In February 2014, multiple towns and villages in the eastern part of the Jazira Canton came under ISIL control. On 23 June 2014, ISIL expanded into Tell Brak and the surrounding area, as well as the eastern outskirts of the city of Al-Hasakah. In early October 2014, ISIL launched a massive offensive, capturing some villages in the eastern Jazira Canton, with subsequent campaigns expanding ISIL control in the region into December 2014. In mid-December, the Syrian Army and the YPG engaged ISIL forces to the south of Qamishli, capturing a number of villages, but ISIL responded with a counter-offensive that resulted in them capturing multiple villages to the south and southeast of Tell Ma'ruf. In late December 2014, YPG forces retook control of some of the villages near the Yarubiyah-Rabia border crossing and to the southwest of the region, in support of Peshmerga forces launching the Sinjar offensive. By the end of the offensive on 21 December, some of the ISIL-occupied villages near Jaz'ah had come under YPG assault.
The offensive started on 21 February 2015,[1] and by the next day, the Kurds quickly advanced within five kilometers of Tal Hamis, after capturing 23 farms and villages[8] near the Abo Qasayeb area.[26] Their assault was backed up by U.S. and allied Arab air support. Also, near the border with Iraq, the YPG captured two villages. The Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq shelled ISIL positions across the border, in coordination with the YPG during their advance.[8] In response to the Kurdish offensive, on 23 February, ISIL launched a massive attack on a cluster of villages along the southern bank of the Khabur River around the town of Tell Tamer, using around 3,000 fighters[citation needed] and multiple tanks,[27] seizing 11 villages and kidnapping 220 Assyrian Christians by 26 February, according to the SOHR.[1][28] Local sources stated that 33–35 villages were captured[29][28] and put the number of abducted Assyrians at 287–400.[22][30] ISIL was reportedly withdrawing militants from other fronts in Syria, including the front at Homs, to boost their assault at Tell Tamer.[31] The Kurds managed to recapture several of the villages, but the fate of the Christians remained unknown.[32] It was also reported that Abu Omar al-Shishani, ISIL's field commander in Syria, was leading the assault at Tell Tamer.[13]
Map of the Al-Hasakah offensive in progress, on 24 February 2015, showing the YPG and ISIL offensives on both sides of the Governorate.
On 23 February, the YPG captured Tell Brak, during a pre-dawn raid[2] On 25 February, the YPG cut the road between Tal Hamis and al-Hawl, which was a main ISIL supply line from Iraq.[33] By 27 February, Kurdish fighters managed to capture 103 villages and hamlets around the town of Tal Hamis, as well as Tal Hamis itself[1] while on 1 March, Kurdish fighters reportedly burned a number of houses that belonged to ISIL militants or ISIL-allied fighters[34] in two dozen Arab villages around Tal Hamis that they recaptured from ISIL.[35] On 28 February, ISIL executed 15 Assyrian Christians, 14 of them fighters. Another 13 Christian fighters were being held.[20]
By 28 February, since the start of the offensive, the fighting had left at least 175–211 ISIL militants[1][36][37] and 75 Kurdish and allied fighters dead.[citation needed] In the period during the offensive, between 21 February and 1 March, the US-led coalition conducted 24 airstrikes, striking 18 ISIL tactical units and destroying seven ISIL vehicles.[38]
In the meantime, on the same day that the Kurds captured Tal Hamis, Syrian government forces launched their own offensive against ISIL, and by 2 March, had captured 23–31 villages, with their ultimate aim being to take control of the main road linking the provincial capital of Al-Hasakah to the city of Qamishli.[25] Another report put the number of captured villages at 33.[3] 13 of the villages were seized within 24 hours of the start of the assault.[41] Meanwhile, Kurdish-Arab allied forces were continuing to fight ISIL outside Tell Tamer.[25]
By 3 March, 24 of the kidnapped Christians were released by ISIL[23] after ransoms were paid.[25]
On 4 March, Syrian government forces advanced further and captured several villages, while ISIL continued shelling Kurdish fighters near Tell Tamer.[42] After the losses suffered in the previous days, ISIL forces retreated towards the areas of al-Hawl and Shaddadi.[43]
