American Withdrawal: The View from Manbij
Earlier this month, as the Trump Administration announced that the United States would withdraw its troops from northern Syria, Turkey and Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army factions launched an assault on the area, attacking the border towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ein. Subsequently, the Syrian Democratic Forces, the predominantly Kurdish militia that had been backed by the U.S. since 2015, looked to an alternative partner that would protect them from Turkish forces…
ISIS and Syria’s Urban—Rural Divide
Since 2011, followers of the Syrian conflict have usually portrayed divisions in the country’s myriad opposition groups along ideological lines or according to the identity of their foreign sponsors. Such analyses usually attempt to make sense of local rivalries and opposition infighting by identifying conflicts between “moderates” or “Islamists” or due to the differing patronage networks of outside forces...