Eli Lake, Columnist

‘The Only Person Capable of Preventing This Disaster Is President Trump’

The commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces speaks out.

October 10, 2019 at 7:30 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.

The female cadets of the SDF.
Photographer: DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP

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Amid the unfolding disaster in Syria, Mazloum Abdi offers the slightest sliver of hope: The Kurdish and Arab fighters guarding Islamic State prisoners remain at their posts. For now.

Abdi, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, then offered a warning. “I don’t believe we can still hold the positions for much longer,” he said Thursday in a telephone interview from his headquarters in Qamishli, Syria. “I can’t give you a timeline, but I can tell you it will not be a long time. If we think the Turkish operation will not stop, we cannot fight ISIS anymore.”