This week in northern Syria
#76, June 8 - 14: the DAANES yearly budget, CNN visits al-Houl, shrine desecration in Afrin, and more…
06/09/24: The DAANES published its budget for the upcoming fiscal year with expenditures amounting to $1.06b and revenues only coming to $670m. According to The Syria Report the expenditures include funding the Syrian Democratic Forces ($330m or 31.2%), debt repayment for grain (17%), salaries and wages (13.2%), grain purchase (11.8%), investments (11.1%), and other spending, while revenue stems from oil ($400m or 59.7%), customs (17.9%), grants (6%), taxes (2.1%), as well as “additional revenues from the economy and agriculture (USD 30 million)…[and] other minor income streams.” Oil revenue as a percentage of the total income has declined from 92% in 2021, to 80% in 2022, to 76% last year due at least in in part to efforts on the DAANES Finance Authority to diversify, however this year’s latest drop is likely the result of Turkey’s air campaign targeting oil infrastructure across northern al-Hasakah. In comparison to the DAANES, the SIG’s Minister of Economy recently told The Syria Report that the opposition government has only raised approximately $37m in revenue this year, income primarily coming from customs fees (the SIG does not collect income taxes). SIG expenditures are kept low through the extensive role played by Turkey and NGOs in funding everything from the Syrian National Army to the bulk of the health and education sectors.
06/09/24: Opposition media reported that DAANES security forces arrested local members of the ENKS in ‘Amude and in Dêrik. Three more ENKS members were reportedly arrested in al-Qamishli the following day.
06/09/24: Security forces likely belonging to the SIG’s Civil Police were deployed to the town of Akhtarin in northern Aleppo, reportedly to evacuate the new Local Council appointed two weeks ago by the SIG and the Kilis provincial government in charge of the area. This came after significant local protests against the new council due to it being appointed from above rather than elected.
(source) 06/09/24: Saudi network al-Hadath published a short video detailing drug use in the al-Dar’iyah neighborhood of al-Raqqah. The report sparked local controversy over its interviews of female drug uses, including threats made by Sheikh Huwaidi of the al-’Afadilah clan of the locally dominant Busha’ban tribe among others towards al-Hadath correspondent Jum’ah ‘Akkash.
06/10/24: The Asayish announce the arrest of a suspected Islamic State member allegedly linked to recent car bomb attacks, somewhere in Deir ez-Zour. The SDF and Asayish reported two other anti-Islamic State raids later in the week, with one on the 12th in al-Shuhail leading to the arrest of a suspected local leader. Meanwhile the Islamic State did not claim any attacks against the SDF over the course of the week, so far claiming only one in the month of June after 11 in May and 23 in April.
06/11/24: CNN’s Clarissa Ward visited various detention sites in northeastern Syria and spoke with SDF commander Mazloum ‘Abdi for a report on the seemingly intractable issue of Islamic State family members still held in SDF facilities across the region. The video includes footage from al-Houl camp and its infamous ‘Annex’ section for foreign nationals, the Orkesh rehabilitation center for teenage boys west of al-Qamishli, and the Panorama (or al-Sina’ah) prison for holding Islamic State fighters and male minors in southern al-Hasakah city.
06/11/24: Rumors of a Russian delegation set to arrive in al-Bab prompted local demonstrators to flock towards the Abu al-Zindin crossing with regime-controlled eastern Aleppo in order to block their entrance. Initial social media reports alleged that Turkey was to escort Russian representatives into the region to discuss the supplying of water to opposition areas from a water station south of Tadef, though this has since been denied. Since then rumors have abounded that this alleged meeting was related to the opening up of the Abu al-Zendin crossing.
(source) 06/13/24: Two Hajin Military Council (SDF) fighters were killed in a currently unclaimed attack reportedly targeting a checkpoint in al-Bahrah, eastern Deir ez-Zour. Meanwhile a member of the Asayish was killed in al-Qamishli while responding to “an armed dispute between two families” the same day.
06/13/24: North Press Agency published footage showing a vandalized religious shrine located on a hilltop overlooking the towns of Kafr Jannah and Qatmah in northeastern Afrin. NPA identified the site as the ‘Mannan’ shrine utilized by practitioners of the Ezidi faith, however according to local website Tirej Afrin, previous reporting, and user-uploaded information on Google Maps ‘Mannan’ is actually located on the hill to the west and this site is instead the ‘Sadiq’ shrine, likely visited by the local Muslim rather than Ezidi population. Contrary to the Human Rights Organization - Afrin post linked above, the Mannan shrine - now siting within a Turkish military base - was not completely destroyed in 2019 and is still visible on June 2023 satellite imagery available via Google Earth.
According to NPA’s sources fighters affiliated with SNA faction al-Jabhah al-Shamiyah are responsible for the partial destruction of the Sadiq shrine. This incident is part of a larger pattern of shrine desecration and destruction that has occurred in Afrin following the capture of the region by Turkey and the SNA in March 2018. Several dozen Islamic, Ezidi, and Alevi sites have been targeted in this time period, presumably by both Islamists and potential looters. The hill on which the Mannan shrine sites
Other
On June 3rd the UN Security Council Secretary General published a report entitled ‘Children and armed conflict’ finding both the SNA and SDF guilty of continued use of child soldiers. On the same day the Syrian Interim Government announced the signing of a joint action plan with the UN to address the issue. The SDF signed a similar plan in 2019 however children recruitment and related allegations of kidnapping continue to linger.
North Press Agency quoted co-chair of the DAANES’s Agricultural Authority in al-Jazirah Canton Mazloum Hassan on the damage caused so far by crop fires:
“The areas exposed to the fire are divided into 1,705 dunums of irrigated wheat and 3,231 dunums of rainfed wheat, 142 dunums of irrigated barley and 1,042 dunums of rainfed wheat,” totalling a little over 1500 acres.