Summary
Kurds' ambitions caught in power games
They always anticipated U.S. support would run out, but U.S. President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to rapidly pull U.S. forces out of northeast Syria has nevertheless stunned the Kurds there, who for the past three years have been America's partner in fighting Daesh (ISIS). A withdrawal will leave Syrian Kurds exposed to Turkish threats of an invasion from one side and Syrian government troops on the other.
WHO ARE THE KURDS?The Kurds are an ethnic group numbering some 20 million people spread across four nations -- 10 million in Turkey, 6 million in Iran, 3.5 million in Iraq, and a little over 2 million in Syria.
It took more than a year of fighting, with thousands of Kurds killed, but Daesh was driven out of almost all the territory it once held.
In early 2018 it overran the northwestern enclave of Afrin to oust the Kurdish militia, leading to the displacement of tens of thousands of Kurds while the U.S. stood by and watched.
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