Russian mediation: Kurdish forces reach agreement with Syrian President Assad

(Patria) – Kurdish forces controlling northeastern Syria have reached an agreement with Syrian President Assad's regime with the aim of stopping the Turkish offensive, especially after more than 700 ISIL-linked individuals escaped from a prison in the area.

Kurdish forces will hand over the border towns of Manbij and Kobane to official Damascus as part of a Russia-brokered deal.

Syrian media report that President Bashar al-Assad's army has moved north to 'resist Turkish aggression on Syrian territory'. Unconfirmed reports claim that the agreement between Assad's regime and the Kurds could apply to the entire territory of northeastern Syria.

This agreement marks the end of five years of partial autonomy for Kurdish groups in northeastern Syria, brought about by the Turkish offensive.

Kurdish fighters in that part of the region, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), have been funded and trained by the US since 2015 with the aim of fighting ISIL. They eventually managed to defeat ISIL militants in March, losing about 11,000 of their members in fierce fighting.

However, Turkey claims that the largest part of the SDF, the Kurdish YPG, is a terrorist group indistinguishable from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been organizing rebellions against the Turkish state for decades.

US President's decision to withdraw troops from northeastern Syria, thus leaving the Kurds to the Turkish offensive, has been criticized even by his staunchest allies – primarily due to deepening the humanitarian crisis in an already devastated Syria, as well as creating an opportunity for the revival of the barely defeated ISIL.

Media report that at least 750 ISIL-linked individuals, mostly members and their families, escaped from a prison in northeastern Syria on Sunday – alarming the Western public.

Wives and children of ISIL members were detained in annexes of the Ain Issa camp. They started a rebellion and took advantage of the shelling by the Turkish army to escape from the camp, writes the British Guardian.

The camp houses about 13,000 people, mostly ISIL members and their families who were under US control until Trump's order to withdraw troops, when responsibility for the camp was handed over to Kurdish forces.

Turkish President Erdogan claims his goal is to create a 'safe zone' 30 km deep from the Turkish-Syrian border into Syria, enough to keep Turkish border towns out of range of shelling and rocket fire by Kurdish forces.

On Sunday, Erdogan rejected offers for mediation in negotiations with the SDF, and again criticized Western allies for siding with those Turkey considers a terrorist organization.

He also denied reports of ISIL militants escaping from the camp, calling them 'disinformation' intended to provoke the US and the West.

Since the beginning of the offensive on October 9, about 130,000 civilians have been displaced, with at least 60 civilian casualties in Syria and 18 in Turkey following SDF counterattacks by shelling Turkish border towns, reports the Guardian.