The Wall Street Journal - 23.10.2019

A6| Wednesday, October 23, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

Saoussen Moussali, above, and

her family were forced to flee

what had been a haven, while

Abdelkarim Mustafa‘s bid to

enter Turkey has been thwarted.

protests, has now thrown his

support behind them, poten-

tially further stoking the

crowd sizes.

The protests have come at a

delicate time for Iraq, which

has rushed to fortify its bor-

der with Syria, concerned that

Turkey’s invasion in an effort

to create a so-called safe zone

to protect it from what it sees

as a threat from Kurdish mili-

tias and Islamic State mili-

tants. Hundreds of foreign

women and children linked to

Islamic State escaped from a

camp in northeastern Syria

when Turkish-backed forces

attacked the area this month.

whose will is stronger than

iron after the bloody repres-

sion they suffered,” Mr. Salihi

said. “We would sooner die

than retreat.”

The political bloc led by

former Prime Minister Haider

al-Abadi criticized the govern-

ment’s investigation for failing

to identify those responsible

for the killings and other

rights violations. He said re-

sponsibility ultimately lay

with the government for fail-

ing to protect protesters and

stop the sustained violence.

Populist cleric Moqtada al-

Sadr, who remained on the

sidelines during the previous

testers but it said the govern-

ment didn’t issue any order to

shoot.

In response to the findings,

the government on Tuesday

fired 44 army and police com-

manders for losing control of

the security forces under their

command. Iraq’s forces are

fragmented and include fac-

tions loyal to different politi-

cal parties, making account-

ability difficult.

Civil activist Waleed al-Sal-

ihi dismissed the probe’s re-

sults as an attempt to appease

protesters before the demon-

strations on Friday. “The pro-

tests are made of young men

demonstrators. The govern-

ment blocked the internet in

an apparent effort to hamper

protesters’ ability to organize.

Unidentified gunmen trashed

the offices of TV channels that

covered the demonstrations.

A government probe re-

leased Tuesday found that 70%

of the protesters shot were hit

in the chest or head, suggest-

ing that deadly force was in-

tentional. The report also said

ambulances were fired upon,

preventing them from reach-

ing wounded protesters, with-

out identifying who did the

shooting. The report also

didn’t identify who shot pro-

government.

Earlier this month, tens of

thousands of protesters took

to the streets of Baghdad and

other cities in southern Iraq to

vent their anger over poor

governance, corruption and

economic mismanagement

that has failed to spread the

country’s massive oil wealth.

Their demands grew into

calls to oust government after

security forces responded with

force over a weeklong period,

leaving more than 100 people

dead and thousands injured.

In the melee, security

forces and unidentified snipers

positioned on rooftops shot at

up most of its 500-mile border

with Syria and refuses to take

the more than three million ci-

vilians trapped in Idlib.

All summer, Mr. Erdogan

sounded the alarm over the

humanitarian mayhem in Idlib,

and Russia agreed to suspend

airstrikes in late August.

But after launching its own

military offensive in northeast-

ern Syria on Oct. 9, forcing

more than 160,000 people to

flee their homes, according to

the United Nations, Turkey

sought the Kremlin’s support

to drive Kurdish fighters An-

kara regards as a terrorist

threat away from a 300-mile

strip running along its border.

After a meeting with Mr. Erdo-

gan on Tuesday, Russian Presi-

dent Vladimir Putin vowed to

assist Turkey with the plan.

Idlib’s population more

than doubled to 1.5 million

over the past two years, when

civilians fleeing fighting else-

where in Syria were evacuated

to the province. Thousands of

rebels who had lost their fight

against the Assad regime were

also sent there.

The regime, which has re-

claimed swaths of Syria’s ter-

ritory with support from Rus-

sia and Iran since 2015, is

determined to reconquer the

province, saying it is a haven

for radical Islamic groups. In

late April, Assad forces and

Russian combat jets began

pounding towns in the south

of Idlib. Relief organizations

say civilians will bear the

brunt of a full-scale offensive

because an estimated 30,

to 60,000 militants are dis-

persed among them.

Early last year, the Idlib

province appeared a safe des-

tination to Saoussen Moussali.

With her husband and their

five children, she was evacu-

ated by U.N.-chartered buses

from Eastern Ghouta after reb-

els who held that Damascus

suburb surrendered to the

Assad regime.

