Colonel Ahmed Osman, commander of the Turkmen Sultan Murad brigade that is part of the FSA and fighting near Jarablus, told Rudaw on Sunday that his forces were fighting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and affiliated groups.
“Today, the second phase of the Jarablus operations has started, to retake villages southwest of Jarablus.” Osman said.
He said the FSA only wants to fight the PKK, not other Kurdish groups.
“As the FSA, we do not want to fight with our Kurdish brothers. It’s been a hundred years that we are friends and living together,” he added, saying his forces had warned the SDF against advancing in the area, especially west of the Euphrates.
“The current fight on the ground is against a terrorist group called PKK,” Osman said, speaking to Rudaw by telephone. “We have earlier warned forces belonging to the PKK not to cross west of the Euphrates, and also warned them to leave villages in 24 hours. We want to control Manbij.”
He also accused the PKK of committing abuses in captured villages.
“The Kurdish groups that are part of PKK, when the capture villages they repeat the actions of ISIS,” he claimed. “They are against the people from these areas. Kurds are not like that and they do not hurt people when they capture their areas. But the PKK does.”
He asserted that the FSA’s enemies now were the Syrian regime, ISIS and the PKK.
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