Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), survived an attack on Sulaymaniyah airport in northern Iraq on Friday, it was confirmed on Saturday.
“As part of our emergency security response related to the safety of our forces’ command, we deliberately restricted the release of information about the Turkish attack on Sulaymaniyah airport, where our Commander-in-Chief, Mazloum Abdi, was present,” said a statement released by the SDF.
“This was done to ensure his safety until he arrived unharmed in the secure areas of north and eastern Syria. We will provide further details about the attack at a later time,” it added.
The SDF initially denied that Abdi was in Sulaymaniyah at the time of the explosion at the airport in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
A video of Abdi playing the saz, a stringed instrument, was shared by Nûdem Rojava Agency on Saturday, though it did not say when the video was recorded.
Following a deadly bombing in Istanbul’s popular İstiklal Avenue, the Turkish military has launched a series of attacks on SDF-controlled territories in northeast Syria as well as a ‘hunt’ for Abdi.
One Turkish attack targeted Abdi as he left a meeting with US military advisers, held at an SDF base in Hasakah province in northeast Syria in late November, Middle East Eye reported.
A convoy including US military personnel was also at Sulaymaniyah airport at the time of Friday’s explosion, according to US Central Command and the US State Department.
The SDF and its armed forces the People’s Protection Units (YPG) form the backbone of the US-led coalition forces fighting against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria. Ankara sees both groups as a national security threat, claiming that they are affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has its headquarters in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Abdi confirmed in an exclusive interview with North Press that some US troops and members of the Counter-Terrorism Group (CTG) of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), which has its headquarters in Sulaymaniyah, were with him at the time of the attack.
“Yes, I was in Suleymaniyah heading a delegation of the SDF,” the Kurdish commander said. “We have joint operations rooms with Counter-Terrorism agencies of Iraqi government and KRI with the Global Coalition’s knowledge,” he added.
Abdi said that the attack was a clear message from Turkey, which is annoyed by the strengthening of the SDF’s position in international relations.
“Erdoğan seeks to win the elections and creates a state of chaos to eliminate the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) so that he can open the door for a new invasion of the region,” Abdi said, referring to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and forthcoming 14 May polls in Turkey.
Turkey “aims to create chaos through its interventions and violation of the sovereignty of the neighbouring countries”, AANES said in a statement on Saturday.
“Turkey is unleashing its hand in Iraq and the Kurdistan region under flimsy arguments and pretexts,” the Kurdish-led administration in Syria said, expressing its solidarity with the government of Sulaymaniyah and calling on all parties in Iraq and the KRI to hold clear positions to counter the “aggression”.
The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political wing of the SDF, condemned Friday’s attack on Sulaymaniyah airport.
“The Turkish government intentionally violates the international law, rules of good-neighbourly relations, and it threatens the lives of the civilians through direct and indirect interference,” the SDC said.
The SDC called on the international community to close Syrian and Iraqi airspace ahead of [further] Turkish attacks and to condemn what it called “the aggressive and arbitrary act that aims at hindering the counter-terrorism efforts”.
A group of political parties in northeast Syria also joined those condemning the attack at Sulaymaniyah airport.
“This attack comes days after Turkey announced the closure of its airspace to planes flying to and from Sulaymaniyah airport, which indicates that this attack was one of Turkey’s goals behind the closure decision,” a statement made by 32 political parties read.
The parties said that the latest attack came within the framework of continuous Turkish aggression aiming to “strike security, destabilise, mix cards, create chaos, sedition and division between the Kurdish forces”.
“We, in the political parties and forces in North and East Syria, condemn and denounce in the strongest terms the blatant Turkish attack on Sulaymaniyah airport, and we consider it a serious violation and infringement of the sovereignty of Iraq and the Kurdistan region and the security of citizens, which calls for a unified and firm Iraqi position,” the statement said.
“We also call on the various Kurdish and Kurdish political forces to unify the position and line up regarding the continuous Turkish aggressions, whether in Iraqi Kurdistan or Rojava – northeastern Syria. Turkey’s main goal is to strike the just cause of the Kurdish people and their entire liberation movement,” it added.
