Senior HTS commander says rebel forces have taken control of eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor
[IsraelTimes] Insurgents who overthrew the Syrian government now say they have wrested control of the eastern city of Deir Ezzor after intense battles with a Kurdish-led, US-backed force.
Hassan Abdul-Ghani, a senior commander of the jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — which leads the insurgent alliance, says that the rebel forces completely took control of Deir Ezzor.
A member HTS says in a recorded video that the group will soon conduct a thorough sweep of the city’s neighborhoods to secure the area, adding that the strategic nearby town of Boukamal has also fallen to opposition forces.
“We will advance toward Raqqa and Hasakah and other areas in eastern Syria,” the HTS fighters says.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had only held the city for a few days. The SDF said it deployed to Deir Ezzor and west of the Euphrates River on Friday, replacing Syrian government forces. At the time, the SDF said its fighters were not in control of the Boukamal border crossing with Iraq, which Israel has struck numerous times over the years to thwart arms transfers to Iran-linked groups.
SDF issued general amnesty in Deir ez-Zor Saturday
07-12-2024
[Rudaw] The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Saturday issued a general amnesty in areas of Deir ez-Zor province that are newly under their control.
“As our forces advance into Deir Ezzor to secure the region in light of the evolving situation, we are declaring a general amnesty without exception in these areas,” SDF General Commander Mazloum Abdi stated on X.
The SDF announced on Friday that they had deployed to areas previously held by the Syrian army in Deir ez-Zor. The army withdrew as it is facing a rapidly moving offensive by rebel forces in the north and west.
Basam Ishak, a representative of the SDF’s political wing in Washington, told Rudaw on Saturday that the Kurdish-led force is now in control of approximately 40 percent of Syrian territory. Ishak said the deployment into previously regime-held territory was necessary to avoid a “security vacuum.”
One of the security threats comes from a resurgent Islamic State (ISIS). Abdi told reporters on Friday that “there are increased activities of ISIS mercenaries in the Badia region, and the south, and east of Deir ez-Zor, and Raqqa. There are movements and they have taken control of some areas recently.”
He said that they are working with the United States-led global coalition to recapture these areas.
839 Kurdish families return to Afrin
07-12-2024
[Rudaw] According to the Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF), over 4,000 Kurds have returned home to Afrin from Shahba. However, Arabs from Latakia, Deir ez-Zor, Aleppo and other areas have settled in Kurdish homes on the Afrin border and refuse to leave.
Rawaj Haji, member of the board of directors and human resources at BCF told Rudaw on Saturday that they are welcoming displaced Kurds from Afrin who are returning from Shahba. He explained that besides providing food, they are overseeing their return to Afrin while registering their names to offer further aid later.
‘’839 families have returned, totaling 4,100 people.’’ Rawaj Haji told Rudaw
Haji clarified that ‘’There is no one in camps, and those who do not have a home of their own, are in the homes of their relatives,’’.
There are 6 districts and 366 villages along the border of Afrin, and since it was taken over by armed opposition groups, most of the residents of these areas have been displaced and are not ready to return home.
When last year's twin earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria, the BCF convoy was one of the first deliveries of aid to rebel-held northwest Syria.
Sheikhmous Ahmed, head of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) office for the displaced and refugees, told Rudaw English that the opposition militants have taken the 15,000 people to an unknown place. Most of these people hail from the Kurdish city of Afrin which was controlled by the same militia groups and Ankara in 2018.
International organizations have recorded numerous human rights violations in Afrin since 2018.
“Kurdish residents have borne the brunt of the abuses due to their perceived ties to Kurdish-led forces that control vast swathes of northeast Syria,” the Human Rights Watch said in February, referring to areas under the control of Ankara-backed groups, including Afrin.
On Tuesday, Ahmed told Rudaw English that about 100,000 people had left Shahba for Tabqa. He said on Thursday that the number has not increased, adding that the 15,000 people stuck in the area amount to 6,000 families.
200 Kurds remain Imprisoned in Afrin despite amnesty issued: Kurdish official
09-12-2024
[Rudaw] Despite a recent amnesty issued by the authorities in Afrin, around 200 Kurds remain in prisons, a Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC) official said on Monday, noting that over 2,000 families have returned to the Kurdish city since the start of the recent escalations in Syria.
As the Syrian rebels, led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), entered the capital Damascus, announcing the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime, the rebels released inmates of the country’s most notorious prisons. For its part, the Turkey-backed Syrian interim government that governs over Afrin issued a general amnesty.
“Nobody knows why the released prisoners were jailed in the first place, so we demanded to release any Kurd from Afrin and the surrounding areas, without any questioning,” Ahmed Hassan, the head of the ENKS local council told Rudaw.
Hassan noted that despite the general amnesty, some prisoners remain in the jails.
“We request that the prisons are emptied of prisoners. According to our information, around 200 Kurds have yet to be freed,” he said.
Hassan said that they have helped over 2,000 families from Aleppo, Shahba, and Tal Tamir to return to Afrin with the help of the Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF), since the start of the recent escalation in Syria.
Hassan said that many of the returning families found that their houses were occupied by Arab settlers, adding that “the returnees now live with their relatives that have a house in the area.”
The Arabs who have settled in Afrin are from the areas of Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Homs, and Deir ez-Zor, according to Hassan, who said that the settlers also desire returning to their homes.
“The Arabs also have their own homes and want to go back. When their return in phases begins, then the people of Afrin will go back to their houses,” Hassan said.
The ENKS official noted that they have no statistics on how many Arabs have returned to their hometowns and cities, but that ‘’the return has begun’’.
Hassan urged the people of Afrin, who have been displaced in Syria or sought refuge in Europe, to return home to “weaken the demographic change that had taken place.”
Many Kurdish families fled Afrin following the occupation of the city in 2018, after Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch, eliminating the Kurdish forces that once controlled the area.
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