Syrian Kurds welcome US missile strike on Assad airbase

QAMISHLO, Syrian Kurdistan (Kurdistan24) - Several Syrian Kurdish factions voiced support for the US strikes on Friday at a Syrian airbase from which President Donald Trump said a deadly chemical weapons attack had been launched.

Syria's Kurdish National Council (ENKS) has stated their council welcomes the US strikes on the Syrian regime's airbases.

"This event pleases not only the Kurds, but also the whole Syrian community," said Khaled Ali, representative of ENKS in Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

ENKS is an umbrella body based in Erbil, made up of smaller Syrian Kurdish political parties, ideologically linked to KRG's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

However, the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), have not yet commented on the event.

The SDF spokesperson Talal Silo told Kurdistan24, "The US strikes on the Assad airbases are operations separate from ours against terrorism."

"The operations against Assad are not in the territories under our control," he said.

However, countless numbers of Syrian Kurdish journalists and academics inside Syria and the diaspora expressed their pleasure towards the US missile attack on the regime's bases.

Dozens of social media posts by Syrian Kurds voiced support for the US missile attacks on the regime's base.

"The US strike at Assad bases is a historical event and it is a sign and threat for the regime not to commit crimes against the civilians anymore," a Syrian Kurdish activist tweeted.  

Thank you Mr. President Donald J. Trump, send more Tomahawks to the dictator please!

— Massoud Akko (@akkopress) April 7, 2017

Speaking to Kurdistan24, Baraa Sabri, a Syrian Kurdish journalist, said the overwhelming majority of the Syrian Kurds call the US to hit the regime.

"The Syrian regime has never been an ally for the Kurds and it would be the greatest joy if the US rockets hitting the Assad bases launch from the US bases of Kobani and Rmeilan in Rojava and northern Syria," he said.

Sabry further pointed out that the Syrian Kurdish politicians may not comment on the US strikes on the regime positions for their parties' interests.

Notably, the US missile strike on the Syrian airbase known as Shayrat Airfield is the first direct US assault on the government of Bashar al-Assad in six years of civil war.

Since 2016, the US has already established two airbases in Syria's predominantly-Kurdish northern and northeastern areas, namely in Rmeilan and Kobani, to support the SDF and their allies in fighting the Islamic State (IS).

Editing by Ava Homa