'The end of the Kurdish people': Kurds fear the worst as Turkish onslaught continues

As Kurds escape danger under moonlight, they face a new, more powerful foe than ISIS

A Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighter fires a weapon in the town of Tal Abyad, Syria October 13, 2019. Reuters

Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighters sit in a military truck in the village of Yabisa, near the Turkish-Syrian border, Syria, October 13, 2019. Reuters

Smoke rises over the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain, as seen from the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar, Turkey. The military action is part of a campaign to extend Turkish control of more of northern Syria, a large swath of which is currently held by Syrian Kurds, whom Turkey regards as a threat. U.S. President Donald Trump granted tacit American approval to this campaign, withdrawing his country's troops from several Syrian outposts near the Turkish border. Getty Images

Turkish-based Syrian fighters sit inside an armoured personnel carrier near the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad, as they prepare to take part in the Turkish-led assault on northeastern Syria. Ankara stepped up its assault on Kurdish-held border towns in northeastern Syria, defying mounting threats of international sanctions, even from Washington. AFP

Wounded Turkish-backed Syrian fighters pass Akcakale disrict near Turkey-Syria border wall Akcakale district in Sanliurfa, Turkey. Turkey has launched an offensive targeting Kurdish forces in north-eastern Syria, days after the US withdrew troops from the area. EPA

A Turkish-backed Syrian rebel rests as they gather near the border town of Ras al-Ain, as Turkey and it's allies continued their assault on Kurdish-held border towns in northeastern Syria. Turkey kept up its assault on Kurdish-held border towns in northeastern Syria on Saturday on the fourth day of an offensive that is drawing growing international condemnation, even from Washington. AFP

People mourn in front of the grave of Halil Yagmur who was killed in a mortar attack a day earlier in Suruc near northern Syria border, during funeral ceremony in Suruc. Ten Turkish civilians were killed in cross-border shelling on Friday, while four of Turkey's soldiers died as Ankara pressed on with its offensive against Kurdish militants in Syria. Eight civilians were killed and 35 injured in one mortar strike in Nusaybin in Mardin province, according to the governor's office cited by local media. AFP

A group of Turkey-backed Syrian fighters prepares for offensive at a village near Turkish border in Yabisa, Syria in this still image taken from a video. Reuters

A Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighter sits with his weapon near the border town of Tel Abyad, Syria. REUTERS

This picture taken Turkey near the town of Suruc shows a US observation post near the Syrian town of Kobani Kobane where the Pentagon said an explosion occurred "within a few hundred meters." The US said on October 11, 2019 its troops had come under artillery fire and warned that the US was prepared to meet aggression with "immediate defensive action," but Turkey denied targeting the US base. Turkey's Defense minister said they had returned fire after Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) shelled a Turkish border police station from hills located one kilometre (1,100 yards) away from the observation post. US troops pulled back from positions along the Turkey-Syria border last week ahead of a Turkish operation against Kurdish militants in Syria. The YPG was a close ally of the US in its fight against the Islamic State group but is seen by Ankara as a "terrorist" off-shoot of Kurdish insurgents in Turkey. AFP

A Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighter holds the Syrian opposition flag near the border town of Tel Abyad, Syria. REUTERS

Relatives mourn during a funeral of a Syrian Democratic Forces fighter in the Syrian town of Qamishli, Turkey's military says it has captured a key Syrian border town Ras al-Ayn under heavy bombardment in its most significant gain as its offensive against Kurdish fighters presses into its fourth day. AP Photo

Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters evacuate an injured fellow combatant in Tel Abyad, Syria. AP

Syrians bury Syrian Democratic Forces fighters killed fighting Turkish advance in the Syrian town of Qamishli, Turkey's military says it has captured a key Syrian border town Ras al-Ayn under heavy bombardment in its most significant gain as its offensive against Kurdish fighters presses into its fourth day. AP Photo

Turkish police special forces patrol in Akcakale on the Turkish-Syrian border, in Sanliurfa province, Turkey. REUTERS

A Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighter holds a weapon as he stands with his fellow fighters near the border town of Tel Abyad, Syria. REUTERS

A Turkish military armoured vehicle fires towards the Syrian town of Tal Abyad from the Turkish side of the border in Akcakale, Turkey. The military action is part of a campaign to extend Turkish control of more of northern Syria, a large swath of which is currently held by Syrian Kurds, whom Turkey regards as a threat. U.S. President Donald Trump granted tacit American approval to this campaign, withdrawing his country's troops from several Syrian outposts near the Turkish border. Getty Images