Ms. Moussali, 40, feared her

sons would be enlisted in the

Syrian army or killed if they

stayed. Her elder son was

wounded in a 2013 chemical at-

tack on the suburb, and her hus-

band injured in a 2014 airstrike.

When they arrived in the

southern Idlib town of Maarrat

al Nu’man in April 2018, a fam-

ily let them stay for free and

Ms. Moussali’s elder sons found

jobs at a local bakery. Her son

Mohammed, then 9, attended

school for the first time.

In September, however, Ms.

Moussali was wounded in the

head when the Maarrat al

Nu’man house was destroyed

by bombs. The family decided

to flee toward the Turkish bor-

der. “I was so scared,” she said.

Ms. Moussali’s husband fer-

ried the family, one by one, to

Killi using their most precious

possession—a motorcycle.

After wandering in fields

for about a week, they found a

tent in one of the camps. Wind

swept it away twice in the

past week. Now the family is

dreading the looming winter.

“I have my children with

me,” Ms. Moussali said.

“That’s the most important.”

WORLD NEWS

tin. The pact “could be a turn-

ing point,” Mr. Putin said in the

Black Sea resort town of Sochi.

Russia and Turkey are seek-

ing to divide influence in Syria

as U.S. troops pull out and

Washington’s power in the re-

gion wanes. Mr. Putin has dis-

played a willingness to

help Mr. Erdogan, in part to

lure Turkey, a member of the

North Atlantic Treaty Organi-

zation, toward Russia’s orbit.

Russian support for Turkey’s

plan is likely to upset Syrian

President Bashar al-Assad’s

other backer, Iran, which has

condemned Turkey’s assault

against the Syrian Kurds.

President Trump’s sudden

withdrawal order was criti-

cized by Republican and Dem-

ocratic senators at a hearing

of the Senate Foreign Rela-

tions Committee on Tuesday,

with many saying the move

undermined an array of U.S.

foreign-policy objectives, em-

powered U.S. foes and under-

cut the fight against the Is-

lamic State extremist group.

“It is clear that the United

States has been sidelined,” said

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.),

the ranking minority member

of the committee. “Russia and

the murderous Assad regime

are calling the shots.”

James Jeffrey, the State De-

partment’s special envoy for

Syria and the Islamic State

fight, defended the policy, say-

ing U.S. was maintaining ties

with Kurdish military leaders

in other parts of Syria and

that options for cooperation

were being considered.

The Putin-Erdogan talks co-

incided with the expiration

Tuesday of a five-day truce.

Mr. Erdogan agreed to halt the

military offensive he launched

in northeastern Syria on Oct. 9

in exchange for a U.S. commit-

ment to help drive Kurdish

fighters away from the Syrian

border towns of Tal Abiad and

Ras al-Ain. The Kurdish forces

told the White House on Tues-

day that they completed their

withdrawal from that area.

In addition to repelling

Kurdish fighters, Ankara wants

control over territories in

northeastern Syria to relocate

half of the nearly four million

Syrian refugees living in Tur-

key. But the pact with Wash-

ington covers only about a

quarter of Mr. Erdogan’s pro-

posed 300-mile-long safe zone.

The new accord with Russia

covers the other three-quarters,

according to Mr. Erdogan. After

the truce ends, Russia and Tur-

key will patrol the border strip

with a depth of 6.2 miles but

won’t enter the Kurdish-held

town of Qamishli, Turkish For-

eign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu

said, where the Assad regime

has established a presence.

Mr. Putin reiterated that

“Syria must be free from for-

eign military presence,” and

invited Turkey, which severed

its diplomatic relations with

the Assad regime shortly after

the beginning of the war, to

cooperate with Damascus.

“Both Turkey and Syria

have to join their efforts,” said

Mr. Putin, who spoke with Mr.

Assad on Tuesday, according

to Russian state media. “This

is why they need to respect

each other.”

The agreement with Russia

is a breakthrough, Metin Gur-

can, a retired Turkish military

officer said, because Moscow

is endorsing a solution to Tur-

key’s problem with Kurdish

fighters near its border that

was long rejected by Washing-

ton. “But we will test promises

on the field,” he cautioned,

noting that Mr. Putin had kept

mum on many details.

The developments came as

most of the 1,000 U.S. troops

who were allied with Kurdish

forces in fighting Islamic State

in Syria were leaving the area

under orders from Mr. Trump.

