Arab tribes in eastern Syria say they are prepared to resume their revolt against the YPG, the U.S.-backed offshoot of the PKK terrorist group, after battling for weeks in the Deir el-Zour province.
Arab tribes are ready for another riot against the PKK/YPG, Ibrahim al-Hafil, leader of the Akidat tribe, which headed the resistance movement, wrote on social media platform X Wednesday.
Calling on Arab youths who joined PKK/YPG ranks to abandon their cause, Hafil said: “The organization will soon see the incandescent rage of Arab tribes. All fronts will burn until victory. The group has no place here.”
The clashes between the tribes and terrorists first erupted in late August when two weeks of fighting killed 25 PKK/YPG terrorists, 29 members of Arab tribal groups and gunmen, as well as nine civilians, according to the PKK/YPG.
In an effort to stub out tribal resistance, the YPG deployed hundreds of terrorists to several towns, attacking settlements and forcing hundreds of families to flee and seek refuge in villages under the control of Arab tribes.
Between Aug. 27 and Sept. 25, the tribes launched two operations to counter the PKK/YPG in the region. They liberated 33 villages from PKK/YPG occupation in Deir el-Zour, as well as Raqqa and Hassakeh provinces and the rural areas of Manbij district in Aleppo.
However, to prevent civilian casualties, the tribes withdrew from these villages and sat down with Washington to negotiate.
The Syrian regime of Bashar Assad in Damascus sees the PKK/YPG forces as secessionist fighters. It has denounced its alliance with the U.S. in the war against Daesh and its self-ruled enclave in eastern Syria.
Taking advantage of the power vacuum created by the Syrian civil war since 2011, the PKK/YPG invaded several Syrian provinces, including Deir el-Zour, with the help of Washington. The terrorists forced many locals to migrate, bringing their militants to change the regional demographic.
Since 2015, the PKK/YPG has occupied Arab-majority Deir el-Zour, a resource-rich region bordering Iraq, bisected by the Euphrates River and home to dozens of tribal communities. The terrorists have been forcibly recruiting the children of these communities. It has also seized the region’s oil wells – Syria’s largest – and smuggles oil to the Syrian regime despite U.S. sanctions to generate revenue for its activities.
The PKK/YPG has accused the Syrian regime of inciting the violence by allowing the rival Arab fighters to cross the Euphrates River. Local tribes have been fighting against the PKK/YPG’s oppressive policies, including arbitrary arrests and kidnappings since the occupation. The terrorists have assassinated tribe leaders to yoke local groups over the years.
Meanwhile, Türkiye, which has troops inside Syria, and Turkish-backed opposition groups in Syria’s northwest routinely clash with the PKK/YPG, which seeks to establish a terror corridor along the country’s border.
Since 2016, Türkiye has carried out successive ground operations – Euphrates Shield in 2016, Olive Branch in 2018 and Peace Spring in 2019 – to expel the PKK/YPG and Daesh forces from border areas of northern Syria, as well as Iraq and to enable the peaceful settlement of residents.
Ankara has also repeatedly called on its NATO ally to cut off support to the PKK/YPG, something heavily weighing on bilateral relations.
After the clashes intensified last month, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan urged Washington and “other relevant states” to “end their policy of suppressing the region’s Arabs through the YPG.”
“The painting of the YPG terrorist group as legitimate must end, or conflicts we see (in Deir el-Zour) are just the beginning,” Fidan warned.
