ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Friday the arrest of a four-person spy network accused of involvement in the killing of a commander and two members of a female force in September.
“The military operations units affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces have captured a spy network consisting of four mercenaries working for the Turkish occupation intelligence,” read the SDF’s statement.
The alleged spies confessed to acting on orders from Turkish intelligence in an operation that led to the death of the three members of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ).
Sharvin Sardar, a commander in the YPJ, was killed along with Candan Cudi and Nucan Ocalan in a Turkish drone strike on their vehicle near Manbij city on September 15.
After the drone strike, Luxembourg's Foreign Ministry said that Minister Jean Asselborn “deeply regrets” the killing of the three Kurdish fighters, adding that he had met with Sardar in 2016 “to express support in the common battle against the Islamic State [ISIS].”
The SDF said it will publish the confessions of the alleged spies at a later date.
The YPJ is the all-women wing of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which is the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF is the main ally of the coalition against ISIS on the ground in northeast Syria (Rojava).
Turkey considers the YPJ and YPG to be Syrian offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and has carried out three military operations against the Kurdish forces in northern Syria since 2016, invading key towns near the border such as Afrin, Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) and Gire Spi (Tal Abyad).
