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.
Dozens of homes surrounding the al-Sinaa prison in Hasakah city were demolished in the wake of a major Islamic State attack in January 2022. Nearly two years later, homeowners have not been compensated despite AANES promises.
Residents in and around Syria’s northeastern Hasakah city are rationing water, with the flow from the Alouk water station controlled by Turkish-backed factions all but cut and few sustainable solutions in sight.
Bombings across northern Syria this month—by the Syrian regime and Russia against the HTS-controlled northwest, and by Turkey in the SDF-controlled northeast—have something in common: killing civilians and damaging infrastructure.
In Deir e-Zor province, nearly two weeks of clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces and Arab clans calling for self rule have come to an end, but residents are uneasy about what the future holds “after the clans were defanged.”
In 2022, Syria’s humanitarian, political and economic crisis reached new depths. How did the year unfold, and what can be expected in 2023?
In the aftermath of the Islamic State attack on al-Sinaa prison, Hasakah residents are grappling with the fighting’s humanitarian fallout and worrying about the future.
In the year marking a decade of the Syrian uprising-turned-conflict, regional normalization efforts with Damascus gained steam while the two stalemates in the northeast and the northwest seem to have settled in a fragile stability.
Arbitrary arrests targeting journalists and opposition members are on the rise in territories controlled by the SDF, which faces mounting popular dissent and intra-Kurdish tensions.
The winning report highlighted the human suffering caused by the failure to rehabilitate the bridges of Raqqa, four years after the defeat and expulsion of ISIS from the area.
