On 9 October 2019, Turkey started bombardment on SDF territory for a planned invasion called Operation Peace Spring.[166][167] after American troops withdrew from the Syrian-Turkish border, leading to international condemnation of the invasion with only Azerbaijan and the -stan countries excluding Afghanistan supporting the invasion.[168][169]

Support by the United States, France and other Western nations[edit]

This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2018)

On 12 October 2015, the Pentagon confirmed U.S. C-17 transport aircraft having dropped 100 pallets with 45 tons of arms and ammunition over SDF-controlled territory in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. Polat Can, spokesman of the SDF component militia People’s Protection Units (YPG), identified the freight as being “assault rifles, mortars and ammunition, but no TOW anti-tank missiles nor anti-aircraft weapons”.[170][171] The airdrop came only days after the Pentagon had officially abandoned its failed $500 million train-and-equip program that armed mainstream opposition groups who were also opposed to ISIL.[172]
During the SDF’s February 2016 al-Shaddadi offensive, there were US special forces embedded with the SDF forces who coordinated airstrikes against ISIL with the SDF.[173]
On 17 March 2016, the day after the declaration of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter praised the SDF component militia People’s Protection Units (YPG) as having “proven to be excellent partners of ours on the ground in fighting ISIL. We are grateful for that, and we intend to continue to do that, recognizing the complexities of their regional role.”[174]
During the SDF’s May 2016 offensive against ISIL in Northern Raqqa, the presence of U.S. Special Forces was widely reported, and several photographs of them wearing badges of the YPG and YPJ on their uniforms circulated.[175]

An SDF IAG Guardian armoured personnel carrier in February 2017, one of several APCs that were supplied by the United States to the SDF.

On 21 May 2016, General Joseph Votel, commanding general of U.S. Central Command, completed a secret several-hour-long trip to northern Syria to visit several locations where there were U.S. special operations forces and meet with local forces the U.S. was helping train to fight ISIL. The visit came as the first of 250 additional U.S. special operations forces were beginning to arrive in Syria to work with local forces.[53] The commander overseeing the war in Syria, at the end of a long Saturday spent touring SDF bases, said “We do, absolutely, have to go with what we’ve got”.[54]
During the SDF’s summer 2016 Manbij offensive against ISIL, the U.S. Air Force as well as special operation forces of several Western nations supported the SDF advance. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that besides US special forces, German and French forces were participating.[176] Germany officially denied the report,[177] but France confirmed it.[57]
After two Syrian Air Force SU-24’s started air strikes in Al-Hasakah, on 19 August 2016,[55] near where coalition forces were conducting operations on the ground, coalition aircraft arrived and the United States Department of Defense said that “It troubles us when we see regime air strikes in Hasakah in an area where it is well known by everybody, to include the Assad regime, that the coalition is actively engaged in operations against Isis”,[56] implicitly recognizing that elite troops are training and supporting the YPG and the Syrian Democratic Forces in the area.[56]
During the late summer 2016 Turkish military intervention in the Syrian Civil War in the Manbij Region, U.S. Special Operations Forces embedded with SDF forces in order to successfully deter Turkey and Turkish-backed jihadi rebels from attacking SDF forces south of the Sajur river.[25] Further, the United States Department of Defense confirmed that U.S. Special Operation Forces were flying U.S. flags in the town of Tell Abyad in the Euphrates Region to deter Turkish harassment shelling or attacks against SDF forces there.[178]
During the SDF’s late summer 2016 Western al-Bab offensive against ISIL, the U.S. Air Force provided close combat support for SDF forces.[179]
Late September 2016, the U.S. spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR) confirmed that the SDF, including the YPG, is also part of the “vetted forces” in the train and equip program and will be supplied with weapons. The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, condemned this and stated that the SDF are “endangering our future”.[180]
Early October 2016, media reports highlighted construction work on another military airfield in SDF controlled territory for operations of U.S. air assets, in the vicinity of al-Shaddadah in the Jazira Region,[181][182] in addition to the two airfields the U.S. is widely reported to already co-operate there: Abu Hajar Airport in Rmelan in the Jazira Region and one airfield at the village of Septe south of Kobanî in the Euphrates Region.[183][184][185][186]

U.S. Army Stryker armoured vehicles drive through Qamishli and head to the Syria–Turkey border after Turkish–YPG April 2017 border clashes.

