A Friday attack in Syria on the mainly Christian and Kurdish town of Qamishli is deepening fears that the country’s conflict will become a protracted, sectarian war that extends past the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Al Qaeda-linked forces targeted the airport in the area. Qamishli had existed under the safety of a kind of de facto truce between Kurds and Arabs, and had thus avoided becoming entangled in a conflict that has pitted the Shiite-backed regime against Sunni rebels against regional Kurdish groups.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials speaking on Thursday emphasized that sectarian tensions could continue to drive violence in Syria even if the regime was overthrown. The New York Times reported on statements by top American intelligence official James Clapper and American Ambassador to Syria Robert S. Ford warning of protracted violence of up to a year or more.
The current phase of the conflict, meanwhile, continues to drag on. Earlier this week Syrian government troops launched aggressive counteroffensives against opposition forces that had made substantial gains in the south. A reported attack on the town of Sanamayn left 60 civilians dead. Syrian rebels have shown limited ability to hold territory under attack, with the Syrian military consistently leveraging its air assets to stem opposition gains.
