This Week in Northern Syria [4.2025]

January 22-28: increasing number of civilians killed in SDF/SNA conflict, al-Houl releases announced, HTS reinforces the east, and more

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SDF/SNA front lines

The front lines remained static in the SDF vs. SNA/Turkey conflict over the past week. The SNA and Turkey focused their firepower on the hills located approximately seven kilometers south and southwest of Tishrin dam, with numerous air strikes and ground attacks seen targeting one hill in particular. Turkish airstrikes continued to target sites in the Kobani region and its southern Sarrin subdistrict, just beyond the Euphrates. Meanwhile SDF drone video output shrunk dramatically from dozens of videos to just a handful, while reports of cross-river rocket barrages increased.

A hill ~7km southwest of Tishrin dam targeted throughout the week (source)

To the south little news came out of the Deir Hafir front, apart from several SNA fighters reportedly being killed over the week. Reciprocal artillery attacks were reported along the eastern front lines between the SNA’s ‘Peace Spring’ region and SDF-controlled northern al-Raqqah and al-Hasakah.

See below for random news related to the SDF/SNA conflict:

-On 01/26/25 a Sentinel-2 satellite captured the contrails of Turkish drone circling over the Tishrin dam front.

-The SDF published footage reportedly taken off a quadcopter downed in the Tishrin dam area showing Turkish soldiers operating the vehicle previously. The first location visible was geolocated to a Turkish military base west of Tell Abyad, manned by the 11th Commando Brigade. The second location seen in the video appears to be a military base inside Turkey. This video makes attribution more difficult in the case of the video published to social media the day before, showing a quadcopter dropping grenades on the Tishrin dam demonstrators.

-Furqat al-Sultan Mehmet al-Fatih, Jaysh al-Islam each reported a fighter killed in clashes on the Tishrin Dam front. Meanwhile the SDF reported two fighters killed over the course of the week: one at Tishrin dam, the other in Deir Hafir.

-A Turkish Telegram channel shared a video of SNA APCs newly outfitted with anti-drone cages.

-A video was published on opposition social media showing a Grad rocket launcher disguised as a delivery truck, reportedly captured by the SNA from the SDF and later reused in attacks on the latter.

-Liwa’ Jund al-Haramain shot down an SDF drone on the Tishrin Dam front. While SDF media has showcased its armed quadcopters, the downed drone is of a different, fixed wing model. Furqat al-Sultan Suleiman Shah fighters shot down a similar model later in the week.