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu visits the Syrian border, in Akcakale district in Sanliurfa, Turkey. Turkey has launched an offensive targeting Kurdish forces in north-eastern Syria, days after the US withdrew troops from the area. EPA

Syrian patient Fatima al-Issa who was hit by shrapnel during Turkish bombardment of Ras al-Ain, receives treatment at a hospital in the town of Tal Tamr in the countryside of Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province. Ankara stepped up its assault on Kurdish-held border towns in northeastern Syria in an offensive that has so far displaced some 100,000 people, according to the United Nations, while aid groups have warned of yet another humanitarian disaster in Syria's eight-year-old war if the offensive is not stopped. AFP

The trek out of Ras Al Ain lasted into the night, and for many, it was just another bloody, tiring chapter in a litany of war.

Much of the town's majority-Kurdish population began preparations to flee as soon as the scream of Turkish F16s overhead began on Wednesday.

A labyrinth of tunnels under the city provided only temporary shelter from the air strikes, and as soon as the roar from the skies stopped, Rokan Qasr, 17, gathered her seven siblings and elderly mother and marched them into the darkness.

"We were screaming," Rokan says. "All of the neighbours were screaming."

The family walked for an hour before flagging down a lift in a passing car. She was unable to reach her father, a Kurdish intelligence officer in the town, who was left behind to join them later.

"We did not know where we were going," Rokan says.

They walked with hundreds of others, among them the elderly, the sick and the very young.

Now the family of 10 is living in the Abdul Ahad Mousa school about 75 kilometres away in Hasakah with 300 others who fled the air strikes and incoming fighters.

Chalk is still scrawled on the board, but in the corner a stack of boxes branded with the UN High Commission for Refugees logo hints at what the school has become.

The Qasr family left with only a handful of personal items. For now, these are all the belongings they have.

The UN estimates that more than 130,000 people have fled their homes since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched "Operation Peace Spring" on Wednesday evening.

Ankara says it plans to resettle some of more than three million refugees inside the "safe zone" it is trying to clear along the Syrian side of the border.

The Qasr family fear it may be their home in which others are resettled.

Another of those who joined the march into the night is Iman Mato, 40, who fled with her three children.

"We walked for almost five hours,” Iman says.

Now she shares a classroom with two other families, 16 people in total.

Like many adjusting to their new surroundings in Hasakah, Iman has been touched by war before. In 2015, she lost her father, brother and eight cousins in an ISIS attack in Kobane.

For her, this week's operation is not merely a new phase of the civil war. It is a concerted effort to wipe Syria's Kurds from the map.

"We were safe. We had forgotten about the feeling of war, then Erdogan started attacking us," she says, breaking into tears.

"If America doesn't do anything to stop Turkey it will be the end of the Kurdish people".

Ankara claims it is striking only at the YPG, the mainly Kurdish militia in the Syrian Democratic Forces.

It considers the group the Syrian wing of the PKK, a guerrilla group that has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

Yet Iman and many others who have fled say Turkey doesn’t distinguish between civilians and fighters, as artillery fired from Turkey repeatedly lands on the city of Qamishli.

There is a sense of betrayal. The Kurds feel they proved themselves in the fight against ISIS, losing more than 11,000 fighters as they pushed the extremist group out of cities such as Raqqa, Kobane and most recently Baghouz.

“The same people that are dying now were fighting ISIS,” Iman says.

In a nearby hospital, Delil Hasakah whimpers on a stretcher. He was brought in on Sunday morning, injured in an air strike in early hours clashes in Ras Al Ain.

It has been barely two years since the Arab member of the Syrian Democratic Forces was fighting against ISIS in Raqqa.

Now things are very different.

"Turkey has done what ISIS couldn't – put me in hospital," Delil tells The National.

Rumours circulate around the school in Hasakah of atrocities committed by Turkish-backed fighters against Kurds - some unfounded, some true.

In one unverified video that surfaced over the weekend, fighters are seen executing two men.

Many who fled see the Turkish-backed fighters as little different from the ISIS militants who ravaged many of their communities over the past five years.

“Erdogan. Terrorist,” they often claim.

Despite the apparent disaster that has befallen Rojava, as the Kurds call the area, there are those who still hope Washington will come to the rescue.

They hope that US President Donald Trump will rekindle a relationship that has restored stability and peace in this corner of Syria.

They hope that America will remember their sacrifices and step in to restrain Mr Erdogan.

As Iman insists: "We still have faith in America."