Following a rebel request for Kurdish forces to conduct a complete withdrawal from Tall Rifaat yesterday, clashes have now erupted between the Kurdish YPG and Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
Heavy skirmishes and artillery bombardment erupted near and around the Shabha Reservoir on Wednesday despite neither directly conceding villages to the other. Clashes were also observed yesterday on the eastern outskirts of Harbul and Shaykh Isa.
Both the FSA and YPG have captured considerable chunks of ISIS’ northern Aleppo territory in 2016.
In the past 48 hours, with ISIS continuously retreating from the region, Kurdish forces have seized the villages of Hassadjek, Qawl Suruj, Wardiyah, Wasitiyah, and Al-Ghoul, thus safeguarding the southwestern flank of the Shabha Lake.
Formerly, a string of Turkish-backed rebel advances threatened to block YPG fighters from linking up with their Kurdish allies further east at Manbij, a former ISIS stronghold liberated in late August. Currently, some 40 kilometers separate the two Kurdish-held regions of Efrin and Manbij.
Rebels and Kurds are no strangers to tensions in the Aleppo governorate; in April 2016, the YPG paraded 47 bodies of fallen FSA fighters through the city of Efrin after the latter conducted a failed offensive on Kurdish-held villages in the region.
Similarly, in May 2016, the YPG captured Shaykh Isa after somewhat opportunistically attacking the weaker flank of rebel forces who found themselves occupied by fending off several ISIS offensives at neighbouring Mare’.
210 - 210Shares
Be Civil
This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion
Please treat this discussion with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.
These are not hard and fast rules, merely guidelines to aid the human judgment of our community and keep this a clean and well-lighted place for civilized public discourse.
Make it better
Improve the Discussion
Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.
The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.
Now the hard part!
Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree
You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:
Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.