Iraqi Kurdistan said on Monday it has granted refugee status to 30 Kurdish Syrian troops who defected to the region in the first such instance in the revolt against Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The autonomous Kurdistan region in north Iraq pledged it would not hand over the soldiers to Damascus after they crossed over in the past two days.
Already, Sunni Arabs in Iraq are sending supplies to Syria's rebels. If Sunni Kurds do the same thing, will that embolden Syria's Kurds to openly join the revolt?
If so, Assad may need to cut his losses and retreat to a core area and try to win in a truncated Syria instead of losing in all of Syria because his forces are stretched too thin.
