YPG Capture Local Regime Base In Al-Hasakah After Heavy Fighting

YPG forces supported by local Asayish security personnel have captured a police station in Hesekê (Al-Hasakah) from the Syrian regime as a response to attacks by the Syrian Army on Kurdish neighborhoods in the city beginning last yesterday evening, according to an article from Özgür Gündem.

Syrian Army soldiers are reported to have launched coordinated attacks on the neighborhoods of Muftî, Salihiyê and Til Hecer and on YPG positions around the city. They are also accused of having targeted civilian neighborhoods with mortar-fire and with having killed a number of local civilians. YPG forces responded by capturing a number of Syrian army positions around the city, including a local police station. Around 30 Syrian army soldiers are said to have surrendered to the YPG in the fighting. Tensions remain high in the area, with the threat of renewed fighting and loss of civilian life

YPG Responds To Regime’s Attempts At Occupation

Fierce clashes between regime soldiers and members of the YPG and local Asayish security forces continued for hours after the Syrian army launched their initial attack. After the YPG repulsed the army’s advances, they took control over a Syrian army position in Sebax and a police station in Til Hacer, where 30 Syrian army soldiers surrendered to YPG fighters as the flag of the Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM) was raised over the building. As of this evening the Baathist attack had been largely broken.

Unknown Number Of Civilians Killed

The attacks in Hesekê began as regime forces targeted YPG positions with mortar fire. The first mortar struck a civilian house in the Muftî neighborhood, and subsequent shelling continued to strike civilian areas. It is reported that at least 11 civilians had been killed by the regime shelling thus far, which has been continuing for most of the day.  At the time this article went to press heavy fighting was continuing around the Mesakên neighborhood near the Merşo petrol station with the Syrian army employing masked fighters

A Contemptible Attack

The YPG Press Center has released a statement on the Syrian army’s attack in which it reported that many civilians had been killed in wounded in the largely Kurdish neighborhoods of Salihiyê, Miftiyê and Til Hacer. The statement read in part that ‘our forces responded strongly the the attack by the regime soldiers and broke their advance. The heavy attacks by the regime forces against the people with heavy weapons is continuing and as do their attempts to carry out a massacre.”

The Regime Wants To Open The Door To ISIS

Ekrem El-Mehşûş, a member of Legislative Assembly Council for the Cizîrê Canton, said: “The wants to open the door to ISIS passage into the city and to create disorder among the people.” He stressed that the regime was using its masked fighters, who belong to the National Security Services-Muqenne, to create conflict between local Arabs and Kurds.