| Al-Qahtaniya القحطانية | |
|---|---|
| Village | |
  Al-Qahtaniya Location in Syria | |
| Coordinates: 35°59′37″N38°55′52″E / 35.99361°N 38.93111°E | |
| Country |  |
| Governorate | Raqqa Governorate |
| District | Raqqa District |
| Nahiyah | Raqqa |
| Occupation |  |
| Population (2004 census) [1] | |
| • Total | 2,490 |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+3) |
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+2) |
Al-Qahtaniya (Arabic : القحطانية) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of Raqqa Governorate, located just northwest of Raqqa. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), al-Qahtaniya had a population of 2,490 in the 2004 census. [1]
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon to the southwest, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest. A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including Syrian Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Circassians, Mandeans and Turks. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Isma'ilis, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Yazidis, and Jews. Sunni make up the largest religious group in Syria.
Raqqa Governorate is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the north of the country and covers an area of 19,616 km². The governorate has a population of 921,000. The capital is Raqqa. The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant claimed full control of this province as of August 24, 2014 when its fighters captured Tabqa Airbase in the southwest part of the province. However, the Syrian Democratic Forces now control much of the province; all of the area north of the Euphrates River including the provincial capital of Raqqa and the city of al-Thawrah are under SDF control, with the government holding the southern part of the governorate after a successful offensive was launched with the aid of Liwa al-Quds, tribal militias and Russian air support, which resulted in the recapture of the city of Resafa, and the capture of many oil fields in Ar-Raqqah province, including various oil and gas stations.
The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) is the statistical agency responsible for the gathering of "information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions" in the Syrian Arab Republic. The office is answerable to the office of the Prime Minister and has its main offices in Damascus. The CBS was established in 2005 and is administered by an administrative council headed by the deputy prime minister for economic affairs.
On 26 December 2012, during the Syrian civil war, Syrian opposition activists reported that 20 people, among them children, were killed in the village of al-Qahtaniyah by Syrian army tank shells. [2]
The Syrian opposition is an umbrella term for the political structure represented by the Syrian National Coalition and associated anti-government Syrian groups with certain territorial control in the form of a proto-state as an alternative Syrian government, claiming to be the legitimate Syrian Arab Republic and also sometimes known just as the Republic of Syria. The Syrian opposition evolved since the beginning of the Syrian conflict from groups calling for the overthrow of the Assad government in Syria and who have opposed its Ba'athist government. Prior to the Syrian Civil War, the term "opposition" had been used to refer to traditional political actors, for example the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change; that is, groups and individuals who have had a history of dissidence against the Syrian state.
In June, 2017, the village of al-Qahtaniyah was captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces from ISIL during the Raqqa campaign.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, commonly abbreviated as SDF, HSD or QSD, is an alliance of Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian/Syriac militias, as well as some smaller Turkmen and Chechen participating in the Syrian Civil War. The SDF is militarily led by the People's Protection Units (YPG), a mostly Kurdish militia. Founded in October 2015, the SDF states its mission as fighting to create a secular, democratic and federal Syria. The updated December 2016 constitution of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria names the SDF as its official defence force.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, officially as the Islamic State (IS) and by its Arabic language acronym Daesh, is a Salafi jihadist militant group and former unrecognised proto-state that follows a fundamentalist, Salafi doctrine of Sunni Islam. ISIL gained global prominence in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Western Iraq offensive, followed by its capture of Mosul and the Sinjar massacre.
