SDF fighters in Deir Ezzor. Photo: SOHR.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on 8 September that its military operations in Syria’s Deir Ezzor governorate were completed after recapturing lost to fighters from local Arab tribes.
This was the second time in two days that the SDF has announced the “end” to clashes that raged for two weeks in the US-occupied region.
According to sources that spoke with the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), on Friday, SDF troops entered the villages of Abu Hamam, Al-Kishkiyah, and Gharanij in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor “without resistance by local gunmen and tribesmen.”
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The Kurdish militia reportedly “took back their vehicles which had been seized by the tribal forces.”
Calm is also reported in areas controlled by the US-sponsored Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). On Wednesday, the SDF claimed its operations in Deir Ezzor were finished following the recapture of the town of Dhiban on the east side of the Euphrates River.
However, clashes with local tribes soon resumed.
Friday’s announcement from the SDF was made one day after the militia’s general commander, Mazloum Abdi, pledged to meet the demands of local Arab tribes who live under Kurdish and US occupation.
“We reaffirm our commitment to finding solutions to the problems of Deir Ezzor through dialogue, with peace, stability, and development as our ultimate goals,” Abdi said, adding that AANES would “issue a general amnesty for those involved” in the clashes.
Heavy clashes between the SDF and formerly allied Arab tribes raged in Deir Ezzor since 27 August, when the US proxy arrested Ahmed al-Khabil, also known as Abu Khawla, an allied commander of the Deir Ezzor Military Council (DEMC), and four of his colleagues. The SDF accused Abu Khawla of corruption and drug trafficking.
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The SDF then launched a security operation to target Abu Khawla’s forces under the pretext of targeting ISIS cells in the region. This sparked a broader uprising from Arab tribes led by Ibrahim al-Hafel, the head of the powerful Akeidat tribe.
In response to the tenuous situation surrounding its occupation bases in Syria, the Pentagon has been deploying heavy reinforcements from Iraq to prepare for possible coordinated attacks by local resistance groups, the Syrian army, Iranian forces, and the Russian air force.
The Pentagon started reinforcing its occupation bases in Syria’s oil-rich northeast weeks before the clashes began, deploying hundreds of new troops from Iraq, mobilizing Sunni and Kurdish allies in the region, and even sending High Mobile Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).
