When US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal from Syria of the US forces that had been working with the Kurdish-led SDF, Turkey sought to capitalize on the Kurds’ loss of American protection by beginning a military operation in northeastern Syria. After the Turkish-led invasion began, its Turkish-backed militias rapidly gained notoriety after their members were filmed in a series of videos that showed them chanting extremist slogans and carrying out field executions. One US official labeled them “thugs and bandits.” The latest Turkish operation compelled the SDF’s leadership to invite Syrian regime forces into large swaths of northeastern Syria. Thus these fighters, who present themselves as revolutionaries fighting the regime, helped Assad regain a foothold of vast territory without firing a single bullet. But who exactly are the roughly 35,000 Syrian men fighting on Turkey’s behalf in Syria?
