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Major fighting breaks out between Kurdish forces and regime forces in Qamishli, Syria

https://news.vice.com/article/kurds-battle-assads-forces-for-second-day-in-syrias-qamishli

Fighting has broken about between pro government forces and Kurdish forces in Qamishli, a city in northeast Syria on the border with Turkey.

The city has long been divided between Kurdish and regime forces, but the fronts have been mostly quiet as the two sides have largely avoided open fighting to focus on other enemies like ISIS instead. There have been occasional clashes in the past, but the latest fighting seems more intense and has run into a second day. There was an attempt at a ceasefire as well, which failed.

The Kurdish side includes the Asayis, which is basically the Kurdish police force, reinforced by the HAT (another part of their police force), as well as YPG fighters. The Kurdish forces have apparently taken a prison from the government.
Original post by Mathemagicien
The Kurds will want to form their own state, won't they?

We armed them, just like we armed the mujahideen - lets hope it won't backfire the same way


I agree with arming them but as Turkey & the Kurds are involved in their own civil war then we'd pretty much be arming an organisation that fights against another NATO member.
Original post by Mathemagicien
The Kurds will want to form their own state, won't they?

We armed them, just like we armed the mujahideen - lets hope it won't backfire the same way


People overplay the 'blowback' from Afghanistan. The native mujahideen groups we armed mainly formed the Northern Alliance, who remained our allies. Contrary to what crackpot conspiracy theorists might claim, we didn't associate with Arab mujahideen like bin Laden or hardline groups that later joined the Taliban.
The Kurds love the west. The only way it will backfire is if we stab them in the back, by for example kowtowing to Turkey and Iraq and blocking Kurdish independence. We either need to start backing people 100% and seeing it through to the end or not doing it at all, not this wishy-washy sort of maybe crap that we keep doing.
Original post by Mathemagicien
The Kurds will want to form their own state, won't they?

We armed them, just like we armed the mujahideen - lets hope it won't backfire the same way


We haven't really given the Kurds much at all actually. The US organised some airdrops during the battle for Kobane when the YPG was under siege and running out of ammunition, and there has apparently been an airdrop since then as well. But it's mostly been small arms and ammunition, rather than the TOW missiles and the like that the rebels receive from US allies.

They haven't really been armed by us, even though they're probably the most deserving of it. But they get little, while rebels fighting alongside Al Qaeda get anti tank missiles.

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