M4 Dispatch
Notes and photographs from a recent drive along the M4 from Aleppo to Qamishli
See previous dispatches here
Two weeks ago I took a 12 hour bus ride from Damascus to Qamishli. Typically the buses that make this journey go through Deir ez-Zour, crossing the Euphrates via the dirt bridge located in the city. However due to the recent flooding we ended up driving north on the M5 highway, through Homs, Hama, and Aleppo, before turning east onto the M4, taking all the way to just south of Qamishli. This route was unusual, in part because of it had until recently been closed off in several sections, and on the way back we instead took the Abyad road linking Hasakah to Raqqah and crossed the Euphrates via the Kadiran dam, before heading to Salamiyah.
Several ‘Pullman’ bus companies operate Damascus-Qamishli trips each day. I traveled via Izla Tours, a Qamishli-based company named for a ridge in neighboring Nusaybin that is home to numerous ruins of ancient Assyrian and Syriac monasteries. With a 25% discount my ticket cost 150,000 Syrian Lira (old), roughly $10.70 at the time of travel.
After reaching Aleppo and passing the Pullman station in Ramousah we continued east along the airport road. Here I saw my first SDF emblems, with several dozen seized vehicles including HAT humvees sitting in a lot at the airport junction. Soon we turned on the 212 highway heading towards al-Bab, passing through what was once the Abu Zindin Checkpoint: a lucrative crossing between regime and SNA-controlled parts of eastern Aleppo. The Ministry of Interior now operated a checkpoint there though as is typically the case across Syria most vehicles are waved through upon arrival.
What I was not prepared for was the extent that Jabal Sheikh ‘Aqil towers over al-Bab and the surrounding countryside. The Turkish base on top is clearly still manned by the military, with several flags visible from the highway. As highlighted in this newsletter and by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi this base was built on the site of a destroyed civilian neighborhood, causing HLP disputes that linger until today.
Further down the road by Biza‘ah we passed a single Turkish Army Kirpi APC, creeping through commercial traffic on the M4.
