Eli Lake, Columnist

Kurds Say Damascus Gave an Ultimatum Before Turkish Strikes

Turkey, Iran, Russia and the Syrian regime are coordinating their actions more than either side is letting on.

January 22, 2018 at 10:11 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Turkish troops advance on a Kurdish hold in Syria.
Photographer: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

Syrian Kurdish forces were given an ultimatum over the weekend: Leave your positions to the Syrian regime or face the wrath of Ankara. They chose to stay. Then came Turkey's assault, on the northwestern city of Afrin.

That is what Nobahar Musrafa, a representative of the foreign relations committee for the Syrian Democratic Council, told me in an interview Monday from Washington. The council is the political wing of the Kurdish-dominated forces fighting in northern Syria.