Elizabeth Tsurkov reports:

A massive humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Syria. Over 130,000 civilians have been displaced in a once relatively stable region. Dozens of civilians have been killed or injured. Horrific videos showing field executions by Turkish-backed armed factions have begun to circulate on social media. The fate of the area, home to over three million people, is now increasingly unclear – thanks to President Trump’s decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from northeastern Syria.

Fighters from Brigade 123 of Ahrar al-Sharqiya (1st Corps of the Turkish-backed "National Army") film themselves field executing a young man who they say is "a pig of the party [PKK]."
This apparently took place near the M4 highway, south of Ras al-Ayn. pic.twitter.com/aQWSXThcyw

— Elizabeth Tsurkov (@Elizrael) October 12, 2019

“Oh my God, why are they doing this?” Ahmed, an activist living in Deir Ezzor, told me upon learning of the U.S.’s intentions.

Others were angry. “This is a great betrayal,” said Shiyar, a professor at Rojava University. He was immediately thinking about how to keep his family safe. “I want to leave Syria, but the border is closed and smugglers are asking for huge amounts of money.” The journey would be perilous too. “How can I take my young children and disabled daughter through rivers and mountains?” he asked me.

The beginning of the end of the autonomous region of northeastern Syria commenced as the result of a fateful phone call last Sunday between President Trump and the Turkish President Erdoğan, a call which led the President to allow a Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria, an area under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces that liberated the country from ISIS. The Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, announced on October 13 a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from the area Turkey is targeting, a first step toward leaving the region entirely.

Residents of northeastern Syria understand that their fate is now in the hands of the highly fickle U.S. President. Locals regularly check his Twitter feed for updates, using Google Translate to try to grasp of the content, often turning to me to ask whether the produced translation is correct (it is often not, in part due to the jumbled original content, which confounds Google’s algorithms). Similarly to think-tanks analysts, Syrians try to divine if the U.S. intends to forcefully intervene to stop the offensive, based on Trump’s inconsistent statements and tweets. The United States has now clearly signaled that it will not. [Continue reading…]