This week in Northern Syria (XIV/XV)
This week in Northern Syria (XIV/XV)
A rundown of key events from Turkish/SNA & SDF-controlled territories
Catching up on events occurring between October 4th - 17th, unrelated to the Abu Ghannoum assassination, subsequent SNA infighting, and HTS’s invasion of Afrin.
Events
10/04/22: Police forcibly dispersed a sit-in and dismantled a large tent set up by striking members of the Aleppo Branch of the Free Syrian Teachers Syndicate outside the Education Directorate in al-Bab. The teachers have been on strike since the beginning of the school year last month, over abysmal wages and conditions.
10/04/22: Ezidi organization ‘Mala Êzdiyan li Herêma Cizîrê’ announced the rescue of a 15 year old Ezidi girl named Jani Ziyad Haydar from the al-Hawl camp. She was kidnapped in 2014 by the Islamic State during their genocidal attack on Sinjar/Shingal in Iraq and held as a slave by members of the group ever since. Jani Ziyad Haydar is the third Ezidi slave to be rescue from al-Hawl since the beginning of September.
10/06/22: US forces carried out a helicopter raid against Islamic State targets south of al-Qamishli, in the regime-controlled village of Muluk Saray. Local news outlet Sada al-Sharqiyah later published photographs showing the house that allegedly belonged to the target.
Given the ongoing events in Afrin and al-Bab (which began last week), I've delayed the newsletter. Here's a consolation geolocation of the house reportedly belonging to an IS commander, raided by US forces via helicopter within regime territory last week. 36.942245, 41.221953
US Forces Conduct Raid in Northeast Syria against ISIS https://t.co/vu3cnlSz3w
U.S. Central Command @CENTCOM10/06/22: The YPG commemorated Koçero Batman, a commander killed in the days prior in Kobanî by a Turkish airstrike. He was from the Kurdish-majority city of Êlih/Batman in Turkey and had joined the PKK in 2001, at the age of 18. He fought for the organization as a guerrilla “from the Zagros to the mountains of Dersim.” According to the obituary Batman entered Syria in 2014, to take part in the defense of Kobanî, later taking part in the al-Raqqa, Manbij, ‘Ain ‘Isa and Tabqa battles.
10/06/22: Germany repatriated twelve of its citizens from al-Hawl camp, claiming to have now “resolved ‘almost all known cases’ of its citizens stuck in [Syria].” Among the twelve included four women and a teenage boy, each of will be detained and tried for Islamic State membership.
10/07/22: Four soldiers of the SAA’s Border Guards were reportedly killed in a Turkish drone strike on regime positions in eastern Aleppo and northern al-Raqqah. The Turkish MoD claimed multiple attacks against the ‘PKK/YPG’ the same day, along Euphrates Shield and Peace Spring front lines.
10/08/22: Residents of the recently opened Kuwait al-Rahmah IDP village staged a sit-in in downtown Afrin, demanding a relocation of the village. Due to its location mere kilometers from the front lines and numerous military points Kuwait al-Rahmah has repeatedly been struck by shells fired from SDF/regime positions in al-Shahba’, the most recent such occurrence taking place just the day prior.
#عاجـــــــــــل اعتصام أهالي مخيم كويت الرحمة أمام السرايا في #عفرين لتغيير مكان المخيم نتيجة القصف المتكرر عليه10/08/22: Russian and American military patrols meeting on the road in al-Qahtaniyah/Tirbespî held a bizarre impromptu photo-op.
10/10/22: The British Ministry of Defense claimed a drone assassination against a suspected Islamic State member outside the northern al-Raqqah town of Hammam al-Turkmen, located within Turkish-controlled territory. A similar British drone strike against an IS target in Turkish-controlled territory took place in October 2021.
Image from the scene (source) 10/11/22: Employees of the National Hospital in Afrin went on strike in protest of low wages. Strikes among health care workers across Turkish-controlled northern Syria have become common this year.
10/12/22: Five SDF fighters died in Turkish bombardment of the front line town of ‘Ain ‘Isa, in northern al-Raqqah governorate. Biographical information published by the SDF shows three of them to be natives of Deir ez-Zour.
10/12/22: A Turkish drone strike targeted a vehicle in the vicinity of the Newrouz camp in al-Malikiyah/Dêrik, killing Ibrahim Bassam Mikhail, a member of the AANES-affiliated Syriac Security Office.
#المالكية | #ديريك طائرة مُسيرة تركية 🇹🇷 أستهدفت اليوم سيارة قرب مخيم "نوروز" في المالكية بالحسكة، وقتل شخص بالأستهداف حسب الأنباء الأولية. 🔺غير معروفة للأن هوية الشخص المستهدف.
(source) 10/13/22: ‘Awad Bouzan, a member of the AANES’s al-Shaddadi Local Council, was assassinated by cells reportedly belonging to the Islamic State. According to NPA, Bouzan was originally from Aleppo.
10/13/22: The UK repatriated two individuals from al-Hawl, marking “the first time an adult has been allowed to come back to the UK from detention since the end of the ground war against Islamic State.” Whereas Britain has reject calls to return its nationals who joined the Islamic State and remain in detention in Syria, the woman retrieved from the camp was reportedly trafficked into Syria by relatives.
10/14/22: Turkish state media reported that MIT “neutralized” a PKK cadre by the name of Necdet Dağlarer, in an operation carried out in al-Shaddadi. No information was provided as to how this operation, reportedly taking place deep within AANES territory but close to the Iraqi border, was carried out. Intelligence sources stated that Dağlarer had joined the PKK in 2009 and didn’t arrive in Syria until 2016. Since then they accuse him of being responsible for defensive tunnel networks dug around major border cities.