Civilians in Kurdish areas

hurled insults at a U.S. troop

convoy that crossed from north-

ern Syria into Iraq on Monday,

venting anger over a with-

drawal they see as a betrayal.

On Tuesday, Syrian military

units moved into several new

villages in northeast Syria as

part of the agreement with the

Kurds, according to Syrian gov-

ernment media. The seven vil-

lages lie along the strategic M

highway.

Turkish authorities have

played down prospects of a di-

rect conflict with Damascus. But

Turkey relied on Syrian rebels

who fought against the Assad

regime as part of its ground in-

cursion in Kurdish-held territo-

ries, raising concerns of violent

clashes if they come in contact

with Syrian regime troops.

SOCHI, Russia—Russia
agreed to help Turkey drive
out Kurdish militias from a
“safe zone” in northeastern
Syria, highlighting Moscow’s
flourishing ties with a NATO
member and a rebalance of
power in war-torn Syria as
U.S. troops leave.
Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said he would
suspend military action for
nearly six days against Kurds
who his government views as
a terrorist threat to let them
evacuate the area. During this
period, Russian and Syrian se-
curity forces would push any
remaining Kurdish fighters
away from Turkey’s border.
After their departure, Tur-
key and Russia plan to conduct
joint patrols in parts of a 300-
mile-long area along Turkey’s
border with Syria, Mr. Erdogan
said Tuesday after talks with
Russian President Vladimir Pu-

BYDAVIDGAUTHIER-VILLARS
ANDANNM.SIMMONS

Russia to Help Turkey Forge Buffer in Syria

KILLI, Syria—This tiny vil-
lage in the northwestern corner
of Syria became a refuge six
months ago as thousands of
families fled shelling by the
government of President
Bashar al-Assad and airstrikes
by one of its main allies, Russia.
Now, as Turkey seeks Mos-
cow’s help to seize a strip of
northeast Syria, the village
has also become another
square on the Middle East
geopolitical chessboard.
Abdelkarim Mustafa, 41
years old, fled to the Killi area
with his wife and their seven
children in the spring, escaping
the bombs of Russian jet fight-
ers and seeking treatment af-
ter losing a leg in an airstrike.
For a short time this sum-
mer, the family took shelter in
one of the many refugee camps
dotting the desolate agricul-
tural region. But with humani-
tarian organizations struggling
to cope with the 500,000 Syrian
refugees who have arrived in
the area in the past six months,
they were told to leave.
Mr. Mustafa’s hopes of
crossing the border 10 miles
away into Turkey were dashed
when the Erdogan government
tightened it this summer. Now,
the family lives nearby on a
rocky hilltop in Killi, crammed
into a tent too flimsy to keep
out rain. There are no latrines
and the ground is infested
with snakes and scorpions.
“I can’t return to my home.
I can’t go to Turkey,” said Mr.
Mustafa, sitting next to his
prosthetic limb. “My biggest
dream has been reduced to
having a tent on this wind-
blown hill.”
The Mustafa family is
among hundreds of thousands
of Syrians caught in an exodus
to nowhere.
They are stuck in Syria’s
northwestern province of
Idlib, a territory the size of
Delaware that is the last
stronghold of rebels resisting
the Assad regime. The deadly
vise could become the worst
humanitarian catastrophe of
an eight-year-old Syrian con-
flict, which has claimed
500,000 lives.
South of the village, the
government has launched a
military offensive to reclaim
the province, sending scores
of families with children,
many wounded, on the road.
To the north, safety in Tur-
key lies tantalizingly close. But
the government of President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, feeling
the strain of hosting four mil-
lion Syrian refugees, has walled

BYDAVIDGAUTHIER-VILLARS

Syrian Conflict Traps Refugees in Exodus to Nowhere

AHMED DEEB FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)

BAGHDAD—The Iraqi gov-
ernment fired scores of senior
military commanders for their
role in a deadly crackdown on
protesters, as authorities tried
to avert a potential explosion
of unrest that is compounded
by new threats to Iraq’s stabil-
ity in neighboring Syria.
The move on Tuesday
comes as protesters gear up
for renewed demonstrations
against Iraq’s political estab-
lishment on Friday that are in-
tensifying pressure on Prime
Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi’s

BYGHASSANADNAN
ANDISABELCOLES

Iraq Fires Commanders After Killings in Bid to Defuse Popular Unrest

MoscowandAnkara

todriveoutKurds

fromborderastheyfill

avoidwithU.S.exit.