By AFP
January 5, 2025
Children who fled ongoing battles between Turkish-backed groups and Syrian Kurdish forces in Syria's Aleppo province sit at a desk in the yard of a school in Hasakeh, where they and others took refuge - Copyright AFP Delil SOULEIMAN
More than 100 combatants were killed over the last two days in northern Syria in fighting between Turkish-backed groups and Syrian Kurdish forces, a war monitor said on Sunday.
Since Friday evening, clashes in several villages around the city of Manbij have left 101 dead, including 85 members of pro-Turkish groups and 16 from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The SDF said it had repelled “all the attacks from Turkey’s mercenaries supported by Turkish drones and aviation”.
The Turkish defence ministry said it had “neutralised” 32 Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, without providing further details.
Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria resumed their fight with the SDF at the same time as Islamist-led rebels were launching an offensive on November 27 that overthrew Syrian president Bashar al-Assad just 11 days later.
The pro-Ankara groups succeeded in capturing Kurdish-held Manbij and Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo province, despite US-led efforts to establish a truce in the Manbij area.
The fighting has continued since, with mounting casualties.
During a visit to Damascus on Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said security of the Kurds is “essential for a peaceful Syria.” She said this requires “an end to the fighting in the north and the integration of the Kurdish forces… in the Syrian security architecture.”
The SDF controls vast areas of Syria’s northeast, and parts of Deir Ezzor province in the east, where the Kurds created a semi-autonomous administration following the withdrawal of government forces during the civil war that began in 2011.
The group, which receives US backing, took control of additional territory after capturing it from the jihadists of the Islamic State group.
Ankara accuses the main component of the SDF, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency in southeastern Turkey and is banned as a terrorist organisation by the government.
The Turkish military regularly launches strikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, accusing them of being PKK-linked.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s new leader and the head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), told Al Arabiya TV in late December that local Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the national army.
HTS led the coalition of rebel groups that overthrew Assad last month.
Red Cross says determining fate of Syria’s missing ‘huge challenge’
By AFP
January 5, 2025
Spoljaric said determining the fate of Syria's missing will likely take years
Maher Al Mounes
Determining the fate of those who went missing during Syria’s civil war will be a massive task likely to take years, the president of the International Committee for the Red Cross said.
“Identifying the missing and informing the families about their fate is going to be a huge challenge,” ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric told AFP in an interview.
The fate of tens of thousands of detainees and missing people remains one of the most harrowing legacies of the conflict that started in 2011 when president Bashar al-Assad’s forces brutally repressed anti-government protests.
Many are believed to have been buried in mass graves after being tortured in Syria’s jails during a war that has killed more than half a million people.
Thousands have been released since Islamist-led rebels ousted Assad last month, but many Syrians are still looking for traces of relatives and friends who went missing.
Spoljaric said the ICRC was working with the caretaker authorities, non-governmental organisations and the Syrian Red Crescent to collect data to give families answers as soon as possible.
But “the task is enormous,” she said in the interview late Saturday.
“It will take years to get clarity and to be able to inform everybody concerned. And there will be cases we will never (be able) to identify,” she added.
“Until recently, we’ve been following up on 35,000 cases, and since we established a new hotline in December, we are adding another 8,000 requests,” Spoljaric said.
“But that is just potentially a portion of the numbers.”
Spoljaric said the ICRC was offering the new authorities to “work with us to build the necessary institution and institutional capacities to manage the available data and to protect and gather what… needs to be collected”.
Human Rights Watch last month urged the new Syrian authorities to “secure, collect and safeguard evidence, including from mass grave sites and government records… that will be vital in future criminal trials”.
The rights group also called for cooperation with the ICRC, which could “provide critical expertise” to help safeguard the records and clarify the fate of missing people.
Spoljaric said: “We cannot exclude that data is going to be lost. But we need to work quickly to preserve what exists and to store it centrally to be able to follow up on the individual cases.”
More than half a century of brutal rule by the Assad family came to a sudden end in early December after a rapid rebel offensive swept across Syria and took the capital Damascus.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, says more than 100,000 people have died in detention from torture or dire health conditions across Syria since 2011.
Report: Russian Ships Heading to Syria to Move Equipment to Libya
The Russian evacuation of troops and equipment from Syria after the fall of the government is continuing. The Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports a flotilla of Russian ships will be arriving in the Syrian port of Tartus in the coming days with some destined for Africa.
“On January 5, 2025, the Russian large landing ships Ivan Gren and Alexander Otrakovsky, as well as the dry cargo ship Sparta, are scheduled to arrive in the Syrian port. They are currently on their way to Tartus in the Mediterranean Sea,” GUR wrote in a posting on Telegram.
Among the personnel they believe are heading to Syria to oversee the next phase of the evacuation is the Russian Chief of Staff of the landing ships fleet. GUR reports Russia has been massing at Tartus its long-time outpost after withdrawing from forward positions to continue the evacuation that began shortly after Bashar al-Assad fled the country turning up in Moscow.
According to the tracking data from GUR, two other Russian vessels, a second cargo ship Sparta II, and the tanker Ivan Skobelev are set to transit the Strait of Gibraltar toward Syria. It expects those vessels will reach Tartus on January 8. The Russian frigate Admiral Golovko also plans to refuel GUR reports.
The Ukrainians assert that Russia will load military equipment and weapons aboard the two cargo ships Sparta and Sparta II which will then transport the equipment to Libya. It is part of a report that Russia is strengthening its ties to Libya after the fall of Syria. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Russia will also be shipping modern air defense systems to Libya.
The other vessels are being prepared to remove military personnel or equipment, although Bloomberg has also reported that Russia continues to negotiate with the emerging Syrian regime. The report says Russia is seeking to maintain a base in Syria.
It has also been reported that Russia has an ongoing airlift evacuating troops and equipment. It was suggested as many as 25 more military transports would be required to complete the transfers. GUR reports armored personnel carriers have been seen arriving in the Vladimir region probably taking material from Syria.
The Sparta was spotted in December going to the rescue of the Russian cargo ship Ursula Major when it began sinking off Gibraltar on December 23. After the Ursa Major's sinking, Sparta resumed her eastward journey declaring her destination as Port Said, Egypt.
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