BEIRUT -- Turkish-backed Syrian fighters confirmed Monday that they are preparing to move into eastern Syria alongside Turkish troops once American forces withdraw, adding that they are already massing on the front line of a town held by Kurdish-led forces.
The U.S. pullout will leave up for grabs the oil-rich eastern third of Syria, currently controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that the Americans have backed for the past four years.
A Syrian Kurdish official said the Kurdish militia is now reaching out for potential new allies after the U.S. withdrawal.
"We will deal with whoever can protect the ... stability of this country," said Ilham Ahmed.
The Kurdish militia has partnered with the U.S.-led coalition since 2014 to fight Islamic State militants. Now, not only is the militia preparing to fight the Islamic State alone, but it is also preparing to face threats from Turkey and the Syrian government.
Officials with the Syrian Democratic Forces warned they would divert resources away from the Islamic State fight to defend against Turkey, which says the group is linked to a Kurdish separatist organization operating within Turkish borders.
Ahmed said her group is talking with the Russians and the Syrian government -- both rivals of the United States -- as well as European countries about ways to deal with the U.S. withdrawal. She didn't elaborate.
Regardless of whether Russian President Vladimir Putin agrees to help the Kurds, the U.S. withdrawal makes him an even more pivotal figure in resolving the Syrian war and strengthens his hand across the Middle East. President Donald Trump's declaration fulfills a long-standing Russian demand for a U.S. withdrawal from Syria.
The Kurds also face the dilemma of whether to try to hold on to the 30 percent of Syria they wrested from the Islamic State. The territory includes some of the richest oil fields in north and east Syria but also is home to large Arab populations.
The Kurds could pull back to the Kurdish-majority region in the far northeast, but that would leave resources and Kurdish-majority pockets in the east isolated and vulnerable.
The militia could also negotiate with Damascus, allowing a return of government forces back into the east in hopes of gaining a level of self-rule for Kurds. The government has so far rejected the notion of such autonomy.
Turkey says it and its Syrian Arab allies can replace the U.S. in its role of preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State. Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups said they have up to 15,000 trained fighters ready to deploy, alongside Turkish forces, in eastern Syria to replace U.S. troops.
Syrian government forces have reportedly been massing troops in Deir el-Zour province, across the Euphrates River from Kurdish-held territory.
On Monday, Iraq said it also could consider deploying troops inside Syria to protect against threats across its borders.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said his government is "considering all the options" to protect Iraq from such threats.
Iraq is keeping reinforcements along its frontier to guard against infiltration by Islamic State militants, who hold a pocket of territory along the Euphrates River.
Abdul-Mahdi, in a news conference Monday, said Iraq was concerned that the Islamic State could expand its footprint in the warzone. He also expressed concerns that a wave of Syrian refugees is being displaced to Iraq.
The prime minister spoke Saturday with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the Americans' withdrawal plans in Syria. Abdul-Mahdi said his government did not receive a U.S. request to deploy inside Syria. But he said the possibility was "circulating."
"Iraq will take its decisions in consultation with its friends and neighbors," he said.
Iraq does not have any army forces inside Syria. But various Iranian-funded and trained militias, part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, are fighting inside Syria on behalf of the Iraqi government. While the militias are part of Iraq's national security apparatus, they have some autonomy in their operations.
U.S.' WITHDRAWAL
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Sean Robertson, said the order for the U.S. withdrawal from Syria has been signed, but he provided no further details.
Trump has said the withdrawal will be slow and coordinated with Turkey, without providing a timetable. Turkey said the two countries will ensure there is no "authority vacuum" once the U.S. troops leave.
Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said a U.S. military delegation is expected in Turkey this week.
Kalin said there will be no "step back, weakness, halting or a slowing down" of the fight against the Islamic State. But Turkey has made clear it will not tolerate a contiguous Kurdish-held enclave along its border with Syria.
Youssef Hammoud, spokesman for the Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces, said fighters and weapons have been deploying on the front line with Manbij, a Kurdish-administered town in northern Syria where U.S. troops are based. They are preparing to first take Manbij, he said.
Manbij was at the center of an agreement the U.S. and Turkey reached in June under which Kurdish forces were to withdraw. In recent weeks, Turkey said the U.S. was dragging its feet in implementing the deal and vowed to launch a new offensive against the Kurds.
After Turkey's threats and a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, Trump decided to withdraw all 2,000 U.S. forces based in Syria.
Hammoud said there is "no alternative" to Turkish forces and their allies replacing U.S troops.
"We are ready to fight Daesh," said Hammoud, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. The extremists are largely confined to a remote desert enclave hundreds of miles to the southeast of Manbij.
Kurdish forces in Manbij "have taken measures to fend off any attack," said the spokesman for the Kurdish-led Manbij Military Council, Sharfan Darwish.
Turkey's armed forces have led two offensives into Syria since 2016 to push Islamic State militants and Kurdish forces back from the border.
Trump has claimed the Islamic State is "largely defeated" under his watch, but the Kurdish fighters are still battling the extremists in the remote town of Hajin near the Iraqi border. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting displaced nearly 1,000 civilians on Sunday alone.
Hundreds of Kurdish fighters have died in the fight against the Islamic State.
Ahmed, the senior Syrian Kurdish official, recently returned from a trip to France in which she called on Paris to play a larger role in Syria after the U.S. withdrawal.
"I urge Trump to go back on his decision inciting Erdogan against the Syrian people in general and the Kurdish people in specific, and I call on him to return the favor," she said.
Information for this article was contributed by Sarah El Deeb, Philip Issa and Suzan Fraser of The Associated Press; and by Selcan Hacaoglu, Onur Ant and Angelina Rascouet of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 12/25/2018