Late October 2016, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, the commander of the international coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, said that the SDF would lead the impending assault on Raqqa, ISIL’s stronghold and capital, and that SDF commanders would plan the operation with advice from American and coalition troops.[187] From November, more than 300 U.S. Special Operations Forces were embedded to train and advise SDF fighters in the Raqqa offensive.[188]
In January 2017, the European Syriac Union in Brussels requested the US to provide more support for the Assyrian and Kurdish components of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The US reportedly favoured the Arab components in the SDF,[189] in April the MFS and the HSNB reaffirming the request for more support from the US.[190]
In late January 2017, the SDF received a number of armoured personnel carriers produced by ArmorGroup and supplied by the US.[191]
In February 2017, Stephen Townsend visited Kobanî. On 25 February, the US Central Command stated that it would continue to train and equip forces of the Manbij Military Council.[192] During the East Aleppo offensive (February–March 2017), the US deployed troops and armored vehicles to villages near Manbij in an attempt to “deter” the skirmishes between the SDF and Turkey-backed forces west and north of Manbij.[193]
In late March 2017, the US delivered 30 more Guardian armoured vehicles to the SDF for use in the Raqqa offensive.[194]
In late April 2017, the U.S. just as in the summer 2016 once again deployed U.S. troops embedded with the SDF to the border between the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria/Syria and Turkey, in order to deter Turkish aggressions against the SDF, which this time coincided with the SDF’s breakthrough advances against ISIL in the Raqqa campaign.[195][196]

SDF fighters celebrating their victory in the Battle of Raqqa against ISIL, mid-October 2017

On 9 May 2017, it was announced by the Pentagon that American President Donald Trump approved of a plan that would have the United States directly provide heavy armaments to the major SDF component group, the YPG; the plan comes before a planned final offensive to capture Raqqa from ISIL.[197][198][199]
By July 2017, more than 8,500 members of the SDF have been trained by the US-led coalition and in the first half of 2017, more than 400 vehicles and other equipment have been delivered to over 40,000 SDF troops.[200]
According to a report from the Kurdish news network Kurdistan 24, the major SDF component group, YPG forces, received about 800 truckloads of military supplies from the Pentagon from early June to the end of July 2017.[201][202][203]
In a joint report published on 12 September 2017, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) reported that the Pentagon had so far delivered up to $2.2 billion worth of weapons to the Syrian Democratic Forces.[204][205]
In late November 2017, Turkish officials stated that Trump told Erdoğan during their 24 November phone conversation that the U.S. would end arms supplies to the SDF. Erdoğan said: “For the first time in a long while, a common wavelength was reached.”[206] But Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) denied on 28 November that there was a halt in the Washington armament, saying they were provided with weapons by the U.S. the day before.[207] Kurdish officials also said on 27 November that the United States would only “adjust” its delivery of weapons to the SDF. U.S. officials also stated that they would continue to work with their Kurdish and Arab partners of SDF but will only review and adjust its delivery of weapons which is being done regularly.[208] The International Coalition also confirmed its support for SDF is ongoing.[209]
On 12 February 2018, the United States Department of Defense released a budget blueprint for 2019 which with respect to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, including $300 million for the SDF and $250 million for border security.[210]
On 29 March 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to send troops to Syria’s Manbij in a bid to assist local SDF militias in preventing Turkish forces from advancing on the town.[211]

U.S. soldiers of the CJTF–OIR coalition train SDF commandos in live stress-fire, mid-July 2019

In December 2018, U.S. Kurdish allies in Syria discussed the release of 3,200 ISIS prisoners, a prominent monitoring group and a Western official of the anti-Islamic State coalition said, a day after President Trump ordered the withdrawal of all American troops from the country. The SDF denied that such talks have taken place.[212]
In April 2019, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Mulroy stated that the physical caliphate was defeated, but ISIS was not. And there were over 10,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq, completely unrepentant.[213] He expected the U.S. to be in Syria for the long haul with a very capable partner in the Syrian Democratic Forces.[214][215][216] He said that the U.S. partnership with the SDF was a model to follow in the future, like the partnership with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban and with the Kurdish Peshmerga in Iraq as the northern front against Saddam Hussein.[217]
On 7 October 2019, President of the United States and Chief of the US Military Donald Trump announced that the US would be withdrawing all troops stationed at the border of Turkey currently in cooperation with the SDF.[218] This has led to fears of a possible re-emergence of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant due to SDF-controlled ISIS prisons[219][220] and possible restoration of fighting in the Syrian Civil War,[221] with current conflict being limited in the Syrian Civil War.[222]
On 26 October 2019 U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) conducted a raid into the rebel-held Idlib province of Syria on the border with Turkey that resulted in the death of brahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai also known as Abū Bakr al-Baghdadi.[223][224] The raid was launched based on a CIA intelligence effort that located the leader of ISIS. This complex operations was conducted during the withdrawal of U.S. forces northeast Syria, adding to the complexity.[225] Several senior officials commented that this operation was only possible because of the presence of troops on the ground allowing for the development of intelligence networks. Any further reduction in troop presence could compromise this capability. The Syrian Democratic Forces and the Iraqi military also support the operation. The U.S. stated they deconflicted with Turkey, but they did not support the operation.[226]

