Battle of Tell Hamis and Tell Brak | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the al-Hasakah Governorate campaign (2012–13) of the Syrian Kurdish–Islamist conflict (2013–present) | |||||||
Map of the battle | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM)
| Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ContentsFree Syrian Army(pro-rebel claim) [3] | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Sipan Hemo [4] (YPG general commander) Hasan Cudi [5] Unidentified Arab leaders [5] | |||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
54 killed [6] [5] | 80+ IF and FSA fighters and 20+ foreign ISIL fighters killed (per The Arab Chronicle) [3] | ||||||
Several civilians killed [5] | |||||||
The Battle of Tell Hamis and Tell Brak was fought between the end of December 2013 and the start of January 2014 over control of the town of Tell Hamis and the village of Tell Brak in the al-Hasakah Governorate of northeast Syria during the Syrian Civil War. The armed wings of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), namely the People's and Women's Protection Units (YPG and YPJ), in addition to the Syriac Union Party's Syriac Military Council (MFS), attempted to capture the areas from Salafist jihadists led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Al-Nusra Front, and the Islamic Front's Ahrar al-Sham, but were repelled in a counter-offensive by the jihadists.
As part of the rebel campaign to gain a foothold in the Hasakah Governorate which began in 2012, the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front captured Tell Hamis on 25 February 2013 after several days of fighting with the Syrian Armed Forces. Shelling by the government forces during the battle led to the displacement of most of the town's residents. Amid fears of clashes between al-Nusra and the YPG, Kurds set up barriers in villages north of Tel Hamis to prevent the entry of government and rebel forces. [8]
A dispute later broke out between Ahrar al-Sham and the Free Syrian Army-affiliated 313th Brigade over the right to distribute wheat in Tell Hamis, leading Ahrar al-Sham to seize grain silos in the town by force. [9]
Open conflict between the YPG and Salafist jihadists of ISIL, al-Nusra, and Ahrar al-Sham erupted in July 2013 which led to the YPG taking complete control of Ras al-Ayn on the Syria–Turkey border after expelling the jihadists on 17 July. The YPG went on the offensive in the governorate and with the assistance of Shammar tribesmen, captured the strategically important town of al-Yaarubiyah at the Iraq–Syria border in late October as the jihadists retreated to Tell Hamis and Tell Brak.
On 23 December, the YPG announced the formation of a battalion made of Arab volunteers from the Tell Hamis area, as displaced people from the area complained of harassment by jihadists. [5]
On the night of 26/27 December 2013, the YPG, gathered in al-Yaarubiyah, launched the offensive on Tell Hamis and Tell Brak with several hundred fighters on technicals and improvised armoured vehicles. [3] On the first day they captured villages to the east and south of Tell Brak and north, east, and west of Tell Hamis. [10] Tell Brak itself was also reported captured by 27 December. [5] However, French observer Cedric Labrousse disputed this and claimed the YPG only took full control of Tell Brak village on 2 January 2014. [3]
By 8 December the YPG had moved into Tell Hamis. A media blackout was imposed by the YPG during the battle, [5] as fighting intensified on 3 January as ISIL and the Islamic Front launched a counter-attack and pushed the YPG out of Tell Hamis town on 5 January. The jihadists then attacked the YPG and MFS forces in Tell Brak and drove them out on 7 January, when the YPG withdrew and announced an end to the operation. [3]
39 YPG fighters who were killed during the battle were buried in Qamishli on 15 January 2014, [11] [6] while the bodies of 15 Kurdish and Arab YPG fighters and collaborators killed remained under jihadist control. [5] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 21 jihadists killed. Labrousse on the other hand claimed more than 150 YPG fighters were killed, along with more than 80 fighters of the Islamic Front and FSA groups and 20 ISIL foreign fighters. [3] The jihadists captured two YPG vehicles and took 35 YPG fighters prisoner, all of whom they executed by beheading. [7]
