Salam Ali

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) estimates 120,000 people have been displaced from areas of northern Aleppo captured by Turkish-backed opposition factions this week.

Countryside roads in SDF-controlled northeastern Syria are a hunting ground for armed robbers targeting civilians and humanitarian workers. Repeated security incidents limit residents’ freedom of movement and cut into organizations’ limited funding.

Young Syrians returning from Lebanon to AANES-held northeastern Syria, like those heading for regime areas, face the threat of conscription for “self-defense duty.”

Hasakah residents who cannot afford costly cooking gas rely on the babur, a traditional kerosene stove, risking death or injury because locally available fuel is impure and highly flammable. 

In Hasakah, the tradition of making tannours is holding strong after years of war and bread crises increased demand for the traditional, wood-fired clay ovens used to bake at home.

Bombardment by Syrian regime forces and affiliated militias has killed and injured dozens of people in SDF-controlled villages and towns in Deir e-Zor since Iran-backed Arab tribal forces launched an attack on the eastern countryside six days ago.

Iran-backed Arab tribal forces attacked the US-backed SDF in Deir e-Zor this week, briefly overrunning security positions and sparking heightened security measures in neighboring Hasakah province amid fears of further escalation. 

In northern Syria’s Kobani, a border city facing Turkish shelling and continuous threats of a ground assault, many residents are trying to sell their property to pay for a way out. With the city’s future uncertain, there are few buyers.

To obtain records from Syrian public universities, students must apply in person or through legal proxies. If this is not possible, or if they are wanted by the security services, they are forced to pay hundreds of dollars in bribes to state employees through brokers.

Residents of SDF-controlled northeastern Syria say the US military presence there brings a sense of relative stability, one that any withdrawal—as Washington was recently reported to be considering—would shatter.