Alexander McKeever

Share this post

This week in Northern Syria (XXIa)

akmckeever.substack.com

This week in Northern Syria (XXIa)

Covering Turkish attacks on northern Syria and related events from November 22nd and 23rd

Alexander McKeever
Dec 1, 2022
2
Share this post

This week in Northern Syria (XXIa)

akmckeever.substack.com

Given all that’s gone on in the past week and a half I’ve split this newsletter in two for digestibility’s sake. This issue covers the events of November 22nd and 23rd while the second half, to be published later today, will cover November 24th to the 28th.

Events

  • 11/22/22

    • A joint SDF-Coalition base in western al-Hasakah governorate was targeted by a Turkish drone strike, killing two members of the SDF’s Anti-Terror Units (YAT) and wounding three others. According to reporting by Al-Monitor’s Amberin Zaman and Jared Szuba, the joint base targeted is the site SDF Commander in Chief Mazloum ‘Abdi’s (interviewed by Zaman in the link above) main headquarters and is located near the village of Shamoukah - where four teenage girls were killed by a Turkish drone strike earlier this year. In May 2020 SOHR published roadside photographs of the coalition base (36.590054, 40.585572) in question, referring to the location as “Istrahat Wazir.”

    • Turkish drones targeted oil infrastructure in the al-Qahtaniyah/Tirbespî area of northeastern al-Hasakah governorate, striking the ‘Awdah oil field and another facility near the village of Laylan.

      Twitter avatar for @MahmoudAlsido
      Mahmoud Alsido @MahmoudAlsido
      #عاجل مسـيرات الاحــتلال التركي تسـتهدف موقعين للنفط بريف تربه سبيه
      Image
      11:21 AM ∙ Nov 22, 2022
    • Turkish aircraft reportedly raided the village of al-Makman multiple times, striking unknown targets. These attacks struck unprecedentedly deep within Syria, as Al-Maksim is located approximately 72km from the border, on the al-Hasakah/al-Raqqah highway within Deir ez-Zour governorate.

    • A school in the Kobanî village of Kuran, located on the border directly across from a Turkish Jandarma outpost, was destroyed overnight by a Turkish airstrike. Location: 36.779872, 38.618617

      Turkish Jandarma outpost and border wall visible in the background (source)
    • Five civilians died in a rocket attack on A’zaz city, carried out by either SDF of regime forces based in al-Shahba’.

      Twitter avatar for @AKMcKeever
      Alexander McKeever @AKMcKeever
      Geolocation of the rocket attack which killed at least five civilians in A'zaz around 7:30PM local time today. Rocket was almost certainly fired from SDF/regime controlled al-Shahba' region just to the south 36.587419, 37.038642
      Image
      Image
      Image
      Image
      6:24 PM ∙ Nov 22, 2022
      11Likes4Retweets
    • For more information on Turkish air raids and artillery strikes occurring on November 22, see reports published by the SDF and by RIC.

  • 11/23/22

    • Turkish airstrikes reportedly targeted security sites in the vicinity of al-Hawl camp, killing eight members of the SDF’s Commando Forces. According to North Press Agency the site targeted was “al-Tawghji” oil field (so far I’ve been unable to find the location), several kilometers from the camp itself.

    • Turkey continued to strike oil infrastructure around northeastern Syria, wounding at least six civilians (According to RIC this included two engineers and four other oil workers).

      Twitter avatar for @MHJournalist
      MOHAMMED HASSAN @MHJournalist
      #Al_Suwaidiyya #NESyria : Al-#Suwaidiyya gas plant in the far north-east of #Syria to generate electricity and supply the population with gas, which was bombed yesterday by #Turkish warplanes, and according to the director of the plant, the plant went out of service
      1:28 PM ∙ Nov 24, 2022
      224Likes119Retweets
      Twitter avatar for @AKMcKeever
      Alexander McKeever @AKMcKeever
      A Turkish drone strike targeted an oil field near the town of al-Shalhoumiyah, east of al-Qamishli. One of several drone strikes today targeting oil infrastructure in the AANES 37.085518, 41.566885
      Image
      Image
      Image
      Image
      3:13 PM ∙ Nov 23, 2022
      20Likes4Retweets
    • A Turkish drone strike targeted a truck on the western side of al-Qamishli city, wounded several individuals. According to Turkish and opposition media, high ranking YPG commander Rezan Gelo was injured in the attack though this has not been confirmed by the SDF.