On 6 March, the Syrian Army advanced down Highway 7 up to 15–20 kilometers from Tell Brak and stopped.[44] It was also reported that fierce clashes between ISIL and the YPG had erupted to the east of Al-Hasakah city, as ISIL was trying to prevent Kurdish forces from reaching one of its last remaining strongholds in al-Hawl. The clashes from 5–6 March resulted in the deaths of 11 more YPG fighters.[45]
On 7 March, ISIL launched a massive attack on villages around Tell Tamer, with fears ISIL militants would use the kidnapped Assyrians as human shields.[46] The attack began around dawn and targeted at least three villages on the northern bank of the Khabur River, with ISIL's aim being to capture Tell Tamer and secure a corridor to the Iraqi border.[27] The next day, ISIL advanced close to the town and heavy fighting ensued, but Kurdish reinforcements arrived and they managed to repel the militants. The clashes left 40 dead on both sides.[47] At the same time, ISIL launched an assault in an attempt to recapture several villages between Tell Brak and al-Hawl, which was also repelled, with the YPG claiming to have killed 67 ISIL militants.[48] Meanwhile, Syrian government troops advanced further and captured five to nine villages.[4][5]
By this point, among Kurdish fighters killed in the offensive, there were three foreigners as well: an Australian, a Briton and a German female volunteer.[49][50]
On 10 March, the YPG announced that their campaign had ended successfully after securing the Jazira Canton. However, on the same day, ISIL launched a surprise attack on Tell Khanzir, about 30 kilometers to the west of Ras al-Ayn, near the Turkish border in west Hasakah, capturing the town along with several other villages.[40][51] It was reported that ISIL had deployed hundreds[40] of battle-hardened Chechens from its Khorasan Battalion to carry out the assault.[15] Fierce clashes also erupted in and around Manajir, to the west of Tell Tamer, as ISIL sought to strike northward. ISIL launched the assault to prevent Kurdish forces from reaching their stronghold of al-Hawl, by occupying the Kurds on multiple fronts,[40] attempting to seize another border crossing with Turkey, and due to fears that the Kurds would use Ras al-Ayn as a base to seize control of Tell Abyad, and link the Kobanî and Jazira Cantons.[52] ISIL also wanted control of Ras al-Ayn and Tell Tamer to control additional key routes that would link the ISIL-held Iraqi city of Mosul with other ISIL-controlled territory in northeastern Syria.[52]
On 12 March, the Kurds managed to repel the ISIL advance on Ras al-Ayn resulting in dozens of casualties on both sides. However, ISIL advanced towards Tell Tamer and captured the village of Tal Nasri, bringing the militants to within 500 meters of the town. The fighting near Tell Tamer left 22 Kurdish and 18 jihadist fighters dead.[52] Two days later, the Kurds recaptured the village of Tal Maghas, near Tell Tamer;[53] however, according to another report, ISIL managed to capture several more villages and crossed the Khabur River, in the area just northwest of Tell Tamer.[54][55] The YPG demanded more Coalition airstrikes in the region, due to the fact that ISIL was deploying more reinforcements while the US-led Coalition had not conducted any airstrikes near Tell Tamer since 10 March.[56][57] By this point, since the ISIL counterattack started on 10 March, the clashes in the Tell Tamer and Tell Khanzir areas had left at least 105 ISIL militants[15][58] and 63 YPG fighters dead.[15][59] On 13 March, the US-led Coalition resumed airstrikes in the region.[38]
On 16 March, the YPG advanced and captured some ISIL positions in the countryside around Tell Tamer.[60] The same day, 100 Hezbollah fighters arrived in Ras al-Ayn from Qamishli to support Kurdish forces, according to the pro-opposition Al-Hasakah Youth Union, and were soon after sent to the battlefield where they were outfitted with Kurdish uniforms.[61] The next day, the Iranian Fars News Agency reported that the Syrian Army advanced and captured the town of Malaha, as well as its surrounding farm areas.[62]
Map of the maximum gains made by ISIL advances during the Al-Hasakah offensive, by mid-April 2015.