Reported internal conflict between SDF factions[edit]

In November 2015, Liwa Thuwar al-Raqqa merged with the Tribal Army to form Jabhat Thuwar al-Raqqa to become part of the SDF. After some tensions between the group and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), on 6 January 2016 the group reportedly issued a statement stating it was disbanding.[227] Later the same month, some sources stated that the Liwa Thuwar al-Raqqa reappeared, announcing it had decided to rejoin the SDF.[228]
Turkey has at various times tried and failed to incite tensions along ethnic lines within the SDF.[25] At the height of one such attempts after the start of the summer 2016 Manbij offensive, Sheikh Farouk al-Mashi, an ethnic Arab former member of the Syrian parliament and designated co-chairman of the Manbij City Council, stated: “I have a Syrian ID, and Kurds have a Syrian ID. Let those people who talk against us in Turkey and Europe come here and fight ISIS. Why this distortion in media about problems between Kurds and Arabs?” Ethnic Kurdish fellow co-chairman Salih Haji Mohammed stated: “In our social contract, we say we want to have good relations with neighboring countries like Turkey. Any country that does not interfere in Manbij and our areas, we will have good relations with.”[229] A fighter gave his perspective as “we have Arabs, Kurds, nobody knows how many exactly, we all work under the SDF-forces”.[230]
In September 2016, during the Turkish military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, the leader of small SDF component group Liwa al-Tahrir, Abdul Karim Obeid, defected to the camp of Turkish-backed rebels with 20 to 100 of his men, citing opposition to reported YPG domination of the SDF, while SDF sources suggested he was displeased with the civil administration of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria replacing warlordist political rule in the Free Syrian Army style. The remaining fighters stayed with the SDF.[25]
Also, in September 2016, during the Turkish military intervention, some Arab sources reported that Liwa Ahrar al-Raqqa clashed with the YPG,[26] however two days later the Liwa Ahrar al-Raqqa’s commander said that news about the clashes and defections were false, he denied that such clashes had ever happened.[231]
In mid-November 2016, Liwa Thuwar al-Raqqa’s political bureau, which has strong connections with Turkey, condemned the SDF’s Raqqa offensive led by the YPG. This caused tensions between the group’s political bureau, who opposes the YPG, and the overall leader and military commander of Jabhat Thuwar al-Raqqa, Abu Issa, who is allied with the YPG. Some members of Jabhat Thuwar al-Raqqa left the group and joined the SDF’s Liwa Ahrar al-Raqqa, in response to the tensions.
On 10 December 2016, the second phase of the Northern al-Raqqa campaign was announced, with Jabhat Thuwar al-Raqqa participating under the SDF. 2 weeks later, the Raqqa Hawks Brigade reportedly captured several Thuwar al-Raqqa military commanders and forced them to announce their defection. On 27 December, the commanders declared on video that they are still with Thuwar al-Raqqa.[232] On 20 February 2017, one sub-commander of the Raqqa Hawks Brigade, Abu Yamen al-Meko, who reportedly had strong links to the Military Intelligence Directorate, declared his loyalty to Bashar al-Assad and formed the pro-government unit “Tajamou al-Shamal”. His followers consequently raised the Ba’athist flag at their headquarters in the village of al-Fares. These actions, however, provoked the ire of Jabhat Thuwar al-Raqqa, which launched a surprise attack on al-Fares two days later and destroyed al-Meko’s faction, killing or capturing its members. Jabhat Thuwar al-Raqqa went on to declare that it “would never allow the regime and its supporting militia to re-enter the city [of Raqqa] by any means”.[233][234]
On 10 April 2017, a spokesman for the Elite Forces stated that the group is not part of the SDF, will cooperate with both the SDF and Rojava Peshmerga to capture Deir ez-Zor, and rejected federalism.[235] On 15 April, this statement was denied by Muhammad Khalid Shakir, the official spokesman of the Elite Forces. He denied any disagreements between the Elite Forces and the SDF and said that “We are in the framework of the international coalition. The leadership of the coalition manages the operations on the ground. Our troops did not withdraw. We have completed the third phase of the Wrath of Euphrates Operation, and we will participate in all stages until Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor are freed.”[236]