This week in Northern Syria (XI)
A rundown of key events from Turkish/SNA & SDF-controlled territories
Events
09/13/22: The SDF discovered a second enslaved Ezidi women in al-Houl camp within the context of ‘Operation Humanity and Security.’ Twenty four year old, Sawsan Hasan Haydar, was abducted by the Islamic State during its 2014 attack on the Sinjar region of Iraq and has been held in captivity by group members ever since.
09/13/22: Members of Furqat al-Hamza stormed the house of a local police officer heading the al-Bab ‘Anti-Narcotics Division,’ reportedly breaking furniture and beating several residents. This sparked popular anger and protests against the group. The SNA Military Police later arrested the individuals responsible, including a local Hamza commander ‘Abu ‘Abdo al-Kadri,’ in turn leading to Hamza members firing bullets at the local Military Police headquarters. Furqat al-Hamza has been accused in the past of involvement in the region’s drug trade.
09/15/22: A ten year old Iraqi boy named Yassin Ra’ad al-Mahmoud was sexually assaulted and murdered by a man in the city of Serê Kaniyê/Ras al-’Ain. This brutal crime shocked locals and provoked widespread anger across northern Syria. The perpetrator, Mustafa Salamah, was arrested by the Military Police soon after. The van transporting Salamah was stopped by armed men who dragged the accused rapist and murder from the vehicle and executed him on the spot. According to local media, Mustafa Salamah was from the town of Souran, in Hama governorate, and had joined the Islamic State in 2015. He was arrested by the SDF in 2018 but had somehow been smuggled to Ras al-’Ain just ten days before the murder of Yassin al-Mahmoud where he was living in a house owned by Najib al-Sheikh, a commander in the SNA Furqat Suqour al-Shamal faction. Yassin al-Mahmoud was originally from the Iraqi city of Samarra but had been living with his mother and grandfather in Ras al-’Ain.
09/16/22: A Turkish drone strike killed two veteran PKK members in the ‘Ain ‘Issa area. Rojhat Karakoçan, from Elaziz, came to Syria in 2014 to participate in the defense of Kobanî, while Doğan Amanos, from Hatay, had entered the country the year prior. The SDF announced another drone strike in the area killed three other fighters that the same day.
Rojhat Karakoçan and Doğan Amanos 
09/17/22: The SNA Second Legion announced that it will no longer being supplying the salaries for factions Furqat al-Hamza and Furqat al-Sultan Suleiman Shah due to non-compliance with leadership decisions (meaning Furqat al-Sultan Murad’s Fahim ‘Issa.
09/17/22: The SDF and Coalition announced the end of ‘Operation Humanity and Security,‘ details of which can be read on the SDF website and in the CENTCOM statement below.
09/18/22: One Turkish soldier was killed and another injured in an SDF missile attack on the Esentepe border post near the city of Suruç.
09/18/22: In response to the death of soldier İsmet Aybek, Turkish airstrikes targeted a military outpost reportedly manned by regime forces in the Kobanî countryside, killing three soldiers. It appears that this was accompanied by large scale shelling along much of the border.
1⃣Suruç/Şanlıurfa hududundaki roketatar tacizinde bir kahraman silah arkadaşımız şehit oldu, bir kahraman silah arkadaşımız da yaralandı. Belirlenen hedefler derhâl ateş altına alınarak ilk belirlemelere göre 12 terörist etkisiz hâle getirildi. msb.gov.tr/SlaytHaber/189… #MSB
geolocation of a Turkish airstrike on the border to Syria ~20km east of Kobani google.com/maps?ll=36.814…
The scene of the moment when the TSK warplanes hit the PKK/YPG and the regime joint point https://t.co/dnAP8paSzH
Levent Kemal @leventkemaI09/19/22: A piece of paper bearing the flag of the Islamic State was reportedly posted on a wall in the Deiri village of al-Harijiyah listing individuals accused of working with the SDF and AANES and calling on them to quit such activities or suffer the consequences.
Other
Aerial photographs of the Turkish base in Jalbul, on the Afrin/al-Shahba’ frontlines. Old YPG defensive towers built prior to 2018’s Operation Olive Branch visible in the background
US military aerostats visible at the Conoco and Tell Baydar coalition bases
(source)
SNA faction Furqat al-Sultan Mehmet al-Fatih commemorated the tenth anniversary of the death of a founding commander, killed in the 2012 battle for Aleppo city. The individual, Muhammed Fayyad Suleiman, was from the town of Ra’il in the northern Aleppo countryside and was apparently involved in the initial protest movement. Not only is it a bit jarring for a Syrian opposition faction to be commemorating a member who died in battle a full decade prior, this also demonstrates how the SNA project has gathered up much of what remains of the initial northern Aleppo rebellion.
SNA Third Legion (predominately made up of al-Jabhah al-Shamiyah and Jaysh al-Islam) recently published photos highlighting visits by Syrian Interim Government Ministry of Defense leadership, shedding a little bit of light onto the internal structure of faction. These referenced a ‘Division 35’ in Afrin, and a ‘Division 36’ and ‘Brigade 334’ in the Euphrates Shield region. None of these appeared in Aymenn al-Tamimi’s 2019 outline of SNA structure, leading me to assume that they are Jaysh al-Islam units which at the time was affiliated with the Second Legion.
#الجيش_الوطني_السوري #الفيلق_الثالث جولة تفقدية لوزارة الدفاع في #الجيش_الوطني_السوري ورئاسة أركان #الفيلق_الثالث على مقار الفرقة 35 في قطاع غصن الزيتون.
#الجيش_الوطني_السوري #الفيلق_الثالث جولة تفقدية لوفد من وزارة الدفاع في الجيش الوطني السوري ورئاسة أركان الفيلق الثالث شملت اللواء 334 والفرقة 36 بريف حلب الشمالي.
Giving further credence to this theory is that the ‘Division 35’ images appear to show what was previously identified as Jaysh al-Islam’s Afrin headquarters near the Kawa roundabout in the al-Ashrafiyah neighborhood (note the similarity between the coffee tables).
SIG/SNA officials and others visited the same Jaysh al-Islam base (id'd here as the army's 'Olive Branch sector' headquarters) that came under during the weekend clashes with al-Jabhah al-Shamiyah near the Kawa roundabout location: 36.509405, 36.870962
Just a little correction on the faction who controls which building with thanks to @AKMcKeever who's contributed a lot this . https://t.co/kK3zZLZgg7
Caki @Caki____
