{"id":61453,"date":"2019-10-14T15:45:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T15:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/14\/the-end-of-an-era-60000-strong-us-trained-sdf-partner-force-crumbles-in-a-week-under-heavy-turkish-assault\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:23:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:23:13","slug":"the-end-of-an-era-60000-strong-us-trained-sdf-partner-force-crumbles-in-a-week-under-heavy-turkish-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/10\/14\/the-end-of-an-era-60000-strong-us-trained-sdf-partner-force-crumbles-in-a-week-under-heavy-turkish-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"The end of an era: 60,000 strong US-trained SDF partner force crumbles in a week under heavy Turkish assault"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was a global rallying cry as Kurdish fighters besieged in the Syrian<\/a> city of Kobani began to fight back what appeared to be an invincible wave of ISIS fighters pillaging the region in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the aid of U.S. airstrikes, Kurdish fighters<\/a> would eventually take back the city in January 2015, and a steadfast partnership was born between the U.S. military and the Kurdish-led forces who ultimately re-branded themselves as the Syrian Democratic Forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly five years later, and 11,000 SDF killed liberating northeast Syria from ISIS\u2019 hellish rule, the nearly 60,000 U.S.-trained force has been abandoned by its American partners and is under sustained assault by Turkish forces and their ragtag crew of proxy fighters \u2014 some who have reportedly fought under ISIS and al-Qaida banners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SDF\u2019s demise threatens to erase gains over the last five years that have forced ISIS militants into hiding in remote pockets in the desert and across the Euphrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sustained counterterrorism campaign to knock out ISIS sleeper cells is in jeopardy of ending as Turkish warplanes reportedly destroyed a coalition-trained SDF commando<\/a> camp tasked with taking out ISIS leaders and financiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\t