DAMASCUS: Battles between Turkish-backed groups, supported by air strikes, and Kurdish-led forces killed 37 people on Thursday in Syria’s northern Manbij region, a war monitor said.
The latest reported fighting comes despite the United States saying Wednesday that it was working to address Turkiye’s concerns in Syria to dissuade the NATO ally from escalating an offensive against Kurdish fighters.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported “fierce battles in the Manbij countryside... in the past hours between the (Kurdish-led) Syrian Democratic Forces and the (Turkish-backed) National Army factions... with Turkish air cover.”
“The attacks killed 37 people in a preliminary toll,” mostly Turkish-backed combatants, but also six SDF fighters and five civilians, said the British-based Observatory with a network of sources inside Syria.
The monitor said at least 322 people have been killed in fighting in the Manbij countryside since last month.
On Wednesday, Mazloum Abdi, who heads the US-backed SDF, said his group supported “the unity and integrity of Syrian territory.” In a written statement, he called on Syria’s new authorities “to intervene in order for there to be a ceasefire throughout Syria.”
Abdi’s comments followed what he called a “positive” meeting between Kurdish leaders and the Damascus authorities late last month.
Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria resumed their fight with the SDF at the same time as Islamist-led militants were launching an offensive on November 27 that overthrew Syrian president Bashar 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.
On Wednesday Washington’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Turkiye had “legitimate concerns” about Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants inside Syria and called for a resolution in the country that includes the departure of “foreign terrorist fighters.”
“That’s a process that’s going to take some time, and in the meantime, what is profoundly not in the interest of everything positive we see happening in Syria would be a conflict, and we’ll work very hard to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” Blinken told reporters in Paris.
Turkiye on Tuesday threatened a military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria unless they accepted Ankara’s conditions for a “bloodless” transition after Assad’s fall.
Syria’s Kurds control much of the oil-rich northeast of the country, where they enjoyed de facto autonomy during much of the civil war since 2011.
The US-backed SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted Daesh group militants from their last territory in Syria in 2019.
But Turkiye accuses the main component of the SDF, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with the PKK, which has waged a four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.
The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States, the European Union and most of Turkiye’s Western allies.
Turkiye has mounted multiple operations against the SDF since 2016.
37 killed in north Syria clashes between pro-Turkiye, Kurdish forces: monitor
https://arab.news/nqv9s
37 killed in north Syria clashes between pro-Turkiye, Kurdish forces: monitor
- Latest reported fighting comes despite the US saying it was working to address Turkiye’s concerns in Syria
- Syria’s Kurds control much of the oil-rich northeast of the country, where they enjoy de facto autonomy
Syrian Druze cross armistice line for pilgrimage to Israel
- Followers of the esoteric monotheistic faith are mainly divided between Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights
- The Druze account for about three percent of Syria’s population and are heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida
On board three buses escorted by Israeli military vehicles, the clerics crossed at Majdal Shams in the Golan, and headed to northern Israel.
According to a source close to the group, the delegation of around 60 clerics is due to meet the spiritual leader of Israel’s Druze community, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, in northern Israel.
They are then set to head to the tomb of Nabi Shuaib in the Galilee — the most important religious site for the Druze.
Followers of the esoteric monotheistic faith are mainly divided between Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
A source close to the delegation said that the visit followed an invitation from the Druze community in Israel, but that it had been met with “strong opposition” from other Druze in Syria.
The Druze account for about three percent of Syria’s population and are heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida.
In Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, there are around 150,000 Druze, with most of those living in Israel holding Israeli citizenship and serving in the army.
However, of the some 23,000 living in the occupied Golan Heights, most do not hold Israeli citizenship and still see themselves as Syrian nationals.
Israel seized much of the strategic Golan Heights from Syria in a war in 1967, later annexing the area in 1981 in a move largely unrecognized by the international community.
The pilgrimage comes as Israel has voiced support for Syria’s Druze and mistrust of the country’s new leaders.
Following the ouster of longtime Syrian president Bashar Assad in December, Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syria and sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone of the Golan in southwest Syria.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Thursday that 10,000 humanitarian aid packages had been sent to “the Druze community in battle areas of Syria” over the past few weeks.
“Israel has a bold alliance with our Druze brothers and sisters,” he told journalists.
During a visit to military outposts in the UN-patrolled buffer zone between Israel and Syria on Tuesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel would remain in the area and ensure the protection of the Druze.
In early March, following a deadly clash between government-linked forces and Druze fighters in the suburbs of Damascus, Katz said his country would not allow Syria’s new rulers “to harm the Druze.”
Druze leaders immediately rejected Katz’s warning and declared their loyalty to a united Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning that his government would not accept the presence of the forces of the new Islamist-led government near its territory.
Hamas says it received proposal from mediators to restart Gaza ceasefire negotiations and agreed to it
- Hamas also said that it agreed to release Edan Alexander, an Israeli American hostage
- Militant group will also release the bodies of four other hostages
DUBAI: Hamas said on Friday it received a proposal from mediators to restart Gaza ceasefire negotiations and had agreed to it.
Hamas also said that it agreed to release Edan Alexander, an Israeli American hostage, and will release the bodies of four other hostages.
Sudan paramilitary shelling kills six in key city: medic
- El-Obeid has been under relentless bombardment for eight consecutive days by the paramilitary forces
- The war has torn Sudan apart, with the RSF tightening its grip on Darfur and parts of the south
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Sudanese paramilitary shelling of El-Obeid on Friday killed six people, including a child, a doctor said, just weeks after the army broke a prolonged siege of the key southern city.
El-Obeid, the state capital of North Kordofan, has been under relentless bombardment for eight consecutive days by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been locked in a devastating conflict with the army since April 2023.
A doctor at the city’s main hospital, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said shelling also wounded eight civilians on Thursday evening and early Friday morning.
On Sunday, nine civilians were killed and 21 others were wounded.
For more than a week, residents have endured heavy bombardment from the RSF, which has been trying to reclaim ground lost to the army with attacks from the north and east.
Last month, Sudan’s military managed to end a nearly two-year RSF siege on El-Obeid, a key crossroads linking Khartoum to Darfur in the west.
The war has torn Sudan apart, with the RSF tightening its grip on Darfur and parts of the south, while the army controls the north and east.
In recent weeks, the army has clawed back large swathes of Khartoum and central Sudan.
What began as a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo turned into the world’s largest displacement and huger crisis.
The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives, uprooted more than 12 million and pushed the country to the brink of famine.
Kurdish militant PKK says ‘impossible’ to safely meet on dissolution
- Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), urged his fighters to disarm and disband
ISTANBUL: The outlawed Kurdish PKK said it was currently “impossible” for its leadership to safely meet to formally dissolve the group in line with a demand by its jailed founder, Kurdish media reported Friday.
“Every day (Turkish) reconnaissance planes are flying overhead, they are carrying out daily bombings and every day they are attacking,” the PKK’s co-leader Cemil Bayik told the Kurdish television station, Sterk TV.
“Holding a congress in these conditions is impossible and very dangerous.”
His remarks came two weeks after Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), urged his fighters to disarm and disband, ending a decades-long insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
In his historic call – which took the form of a letter – he urged the PKK to hold a congress to formalize the decision.
Two days later, the PKK announced a ceasefire, saying it was ready to convene a congress but said “for this to happen, a suitable secure environment must be created,” insisting it would only succeed if Ocalan were to “personally direct and lead it.”
Bayik on Thursday said the congress would happen “if the conditions were fulfilled,” according to the PKK-aligned ANF news agency.
The PKK leadership is holed up in mountainous northern Iraq where Turkish forces have staged multiple air strikes in recent years, targeting the group which is also blacklisted by Washington and Brussels.
Despite the negotiations, there has been no indication that Turkish troops have stopped their operations against the PKK, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warning against any delaying tactics.
“If the promises given are not kept and an attempt is made to delay... we will continue our ongoing operations... until we eliminate the last terrorist,” Erdogan said on March 1.
On Wednesday, Erdogan said he would be willing to hold a meeting with a delegation from the pro-Kurdish DEM party – who played a key role in relaying messages between Ocalan and Ankara – “if they ask for it.”
The party confirmed requesting a meeting but said no date had been set.
Many are hoping Ocalan’s call will ultimately result in concessions for the Kurds, who make up around 20 percent of Turkiye’s 85 million population.
IMF welcomes new Lebanon government request for help on ailing economy
- The previous caretaker administration did not enact reforms the IMF had demanded to implement a loan package
- Lebanon’s economic crisis has pushed most of the population below the poverty line, according to the UN
BEIRUT: The International Monetary Fund on Thursday welcomed the new Lebanese government’s request for support in addressing severe economic challenges.
Lebanon in January elected a new president after a more than two-year vacuum, and then formed a government led by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. In February the IMF said it was open to a new loan agreement with the country following discussions with its recently-appointed finance minister.
The previous caretaker administration did not enact reforms the IMF had demanded to implement a loan package to save the collapsed economy.
The world lender “welcomed the authorities’ request for a new IMF-supported program to bolster their efforts in addressing Lebanon’s significant economic challenges,” the IMF said in a statement.
“Lebanon’s economy remains severely depressed, and poverty and unemployment are exceptionally high since the 2019 crisis,” said Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, the head of the IMF’s delegation to Lebanon.
Lebanon’s economic crisis has pushed most of the population below the poverty line, according to the United Nations.
International donors including the IMF have called on the Lebanese authorities to implement major reforms, including restructuring the banking sector, in order to unlock funding.
In April 2022, Lebanon and the IMF reached conditional agreement on a $3-billion-dollar loan package but painful reforms that the 46-month financing program would require have not been undertaken.
Ramirez Rigo pointed to positive steps including the stabilization of the dollar exchange rate and reduced inflation.
But he said these were “insufficient to address the ongoing economic, financial, and social challenges.”
“A comprehensive strategy for economic rehabilitation is critical to restore growth, reduce unemployment, and improve social conditions,” he continued.
“The banking sector collapse continues to hamper economic activity and provision of credit, with depositors unable to access their funds,” Ramirez Rigo said.
He moreover pointed to substantial infrastructure and housing needs resulting from the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended with a November 27 ceasefire.
