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For Syrian Kurds, a leader's killing deepens sense of U.S. betrayal
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-security-kurds-future-idUSKBN1X11HZ?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=5daf1ae24c15b800014896f5&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
WORLD NEWS OCTOBER 22, 2019 / 9:02 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf spent the final months of her life building a political party that she hoped would help shape Syria’s future, drawing the attention of U.S. officials who said it would have a say in what happened once the war ended.
Kurds living in Lebanon react as they hold Hevrin Khalaf's picture, a Kurdish politician who was killed in Syria, during a protest against Turkey's military action in northeastern Syria, in Beirut, Lebanon October 13, 2019. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
To her colleagues in the Future Syria Party and Kurdish communities in Syria’s northeast more broadly, her killing became a symbol of betrayal by the United States.
As recently as Oct. 3, State Department officials reassured her at a meeting that Washington would safeguard northern Syria from a threatened Turkish assault by mediating between Kurdish-led forces and Ankara, according to a colleague who was present.
A state department official said the U.S. message to Syrian partners had been consistent: that American forces would be withdrawing from the country.
Days after the meeting, President Donald Trump announced U.S. forces would quit the region, leaving it vulnerable to attack by Turkey.
Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria, key allies in the U.S. battle against Islamic State, said rebels fighting on the Turkish side murdered Khalaf. She was 34.
She was slain on Oct. 12 along with a driver and aide when Turkey-backed fighters stopped their SUV on the M4 highway in northern Syria, according to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and officials in her party.
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WORLD NEWS OCTOBER 22, 2019 / 9:02 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf spent the final months of her life building a political party that she hoped would help shape Syria’s future, drawing the attention of U.S. officials who said it would have a say in what happened once the war ended.
Kurds living in Lebanon react as they hold Hevrin Khalaf's picture, a Kurdish politician who was killed in Syria, during a protest against Turkey's military action in northeastern Syria, in Beirut, Lebanon October 13, 2019. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
To her colleagues in the Future Syria Party and Kurdish communities in Syria’s northeast more broadly, her killing became a symbol of betrayal by the United States.
As recently as Oct. 3, State Department officials reassured her at a meeting that Washington would safeguard northern Syria from a threatened Turkish assault by mediating between Kurdish-led forces and Ankara, according to a colleague who was present.
A state department official said the U.S. message to Syrian partners had been consistent: that American forces would be withdrawing from the country.
Days after the meeting, President Donald Trump announced U.S. forces would quit the region, leaving it vulnerable to attack by Turkey.
Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria, key allies in the U.S. battle against Islamic State, said rebels fighting on the Turkish side murdered Khalaf. She was 34.
She was slain on Oct. 12 along with a driver and aide when Turkey-backed fighters stopped their SUV on the M4 highway in northern Syria, according to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and officials in her party.
</snip>
