Share

Syrian Kurds Seize Most of NE City of Hasakeh From Govt

Yildirim said Turkey would play a “more active” role in the next months in Syria, without giving details.

Advertisement

The YPG, or People’s Protection Units, have close ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey, against which Ankara has waged a three-decade counter insurgency.

The unprecedented strikes prompted the US -led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect its special operations forces helping the Kurdish fighters.

On Thursday, the United States sent fighter jets to head off air strikes conducted by regime planes and to protect coalition advisers, but the Syrian planes had left by the time they arrived.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organisation that tracks daily developments in Syria, the YPG has gained control of almost all of Hasaka.

Scuffles broke out between the Kurdish police force, known as Asayish, and the pro-government National Defense Forces (NDF) in Hasakah on Wednesday.

In an attempt to end the violence, Russian officials based at Hmeimim military airport on the coast flew to the nearby city of Qamishli to hold mediation talks. A journalist in Hasakeh said on Saturday afternoon that the clashes had abated.

However, the YPG denied it agreed to any truce and instead made announcements through leaflets and loudspeakers across Hasakah, asking army personnel and pro-government militias to surrender or be killed.

The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in the Islamic State (IS) militant group, but there have been growing tensions between them in Hasakeh.

“We will continue to defend our forces in our fight against ISIL… and as our forces move in Syria and continue their partnered operations we will do what we need to do to protect our forces”.

Kurdish fighters’ gains were noticeable after government warplanes ceased bombing Kurdish positions in the city on Friday.

Regime aircraft flew over the city on Sunday morning but without carrying out further raids, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Syrian Kurdish forces “must as soon as possible cross to the east of the Euphrates”.

The Observatory said thousands of inhabitants had begun to flee the city, where bread was running out and electricity has been cut.

Syria’s Kurds have been the most successful ground force against ISIS, capturing large swathes of northern and northeastern Syria from the radical Islamist group.

The official indicated it was a relatively small number of U.S. forces that moved out of their locations.

On Friday, US planes showed up, apparently to contest Syria’s ability to target YPG fghters.

Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups, including Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL), now controlling parts of it. The US warning’s effectiveness has led some to ask the question: Did the US just introduce a no-fly zone over Kurdish-held northeastern Syria?

Advertisement

“There were heavy clashes, artillery fire and rocket attacks throughout the night and ongoing in the morning”, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Kurdish groups capture new positions in Syrian city: official