THE Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces called on the United States not to withdraw its troops from Syria today, saying that doing so would “create a political and military void in the region and leave its people between the claws of enemy forces.”

The group, dominated by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) which has fought a bitter war against the Islamic State (Isis) terror group for the last four years, said US President Donald Trump was wrong to claim that Isis had been beaten, when actually the war against it was at a “decisive” stage.

Having established self-government in parts of Syria in the course of the Syrian war, the Kurdish group has two fears — a Turkish invasion, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to launch imminently, and a possible loss of autonomy if the Bashar al-Assad government in Damascus, which has routed jihadist opponents across most of the rest of Syria, is able to re-establish its own authority across the country.