From 18 to 19 March, US-led Coalition airstrikes struck 3 ISIL tactical units, an ISIL fighting position, and an ISIL tunnel system in the area.[38]
On 20 March, more than 100 people were killed and wounded when an ISIL militant blew himself up at a celebration held by the Kurds for the festival of Nowruz, in the al-Mofti neighborhood of Al-Hasakah city, in addition to an IED explosion at another celebration in the city.[63]
Over the next several days, clashes erupted in the vicinity of Tell Khanzir, Tell Brak and Tell Tamer, killing dozens of ISIL militants,[15][64][65] while fighter jets bombed ISIL positions in the city of Al-Shaddadeh.[66]
On 30 March, the National Defense Forces (NDF) reportedly captured 33 villages near the village of Tal Brak in rural Al-Hasakah, after fierce clashes with ISIL militants on 28 and 29 March.[67] On the same day, Kurdish commander Jiwan Ibrahim, Chief of the Kurdish Asayish forces in Rojava, issued a warning to civilians in the recently regained towns of Tel Brak and Tel Hamis regarding Syrian government forces in the region: “To our people in Tel Brak and Tel Hamis, the Baathist regime (Assad’s regime) in Qamishli and Hasakah is spreading baseless news that it took entire control of both towns and handed them over to Kurdish forces. However, Kurds have fought against the radical group of the Islamic State (IS/ISIL) and forced the militants to withdraw from the towns, and Kurds are the ones who protect these towns. The regime militias weren’t engaged in the fighting against the IS group and they won’t provide any security assistance to the civilians”.[68]
On 3 April, ISIL reportedly lost another 21 villages to Syrian government forces, to the south of Qamishli.[69]
Tell Tamer also known as Tal Tamr or Tal Tamir, is a town in western al-Hasakah Governorate, northeastern Syria. It is the administrative center of the Tell Tamer Subdistrict consisting of 13 municipalities.
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 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.
The siege of Kobanî was launched by the Islamic State (IS) on 13 September 2014, in order to capture the Kobanî Canton and its main city of Kobanî in northern Syria, in the de facto autonomous region of Rojava.
The Battle of Sarrin refers to a military operation during 2015 in the northeastern Aleppo Governorate, during the Syrian Civil War, conducted by Kurdish YPG and allied forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the town of Sarrin, in an effort to capture the town and the surrounding region.
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 Al-Hasakah city offensive was launched during the Syrian Civil War by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant against the city of Al-Hasakah, which was held by both the Syrian Armed Forces and the Kurdish YPG.
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 Kobanî massacre was a combination of suicide missions and attacks on Kurdish civilians by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on the Kurdish-majority city of Kobanî, beginning on Thursday, 25 June 2015, and culminating on Friday, 26 June 2015. The attacks continued into 28 June 2015, with the last remaining ISIL militant being killed on the following day. The attacks resulted in 223–233 civilians dead, as well as 35–37 Kurdish militiamen and at least 79 ISIL assailants. It was the second-largest massacre committed by ISIL since it declared a caliphate in June 2014.
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 Battle of Sarrin was a military operation during 2015 in the northeastern Aleppo Governorate, during the Syrian Civil War, in which the Kurdish YPG and Free Syrian Army forces captured the town of Sarrin and the surrounding region from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
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.
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 2015 al-Hawl offensive was an offensive launched by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) during the Syrian Civil War, in order to capture the strategic town of al-Hawl and the surrounding countryside from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The offensive consisted of separate operations in three different areas: Tell Brak, al-Hawl, and the southern al-Hasakah city countryside.
The al-Shaddadi offensive (2016), also known as Operation Wrath of Khabur, was an offensive launched by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) during the Syrian Civil War, in February 2016. The main goal of this offensive was to capture the strategic city of Al-Shaddadi and the remainder of the southern al-Hasakah Governorate from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). During the offensive, the US-led coalition conducted more than 86 airstrikes in Al-Shaddadi and the nearby areas, in support of the SDF advances.
The Battle of Tel Abyad was a raid by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on the YPG-held town of Tell Abyad at the end of February 2016, during the Syrian Civil War.
Rojda Felat is a Syrian Kurdish senior commander of the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who has fought in the Rojava conflict since it began in 2012, and has led several major campaigns against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). A revolutionary feminist, Felat's stated goal is to achieve social transformation in the Middle East through the YPJ, "liberating the Kurdish woman and the Syrian woman in general from the ties and control of traditional society, as well as liberating the entirety of Syria from terrorism and tyranny".
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 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, 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.
↑ 175–211 killed (21–27 February), 107 killed (8 March),Archived 2015-07-13 at the Wayback Machine 50 killed (10–13 March; Tell Tamr),Archived 2014-12-18 at the Wayback Machine 55 killed (11–13 March; Ras al-Ayn),Archived 2017-11-07 at the Wayback Machine a total of 387–423 reported killed
↑ At least 20,000 civilians displaced during the Al-Hasakah offensive (February–March 2015); 5,000+ in the Khabur Valley region, and 15,000+ in the Tell Hamis region
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Syrian Arab Republic 
Sootoro 
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant 
Syrian Army 
National Defence Force 
YPG & YPJ: 1,500+[ citation needed ]
Syriac Military Council (MFS): 1,500 [16] 
