Middle East

Turkey vs the SDF: A brief comparison of forces

Syria’s Kurds are outnumbered and outgunned by their Turkish adversaries, which have an arsenal of modern weaponry, an air force, and an army of Syrian proxies to carry out their offensive. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), meanwhile, has been battle-hardened by its war with ISIS and its thorough US training.

The Turkish military and its proxies launched an attack on the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) along the Syria-Turkey border on Wednesday evening.

There are an estimated 40,000 SDF fighters in Syria, but it is not clear how many are involved in resisting the invasion.

Meanwhile, around 14,000 Turkish-backed Syrian proxies, under the umbrella of the ‘National Army’, are said to be taking part in Operation Peace Spring.

Turkey has gathered dozens of Syrian groups under this umbrella, which is the armed wing of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC). The most prominent group under the umbrella is the Hamza Brigade.

Most of these forces took part in Operation Olive Branch in 2018 against Kurdish forces in Afrin, which was taken in March that year following a two-month conflict.

It is clear that Turkey and the SDF have utterly different weapons capabilities.