Unlike in al-Yaarubiyah where the YPG received support from local Arab Shammar tribesmen who sent a delegation to request the YPG move into the town, the largest tribe in Tell Hamis, the Sharabia, are long-time rivals of the Shammar and did not support the YPG, contributing to the failure of the offensive. [12] In Tell Brak, the success of the jihadist counterattack was attributed to jihadists disguised as returning villagers targeting the YPG from the rear, [1] while the jihadists claimed that in Tell Brak, some of the Arab YPG fighters they captured switched sides after their commanders were executed in front of them by ISIL and Ahrar al-Sham. [5]
On 20 January, YPG general commander Sipan Hemo accused "perfidious collaborating Kurdish forces" of aiding the jihadists in Tell Hamis and Tell Brak, [4] and vowed revenge for the killed YPG fighters. [13]
Following the battle, ISIL's Hasakah branch and four other groups in the area including the Islamic Front formed a joint operations room against the YPG, [11] and all FSA groups in Tell Hamis pledged allegiance to ISIL. [14] While ISIL and Ahrar al-Sham maintained good relations in the Hasakah Governorate in spite of clashes in the rest of Syria, [15] ISIL attacks on Ahrar al-Sham bases in the governorate on 6 February 2014 and ISIL's declarations of the Islamic Front as apostates led to the end of their alliance and the joint operations room amidst the wider opposition–ISIL conflict.[ citation needed ]
On 22 February 2014, the YPG captured Tell Brak in another offensive, [6] before ISIL recaptured it in another counter-offensive in June. The YPG, MFS, and other forces finally recaptured both Tell Hamis and Tell Brak in the eastern al-Hasakah offensive in late February 2015. [7]
The Istanbul-based National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces on 3 January 2014 condemned the YPG offensive on Tell Hamis and paid "tribute to the heroes defending the town". [16]
Tell Abyad is a town in northern Syria. It is the administrative center of the Tell Abyad District within the Raqqa Governorate. Located along the Balikh River, it constitutes a divided city with the bordering city of Akçakale in Turkey.
The Battle of Ras al-Ayn was a series of armed clashes for control of the town of Ras al-Ayn during the Syrian Civil War, mainly between the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units (YPG) and an alliance of Syrian rebel groups, with the occasional involvement of the Syrian Armed Forces. As result of the battle's first phase, the Syrian Army was expelled from the city by Syrian rebels, whereupon the latter attacked the YPG-affiliated fighters in Ras al-Ayn. In the following months, the city was effectively divided into rebel-held and YPG-held areas, with intermittent fighting resulting in the gradual expansion of the YPG's territory in the city and its surroundings. Islamist and jihadist factions soon became dominant among the rebels in the region, further contributing to tensions with the secular-leftist YPG. In July 2013, the battle's final phase erupted and ended when an alliance of YPG-led troops completely expelled the rebels from Ras al-Ayn.
The Syriac Military Council is an Assyrian military organisation in Syria, part of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The establishment of the organisation was announced on 8 January 2013. According to the Syriac Military Council, the goal of the organisation is to stand up for the national rights of and to protect Assyrians in Syria. It operates mostly in the densely populated Assyrian areas of Al-Hasakah Governorate, and is affiliated to the Syriac Union Party.
The Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades was a Syrian rebel group fighting against the Syrian government in the Syrian Civil War. It was funded by the Qatari government.
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 (IS), provoking Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War.
Liwa Thuwar al-Raqqa was a rebel group in the Syrian Civil War. It was formed in September 2012 in the Raqqa Governorate. Aligned with jihadist factions for its first years, at the end of 2015, it joined the Syrian Democratic Forces. During an interview by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi in 2015, Liwa Thuwar al-Raqqa's media director stated that the group wants a "civil democratic state". He also claimed that the group had no relations with the Syrian National Coalition based in Turkey.
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.
Al-Yaarubiyah is a town in al-Hasakah Governorate, Syria. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Al-Yaarubiyah had a population of 6,066 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of a nahiyah ("subdistrict") consisting of 62 localities with a combined population of 39,459 in 2004.
