Kurdish forces in northern Syria ended a weekslong siege of government-held neighborhoods in two northeastern cities Tuesday, they said, two days after Kurdish fighters shot one person dead during a pro-government protest.
Local Kurdish police said in a statement they would end the siege on government-held parts of the provincial capital of Hassakeh province that carries the same name as well and the city of Qamishli along the border with Turkey.
Areas held by the government in Hassakeh and Qamishli are known as the security square. State institutions still function in the areas despite the fact the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters control much of the region.
The Kurds, Syria’s largest ethnic minority, have carved out a semi-autonomous enclave in Syria’s north after the start of the civil war in 2011. In the area, the Kurds run their own affairs and control most of the country’s oil resources.
In both Hassakeh and Qamishli cities, they share control with government forces, which have a presence in security zones, near the airport and in some neighborhoods. Both cities have a sizeable Kurdish population.
“We at the Internal Security Forces are committed to the unity of Syrian blood,” the local Kurdish police force said, blaming government forces for tension in the cities. On Sunday, Kurdish forces shot dead a pro-government protester in Hassakeh during a demonstration against the siege.
The police force said life returned to normal on Tuesday with the siege lifted and material will be allowed to flow into government-held areas. During the siege that lasted several weeks, Kurdish fighters prevented the flow of flour and fuel into government-held areas.
Tensions are not uncommon between the two sides in northern Syria and Kurdish officials have said their moves are in retaliation for a government siege on Kurdish areas in the northern province of Aleppo.
Kurdish fighters, who are backed and armed by the U.S., played an instrumental role in defeating the Islamic State group in Syria.
In March 2019, Kurdish fighters captured the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz that was the last sliver of land controlled by IS that once held large parts of Syria and Iraq.
The U.S.-led coalition still has forces in Kurdish-controlled areas in Syria, citing continued joint efforts to weed out the militants’ remnants. The presence of U.S. troops is another reason for tension between the Kurdish and government forces.
BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.
The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child -- the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children -- was also brought with them.
As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said.
Although the pace of repatriations has picked up -- neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens -- many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.
The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.
Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected IS members are housed.
“The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement.
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Women shop in the marketplace at al-Hol camp, home to families of Islamic State fighters, in Hasakeh province, Syria, on March 31, 2019. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
