PHOTO: A Kurdish fighter carries a child, amid movement of civilians from Hasakah
LATEST
- Report: Pro-Assad Forces Take Hill on SW Aleppo Front
- Report: Rebels Plan Attack on Border Town of Jarablus, Taking It Before Kurds-Led SDF Does
- Pro-Assad Airstrikes Destroy Another Civil Defense Center
- Aleppo: “Any Kind of Day-to-Day Life is Impossible”
- LCC: 500+ Deaths Documented in Week
SUNDAY FEATURES
Video: 3 Years Ago — Children’s Reminders of the Regime’s Chemical Attacks Near Damascus
Opinion: Omran’s Picture — “This Moment Must Become a Movement to End the War”
UPDATE 1830 GMT: A pro-regime activist is reporting a tentative agreement between the Syrian Army and the Kurdish YPG militia for a ceasefire in Hasakah:
Agreement reportedly signed btw SAA-YPG commanders includ. ceasefire, transfer wounded 2 Qamishli, return captured points & cont. talks
— Hassan Ridha (@sayed_ridha) August 21, 2016
However, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are denying the report, according to a journalist embedded with Kurdish fighters:
SDF official says there is no truce, negotiations or ceasefire with Syrian govt in Hasakah.
— Wladimir (@vvanwilgenburg) August 21, 2016
UPDATE 1200 GMT: Wladimir van Wilgenberg, a journalist embedded with Kurdish forces, reports from inside Hasakah — he says there is a threat from Iranian and Hezbollah snipers, supporting pro-Assad troops and military:
Inside #Hasakah city explaining situation pic.twitter.com/53i3CKW9HF
— Wladimir (@vvanwilgenburg) August 21, 2016
Local fighters say snipers are Iranians and Hezbollah, because regime does not have good snipers.
— Wladimir (@vvanwilgenburg) August 21, 2016
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Regime and Kurdish forces fought for a fourth day in Hasakah in northeastern Syria on Saturday, amid a failure of negotiations for a ceasefire.
Pro-regime websites cited a “military source” who said that the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Party (PYD) and its YPG militia had demanded the complete withdrawal of the pro-Assad militia, the National Defense Forces, from the city.
The source said that the regime countered with the proposal that some NDF groups could be disarmed, provided the YPG and PYD disarm the Kurdish security force, the Asayish.
Clashes were renewed in the two main areas of fighting, the al-Nashwa and Gweiran districts, on Saturday night.
A YPG commander, Lewend Rojava, suggested that the conflict will expand, with the militia — a leading force in the war in northern Syria, fighting both the Islamic State and Syria’s rebels — joining the Asayish in the fighting.
Rojava said the main reason for the eruption of conflict was “the chauvinism of the Baathist regime, and resistance to change its approach which denies the existence of coexisting peoples in the region”.
He warned the Assad regime: “Do not show off your power and test it on us.”
The YPG called for local support in a statement on Saturday:
We in the YPG call upon our people — the Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians and Armenians — to support their legitimate units of the YPG/YPJ, Asayish and Social Protection Forces to stand united against the terror of the regime and safeguard the region.
Kurdish outlets said more civilians were evacuated from the city on Saturday.
There have been recurrent clashes in Hasakah since 2013, when control of the city was divided between regime and Kurdish forces. However, this week’s battles have been the most serious, with the Syrian Air Force bombing Kurdish positions for the first time.
After initial talks for a ceasefire broke down on Wednesday night, regime supporters began speaking of an “all-out war”, while the Kurdish YPG said, “Every hand spattered with the blood of our people will be held to account through all possible and available means.”
Thousands of civilians have left the city, with unconfirmed reports saying that dozens of fighters and residents have been killed.
Report: Pro-Assad Forces Take Hill on SW Aleppo Front
Supported by shelling and airstrikes, pro-Assad forces have made a limited advance on the southwestern Aleppo front.
A pro-opposition activist said the forces occupied the Sanoubrat hill (see map).
Trying to push back a rebel offensive that has broken the regime’s siege of opposition areas of Aleppo city, the Syrian military and foreign allies have attempted unsuccessfully in recent days to reclaim an artillery base and air force college.
Report: Rebels Plan Attack on Border Town of Jarablus, Taking It Before Kurds-Led SDF Does
A “senior Syrian rebel” has confirmed information from local sources that rebel forces are preparing to move on Jarablus, a town on the Turkish border held by the Islamic State.
The likelihood of an offensive on Jarablus has grown since the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces took the ISIS-held city of Manbij, to the south, earlier this month.
Turkey reportedly urged rebel factions to capture Jarablus before the SDF could take control. Ankara fears the expanding influence of the YPG militia, which is the leading force in the SDF and is linked to the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK.
The “senior rebel” said the Free Syrian Army units “are gathering [inside Turkey] in an area near the border”.
Earlier this week, the FSA units took al-Rai, 54 km (34 miles) west of Jarablus, from the Islamic State.
Jarablus, located on the western bank of the Euphrates river, is the last significant town held by the militant Islamist group on Syria’s border with Turkey. It is 34 miles (54km) east of al-Rai, a border town the same rebel groups recently took from Islamic State.
Pro-Assad Airstrikes Destroy Another Civil Defense Center
Russian-regime airstrikes have destroyed another civil defense center, this time northwest of Aleppo city:
Hraytan (Aleppo) @SyriaCivilDef targeted and destroyed today. No casualties, but Center and equipment destroyed. pic.twitter.com/NYvwV59ltX
— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) August 21, 2016
See Syria Daily, August 12: The Russian-Regime War on the Hospitals
Aleppo: “Any Kind of Day-to-Day Life is Impossible”
The Washington Post profiles life in opposition-held districts in eastern Aleppo city, amid Russian-regime bombing and the threat of siege.
Mohib Abdelsalam, an emergency responder, retrieved the bodies of four family members after an airstrike in June. He explains, “You don’t understand. Now it’s like any kind of day-to-day life is impossible.”
Abdelsalam recalls one incident during the pro-Assad siege, imposed in July. A mother, who had recently lost her husband during a bombing, used paper scraps and pieces of wood to bring a pan to boil in the middle of the street. Her three young children sat around her, in what Abdelsalam thought was preparations for dinner:
But when I looked at what she was boiling, it was just water. It was like she was pretending that she was cooking food for her kids, but she wasn’t pretending.
Rebels established a corridor to the city earlier this month in an offensive to the southwest, but the route is not secure and only limited supplies can pass.
Another resident says bluntly, ““There’s no mercy from the sky.”
LCC: 500+ Deaths Documented in Week
The Local Coordination Committees said on Saturday that they documented 508 deaths between 13 and 19 August amid intense Russian-regime bombing and attacks across the country.
Among the victims were 96 children and 73 women.
More than 200 of the deaths were in Aleppo Province, while 93 were killed in Idlib Province and 52 in Homs Province.
The LCC documented another 90 deaths on Saturday, including 12 children and eight women. Of the victims, 53 were in Aleppo Province.