The Western al-Hasakah offensive, dubbed Operation Commander Rûbar Qamishlo by the Kurds, was a military operation during May 2015 in the Al-Hasakah Governorate, during the Syrian Civil War, conducted by Kurdish YPG and allied forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. On 31 May 2015, as most of the offensive operations in the western Al-Hasakah Governorate ended, the part of the offensive in the Ras al-Ayn District expanded into the Tell Abyad region, in the northern Raqqa Governorate.
The Tell Abyad offensive or Martyr Rubar Qamışlo operation was a military operation that began in late May 2015 in the northern Raqqa Governorate, during the Syrian Civil War. It was conducted by the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The offensive took place from the end of May until July 2015. The campaign was the second phase of the Kurdish Operation Commander Rûbar Qamishlo, which began with the Al-Hasakah offensive, and involved the merger of the Kobanî offensive with the former. The focus of the campaign was to capture the key border town of Tell Abyad, and to link the Kobanî and Jazira Cantons in Northern Syria.
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 between the two 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.
The Forces of the Brave, generally called the al-Sanadid Forces, are a militia formed by the Arab Shammar tribe to fight against the Islamic State. Even though the tribe's Syrian strongholds are mostly in the Jazira Canton of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, such as at al-Yaarubiyah and Tell Hamis, the militia operates throughout most of the AANES. The red colour in their flag represents blood while the yellow represents the light, calling themselves “marchers on the red death”. The al-Sanadid Forces are affiliated with the co-governor/co-president of Jazira Canton and tribal leader Humaydi Daham al-Hadi, and are led by Humaydi's son Bandar al-Humaydi.
The 2013 battle of Tell Abyad was a military confrontation in the town of Tell Abyad between the Kurdish Front and the Democratic Union Party-affiliated People's Protection Units and Women's Protection Units against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the al-Nusra Front, and Ahrar al-Sham, resulting in a Kurdish defeat and the jihadist capture of the town.
The Battle of al-Yaarubiyah was fought in late October 2013 at al-Yaarubiyah, a strategically important town at the border of Syria with Iraq. Affiliates of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), namely the YPG/YPJ and local Arab tribes, attacked the settlement in an attempt to capture it from Jihadist and Islamist groups, led by the Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. After four days of heavy fighting, the Islamists were defeated and expelled from al-Yaarubiyah.
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 Northern Democratic Brigade is a Free Syrian Army unit that is closely allied to the Syrian Kurdish YPG and YPJ in Afrin Region since 2014. Led by Absi Taha, Alexander Khalil, and Alexander Alaa, it also joined the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in November 2015. The initial members of the group originated from Jabal Zawiya in Idlib, and it has recruited Arabs from Idlib, Aleppo, and other cities in northern Syria since allying with the YPG. Since joining the SDF, the unit has begun to operate across much of northern and eastern Syria, participating in operations against anti-SDF Syrian opposition factions, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Turkish Armed Forces, and the Syrian National Army.
Tajammu Ahrar al-Sharqiya, commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sharqiya, is an active armed Syrian rebel group founded in 2016 by individuals exiled and displaced mostly from the Deir ez-Zor Governorate and other eastern provinces, such as the Hasakah Governorate, by ISIL, YPG and the Syrian government due to fighting that took place there between 2011 and 2014. Many fighters in Ahrar al-Sharqiya are former al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham members.
Osama Suleiman Mansour Hilali is a member of the Kurdish Future Movement in Syria. He was also an activist who led protests during the Syrian uprising in 2011, and a militant who founded the Mashaal Brigade, an armed rebel group that consisted of both Kurds and Arabs. Under Hilali's command, the group fought against Syrian government forces and the mainly-Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) between 2012 and 2013, during the Syrian Civil War, most notably in the Battle of Ras al-Ayn.
Opposition–ISIL conflict during the Syrian Civil War started after fighting erupted between Syrian opposition groups and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In early January 2014, serious clashes between the groups erupted in the north of the country. Opposition groups near Aleppo attacked ISIL in two areas, Atarib and Anadan, which were both strongholds of the fundamentalist Sunni organization. Despite the conflict between ISIL and other rebels, one faction of ISIL has cooperated with the al-Nusra Front and the Green Battalion to combat Hezbollah in the Battle of Qalamoun. By 2018.