Al-Hasakah, is the capital city of the Al-Hasakah Governorate, in the northeastern corner of Syria. With a 2004 census population of 188,160, it is the eighth most-populous city in Syria and the largest in Al-Hasakah Governorate. It is the administrative center of a Nahiyah ("subdistrict") consisting of 108 localities with a combined population of 251,570 in 2004. Al-Hasakah is predominantly populated by Arabs with large numbers of Kurds, Assyrians and a smaller number of Armenians.
The Rojava-Islamist conflict, a major theater in the Syrian civil war, started after fighting erupted between the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and Islamist rebel factions in the city of Ras al-Ayn. Kurdish forces launched a campaign in an attempt to take control of the Islamist-controlled areas in the governorate of al-Hasakah and some parts of Raqqa and Aleppo governorates after al-Qaeda in Syria used those areas to attack the YPG. The Kurdish groups and their allies' goal was also to capture Kurdish areas from the Arab Islamist rebels and strengthen the autonomy of the region of Rojava. The Syrian Democratic Forces would go on to take substantial territory from Islamist groups, in particular the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, provoking Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War.
The Internal Security Forces, also known as the Asayish in the Jazira, Euphrates, and Afrin Regions, is the police force of the autonomous regions of Rojava. Formed in the early stages of the Syrian Civil War, it had initially been established to police areas controlled by the Kurdish Supreme Committee. In October 2013, the Asayish claimed to have 4,000 members; by 2017, the number had reportedly risen to over 15,000.
The Eastern al-Hasakah offensive was launched in the Al-Hasakah Governorate during the Syrian Civil War, by the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units, Assyrian Christian militias, and allied Arab forces against the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, with the intent of retaking the areas of the Jazira Canton that had been captured by ISIL. Subsequently, the Syrian Armed Forces also launched an assault against the jihadists, without coordinating with the YPG.
The 2015 Battle of al-Hasakah started as an offensive launched in the Al-Hasakah Governorate during the Syrian Civil War, in which the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attempted to capture the city of Al-Hasakah, which was divided into two areas held separately by the Syrian Armed Forces and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). On 17 July, YPG-led forces captured all of the roads and villages surrounding Al-Hasakah, fully besieging the ISIL militants remaining inside of the city. On 28 July, YPG forces and the Syrian Army expelled ISIL from most of Al-Hasakah, with two ISIL pockets persisting near the Al-Zuhour District and the southern entrance. On 1 August, the city was fully cleared of ISIL fighters.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to July 2015. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
Relations between the People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are unclear and varied among the different FSA factions. Both are opposed to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. However, several clashes have taken place. Under pressure from the United States, some FSA groups coordinate with the YPG to battle ISIL under the name of the Syrian Democratic Forces, although some other FSA groups remained in conflict with the YPG and the SDF, including FSA groups in the SDF.
AANES–Syria relations concern the military and political relations between the Ba'athist Syrian Arab Republic and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES), a de facto autonomous multi-ethnic region in northern and eastern Syria. The Syrian government does not officially recognise the autonomy of the AANES, and advocates a centralist approach to the governance of Syria. The NES seeks the federalisation of Syria. For most of the Syrian civil war, there has been a non-aggression pact between the military of Syria and the Syrian Democratic Forces, with occasional confrontations and some cooperation against Islamist groups, in particular against the Turkish Armed Forces and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to July 2014. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The Rojava conflict, also known as the Rojava Revolution, is a political upheaval and military conflict taking place in northern Syria, known among Kurds as Western Kurdistan or Rojava.
The 2016 Battle of Qamishli was a violent urban battle between the Asayish police of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and the pro-Syrian government National Defence Forces in the city of Qamishli, Syria.
The 2016 Battle of al-Hasakah was a battle between the paramilitary police of the Asayish and the People's Protection Units (YPG), against the pro-government National Defence Forces and the Syrian Arab Army, backed by the Syrian Arab Air Force, in the city of al-Hasakah, Syria.
The al-Hasakah Governorate campaign was a multi-sided military conflict between Syrian government forces, Kurdish forces, armed Syrian opposition groups, and Salafist jihadist forces, including al-Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the al-Nusra Front in the al-Hasakah Governorate as part of the Syrian Civil War. The clashes began with the People's Protection Units (YPG)'s entrance into the civil war in July 2012 and spread across the governorate.
The Afrin offensive was a military operation launched by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army against the Syrian Democratic Forces in Afrin District in northwestern Syria as the initial phase of Operation Olive Branch. At the end of military operations, the UN had registered 150,000 Kurdish refugees in camps in the area of Tel Rifaat; the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated that 300,000 people had been expelled in total. By May, SOHR estimated that 40,000 settlers had been moved into Afrin, some of them Arabs displaced from eastern Ghouta, but mostly families of the mixed Arab and Syrian Turkmen militias.
On 29 April 2018, clashes took place between Syrian government forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Deir ez-Zor Governorate.
The 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, code-named Operation Peace Spring by Turkey, was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the Syrian National Army (SNA) against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and later Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in northern Syria.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war for 2020. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian civil war.
The Siege of Qamishli and Al-Hasakah was a siege laid upon Baathist Syrian government-controlled areas of the towns of Qamishli and Al-Hasakah by the Asayish forces of the AANES. The siege was enacted allegedly in response to the restrictions of exclusively SDF-controlled areas of the Shahba region and the restriction of movement and supplies to the YPG-controlled neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh in Aleppo by the Syrian government.
The 2021 Battle of Qamishli was a battle between security forces of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) and forces loyal to the Syrian Arab Republic in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli. The clashes began on 20 April 2021, after Asayish targeted a vehicle carrying NDF militia fighters. The clashes were conducted with medium and light weapons as well as RPGs.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war for 2021. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian civil war.
Syria 
Democratic Federation of Northern Syria 
Syrian Arab Army 
