Kurdish-Syrian Pact Scrambles Mideast Alliances by Raja Abdulrahim – Wall Street Journal
Syrian troops entered areas that have been outside their control for years on Monday, after a quickly forged pact between Kurdish forces and the Syrian government to confront a Turkish military campaign reshaped alliances in Syria.
That pact transformed the Kurds, an erstwhile partner of the U.S. in the fight against Islamic State, into a force more closely aligned with Russia and Iran, as the U.S. began withdrawing its troops from northeastern Syria.
Syrian regime forces on Monday moved into towns along the northern border with Turkey and in a town north of the city of Raqqa, the former de facto capital of terror group Islamic State. Until recently, thousands of U.S.-backed fighters had trained at a military base in the town of Ain Eissa. After the Syrian military arrived on Monday morning, soldiers raised the tricolor Syrian flag in the town center…