Fighting between the Syrian military and the Kurdish SDF continues despite repeated declarations of ceasefires, and today the defense ministry is claiming multiple SDF attacks have left at least 11 Syrian soldiers killed and 25 wounded.
The incident, according to Syrian state media, took place in Hasakeh Governorate, at a facility near an Iraqi border crossing. It involved an incident in which seven soldiers have been killed and 20 others wounded in a single SDF attack involving a “suicide drone.”
The defense ministry also claimed to have discovered a Kurdish explosives stockpile nearby, and within it they found Iranian-made drones. It was unclear if this particular drone strike involved one of those drones.
Syrian soldiers load heavy weapons | Image from SOHR
New ceasefires have been declared Sunday and Tuesday, though there is no sign that the Syrian SDF and the military aren’t still fighting, and as has been the case for months, both sides maintain the other side started the fighting. The SDF announced only yesterday that they were engaged in a full mobilization with an eye toward defending Kurdish-majority parts of Syria, including the areas around Hasakeh Governorate and the city of Kobane.
The SDF reported continued attacks around Kobane, which they said amounted to the government violating the most recent ceasefire. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported one woman killed and two civilians wounded in pro-government forces attacks near Kobane.
These incidents mostly involved troops harassing SDF patrols in the area, though the death of the woman was reportedly when the military fired heavy weaponry at the village of Hamdoun, in the same general area.
This ceasefire, which was announced Tuesday, was meant to be a four-day ceasefire, though in many ways was just an ultimatum by the Syrian government demanding the SDF surrender within that period of time. That it lasted less than 24 hours surprised few, as the previous ceasefire, which was announced Sunday, similarly lasted only a few hours before both sides were claiming the other was violating it, and whatever was ultimately the case, both sides remained, and remain, at each other’s throats.