      Twitter avatar for @AKMcKeever
      Alexander McKeever @AKMcKeever
      Geolocation of truck reportedly hit by a Turkish drone strike under an hour ago in al-Hilaliyah neighborhood of al-Qamishli. Unconfirmed reports of civilian casualties 37.049505, 41.205133
      Image
      Image
      Image
      Image
      8:20 PM ∙ Nov 23, 2022
      10Likes4Retweets
    • A joint Russian-SDF site in the frontline al-Hasakah town of Tell Tamer was hit by either Turkish shelling or a drone strike (conflicting reports), reportedly killing one SDF fighter and wounding several others. Two hours later local media reported that Russian forces had temporarily vacated a base in the town prior to a Turkish attack - pointing to the deconfliction measures in place between Turkey and Russia. It’s unclear whether these reports referred to the earlier attack or another one.

      Twitter avatar for @77Mikiy
      احمد الشبلي @77Mikiy
      #الحسكة أخلت القوات الروسية قاعدتها الواقعة بحي الحمرة شمال ناحية تل تمر، قبيل استهداف الجيش التركي للنقطة المشتركة بينها وبين قسد في تل تمر، لتعود مرة أخرى بعد القصف
      Image
      Image
      11:41 AM ∙ Nov 23, 2022
      Geolocation of Russian military vehicles seen in two images above: 36.662444, 40.372880
    • For more information on Turkish air raids and artillery strikes occurring on November 23, see the report published by RIC.

      Thanks for reading Alexander McKeever! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Other

  • I’ve been tracking SDF and SNA combatant deaths related to this recent escalation in a separate post:

    Alexander McKeever
    Tracking combatant deaths related to Turkey's ongoing escalation
    I will continue to update this post (and re-sharing on Twitter) as new deaths are announced or as I come across those confirmed via funeral footage/martyrdom posters but not published by official sources. I’ve included whatever information has been provided regarding where the individual was from, how old they were, where they were killed, and what sub…
    Read more
    4 months ago · Alexander McKeever
  • Map by Nathan Ruser of locations struck by Turkish air strikes and artillery bombardment as of November 23rd. Note: Turkish base information supplied is incomplete, missing numerous locations on al-Shahba’ fronts.

  • Images published by Efrin News 24 showing regime armor facing west towards Afrin, hidden within dilapidated buildings near al-Faisal Mill in al-Shahba’.

    36.478875, 37.037603
  • Dutch NGO PAX for Peace published a report on drone usage in Syria, covering the activities of state and non-state actors as well as the use of military and commercial drones. It really highlights the pandora’s box that has been the US’s drone assassination campaign within the context of the War on Terror. Obviously the Turkish portion of the report is highly pertinent to this week’s events:

    Turkey has so far not released any legal position that justifies the use of lethal force outside of an armed conflict, nor did it provide compensation to families of civilians who were killed or wounded. This concerning development seems to be building upon the absence of strong international pushback against the US’s drone wars, which caused thousands of civilian casualties but at the same time lacked transparency or clear accountability mechanisms and were conducted under tenacious interpretations of international legal frameworks. Activists and human rights campaigners have long warned that the lack of response to this could open the door for other states to use drones in a similar way, and the current Turkish operations in Syria (and northern Iraq) clearly vindicate these concerns.

  • More on Turkey’s air war in Syria:

    Twitter avatar for @aaronstein1
    Aaron Stein @aaronstein1
    With reports that TuRAF is not crossing into Syria to strike targets, I was reminded of this passage in my book. For fixed targets, in and around Azaz/Marea, bombs dropped from TR take ~9 minutes to hit their targets
    Image
    3:37 PM ∙ Nov 20, 2022
    19Likes3Retweets

    Thanks for reading Alexander McKeever! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Share this post

This week in Northern Syria (XXIa)

akmckeever.substack.com
Comments
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Alexander McKeever
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing