Deir e-Zor civilians under fire as regime-backed groups attack the SDF

ERBIL/HASAKAH — Omar (a pseudonym) lost five of his relatives on Friday when a shell struck their home in al-Dahla, a village in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-controlled eastern Deir e-Zor countryside. The projectile came from across the river, in the province’s regime-controlled western countryside, he told Syria Direct. 

As is common in the hot summer months, the family of six “was sleeping on the roof of their home when the shell hit at around 2:30 in the morning,” Omar said via WhatsApp on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The mother and two daughters were killed immediately, while the father and a third daughter died en route to a hospital in Hasakah city, nearly 200 kilometers away. 

“Only a single child remains of the family,” Omar said. “He is seven years old. God did not decree that he should die with them. He sat and cried for them.” Hours later, while relatives were digging graves to bury the victims, another shell landed 200 meters from the cemetery. “We buried them quickly, in a single grave, for fear of renewed shelling,” Omar said. 

The same day, shelling killed five members of another family in al-Dahla and left others injured, some critically, bringing the death toll to 10 people: a man, three women and six children, residents said. 

Graphic images soon circulated on social media, showing the bodies of children killed in the village. Omar struggled to put what he saw into words, calling it “an indescribable scene—scattered pieces of flesh, blood, the screaming of women and children.” 

SDF-controlled parts of Deir e-Zor have been under intermittent bombardment by Syrian regime forces and affiliated National Defense Forces (NDF) militias since the evening of August 6, when Iran-backed Arab tribal forces launched an attack on SDF territory. 

Over the past six days, at least 18 civilians have been killed and 48 injured in Deir e-Zor as the two sides exchange shelling, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). 

In Deir e-Zor, the SDF controls territory east of the Euphrates River, while Damascus, Tehran and affiliated militias control the area to the west. While SDF areas have previously been attacked by groups using regime territory as a staging ground, the latest escalation comes amid rising tensions between Tehran and Washington, which backs the SDF.

On Monday, the SDF announced its Deir e-Zor Military Council conducted a “retaliatory” raid and killed 20 fighters at regime positions west of the Euphrates in response to the killing of civilians in al-Dahla and Jdeidat al-Bakara last week. 

Regime forces continue to target SDF territory, however. On Monday, shelling of the villages of Abu Hamam, al-Kishkiya and al-Basira reportedly injured two civilians. On Saturday, bombings caused material damages in the town of al-Basira. 

Meanwhile, the SDF has locked down regime-controlled security squares in Hasakah city and Qamishli, blocking vehicles and scrutinizing any civilians entering or leaving on foot. 

Smoke rises over al-Basira, a town in the SDF-controlled eastern Deir e-Zor countryside on Saturday morning after it was shelled from regime-held territory, 10/8/2024 (Syria Direct)

The SDF accuses Damascus of orchestrating the attack in Deir e-Zor through Hussam Louka—head of the regime’s General Intelligence Directorate—and other commanders who arrived in the eastern province in recent days to manage the operation through a dedicated operations room. 

The Arab tribal forces that spearheaded the attack on SDF territory last week include those who fled to regime territory after the SDF suppressed an uprising against it in 2023. This does not mean the current attacks enjoy widespread support, however. On Friday, eastern Deir e-Zor saw several demonstrations condemning attacks on civilians, with protesters holding up pictures of those killed in al-Dahla. 

Read more: As Arab forces attack the SDF in Deir e-Zor, Iran pulls the strings

A threat to stability

Following Friday’s killings, most residents of al-Dahla fled to the desert east of the Euphrates in fear of renewed shelling, Saif al-Bajari (a pseudonym), told Syria Direct. People flee at night “when the shelling intensifies” and return home in the morning, he said. 

“We are against these attacks, and don’t want to fall victim to them,” al-Bajari added, stressing the “impact of the bombardment on our lives and livelihoods.” 

Social media users circulated a video last week in which a man, reportedly a regime-backed fighter taking part in the attack, briefly hesitates to fire a mortar when commanded to so, saying “there is a civilian house,” before launching it.

Residents of Deir e-Zor worry that the regime and its allied Iranian militias could drag the eastern region into an all-out war. On Friday night, the Khirab al-Jir base housing United States (US) and international coalition forces in the Rumeilan area of neighboring Hasakah was attacked by a drone, causing minor injuries. In response, coalition aircraft struck regime positions in Deir e-Zor. 

The US currently has around 900 personnel in Syria, with a stated mission of supporting the SDF in countering the Islamic State (IS). US bases there and in neighboring Iraq have repeatedly come under attack by Iranian-backed militias. 

In Hasakah, Russia attempted to intervene to end the SDF’s siege of regime-held security squares in Hasakah city and Qamishli by sending a delegation from the Hmeimim Air Base to negotiate. The talks reportedly failed, and Moscow’s representatives left over the weekend.

During last week’s attack, in an apparent provocation aimed at the US-backed coalition, gunmen holed up in the al-Omar water station in the town of Dhiban that pumps water from the Euphrates to the coalition base at the nearby al-Omar oil field. Ensuing clashes between gunmen from regime areas and the SDF damaged the facility, one media activist in the Deir e-Zor countryside told Syria Direct on condition of anonymity.

The al-Sabha water station, which serves around 22,000 people in eastern Deir e-Zor, is also reportedly damaged and out of service due to shelling from regime areas. 

The al-Omar water station in the eastern Deir e-Zor town of Dhiban was damaged during clashes between the SDF and gunmen from regime-controlled parts of the province, 9/8/2024 (Syria Direct)

Salah al-Salman, the spokesperson for the SDF-aligned Tribal Council in Eastern Deir e-Zor, attributed the current escalation to “the anger of the regimes in Turkey, Russia and Iran at the stability of the area.” These countries have “ambitions in Deir e-Zor, and are working hard to destabilize the region and implement a new scenario, similar to IS, that serves their interests,” he said. 

In his view, by deploying its militias in Deir e-Zor, Tehran seeks to “reach the sources of oil and expand the Shiite crescent by fully controlling” the eastern province. Despite the portrayal of “what is happening as a fight between the so-called Army of Tribes and the SDF,” al-Salman said, the former has “no real presence…rather, it is an agenda that directly belongs to the regime.” 

Rami Abdulrahman, the director of SOHR, went further, arguing that Washington “also wants to ignite war in the region” and calling events in Deir e-Zor an “American-Iranian conflict on Syrian soil.” He contended that Iran and Hezbollah met with local tribal fighters two weeks ago and planned to invade areas east of the Euphrates to prevent the US from shutting down the Tehran-Beirut road and taking control of al-Bukamal or inciting local fighters opposed to Tehran. 

Where do the clans stand? 

Sheikhs and notables of the Uqaydat tribe gathered on Friday at the guesthouse of Ibrahim al-Hafel—the commander of the Arab tribal forces who fled to regime territory when the SDF suppressed last year’s uprising. There, they read out a statement announcing their support for the SDF against “criminal groups associated with the Syrian regime” and condemning attacks aimed at “taking the area back to square one of violence.” 

Read more: Op-Ed: How the US is losing Syria’s tribes to Iran

Sheikhs and leaders from the al-Shaitat clan in Deir e-Zor also announced their support of the SDF last week against “all forms of threats, menacing and attempts to dismantle the area’s social cohesion.” Their stance aimed “to protect the area from any aggression by parties with external agendas that have nothing to do with Syrian patriotism, and whose goal is to shake the security and stability of the region,” according to the statement.

Local clans and tribes reject the current attacks because they “aim to create uncertainty between the people of the area, the SDF and the international coalition, and send messages that the regime will return and control the area,” Muhammad Bashir, a sheikh from the Baqqara tribe, told Syria Direct. 

There is “a scenario being plotted against Deir e-Zor,” al-Salman, of the tribal council, said. He warned against the “expansion of the area of the attacks in Deir e-Zor until the region enters a sustained conflict, and perhaps open war.” 

If the Deir e-Zor countryside becomes a battlefield, al-Bajari, from al-Dahla, will have little choice but to flee his home, leaving his livelihood behind him. Displacement would still be easier than “losing a loved one, or someone being hurt,” he said. 

For now, residents “don’t know what to do or where to go,” Omar said. The “state of panic and fear cannot be described,” he added, as many do not have the financial means or access to transportation needed to flee. 

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.