Talal Sillo, who was the so-called spokesman for the People’s Protection Units (YPG)-dominated SDF, surrendered after fleeing from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The YPG is the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian offshoot of the PKK. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
Sillo arrived late Tuesday in an area held by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the northern countryside of Syria’s Aleppo province. The reason why he fled from the group is still unknown.
The FSA, which has fought the Daesh terrorist group with the backing of Turkey’s military, described the development as a “defection”.
In a Twitter post, the FSA said: “Spokesperson of Syrian Democratic Forces #SDF [PKK/PYD], Colonel Talal Silo, defects from the militia in coordination with #FSA arrives to #Jarablus, rural Aleppo”.
Born in Aleppo in 1965, Sillo served as an officer for several years in the Syrian army in the 1990s. After being discharged, he joined the SDF following the group’s establishment in 2015.
Within the scope of the developments, there was information about activity in the Operation Euphrates Shield region.
Meanwhile, former PKK/PYD spokesman Redur Halil has been appointed the SDF’s foreign relations representative.
Sillo had been wounded during the Raqqa operation in July.
The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) backed the Free Syrian Army (FSA) between August 2016 and March 2017 to clear the Daesh terrorist organization from territory in northern Syria.
The U.S. urged its main Syrian ally to rebrand itself to avoid Turkish concerns and give the group a voice in Syria's future in July.
"They formally called themselves the YPG, who the Turks would say equated to the PKK," Army Gen. Raymond Thomas said.
"So we literally played back to them that you’ve got to change your brand. What do you want to call yourself besides the YPG? With about a day’s notice they declared that they were the Syrian Democratic Forces," he stated.
The U.S. has supported the PKK/PYD along with several other Arab militia groups under the umbrella of the SDF, long vexing Ankara.
The U.S. views the SDF as a "reliable partner" in its fight against Daesh and continues to provide it with arms and equipment against strong objection by Turkey that views the YPG/PYD as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terror group.
