The fall of Afrin to Turkish forces March 18 came as a surprise to most parties involved in the Syrian crisis. Experts, observers and even international anti-Islamic State coalition officials thought that the Syrian Kurdish fighters would have put up a stronger resistance to protect the land and that Turkey’s victory would come at a great cost.

Following the decision by the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to hand over the city center without engaging in urban warfare against the Turkey-led Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces, most now believe that Turkey’s military intervention in Afrin is a prelude to a wider offensive against other cities under the control of Syrian Kurdish forces.

As experts are scrambling to understand the reasons behind the YPG’s withdrawal, Aron Lund, a prominent Middle East expert, observed that the Syrian Kurdish fighters didn’t receive the support from the international community they had hoped.

“Thrown to the wolves by its only powerful defender in Afrin [Russia], the YPG could not hold out for long. By early March, all that remained was the question of whether to pull out to save lives or mount a hopeless last stand to score political points,” Lund wrote.