Murtaza Hussain writes:

The fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria has been a cause of celebration for opponents of his regime, including many of the country’s Kurds. During Syria’s chaotic civil war, political groups representing the historically oppressed ethnic group, whose population spans across multiple countries in the region, managed to carve out autonomous zones in Syria’s north while working closely with U.S. forces in the war against the Islamic State.

But since Assad’s fall, the future has become increasingly murky for the Kurds. Amid widespread jubilation over the collapse of the regime, militants backed by Turkey are threatening to snuff out the Kurdish experiment in self-governance and subjugate them under a new regime.

Perhaps the most feared of the Turkey-backed groups is the Syrian National Army (SNA), a coalition that includes some groups that have been accused of war crimes against Kurdish fighters and civilians during the course of the war. Videos shared in recent weeks on social media have shown executions of wounded fighters from Kurdish-led militants in hospitals in the northern Syrian city of Manbij by militants operating under the banner of SNA.

While the civil war that began in 2011 devastated much of Syria, it also allowed Kurdish political groups to assert limited autonomy in parts of the country’s north. These groups included the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-armed coalition that had been instrumental in the fight against Islamic State terrorists. [Continue reading…]