SYRIAN troops have managed to recapture a major district in the northeastern city of Hasakah, purging ISIL Takfiri militants from the area.
Syria’s official news agency, SANA, said on Monday that Syrian troops have cleared ISIL militants from the al-Nashwa neighbourhood, killing ‘many ISIL militants’ and destroying a number of their vehicles. The residential quarter, located south of Hasakah, was captured by ISIL on Thursday, when the terrorist group launched a lightning offensive into the area and attempted to further advance into the heart of the city to capture government buildings and installations.
The report by SANA said that army units also managed to destroy a booby-trapped car near the al-Sharia Bridge in Nashwa, killing and injuring dozens of militants there. Syrian forces had repelled similar attacks by ISIL on other districts of Hasakah, including Ghweiran, al-Aziziyeh and al-Salehiyeh. Chief of Hasakah Police Department General Hasib al-Tahan said on Saturday that his forces and army units pushed back terrorist attacks on Hasakah’s major prison facility, which the ISIL claimed to have taken over.
Thousands of civilians were forced to leave Nashwa after the ISIL assault, seeking refuge in other towns in northeastern Syria. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday an estimated 60,000 people have been displaced in the wake of fierce clashes in Hasakah, adding that 10,000 of those people have entirely fled to the northern town of Amuda.
A blood donation drive was organised in the city of Hasaka on Tuesday in a show of continued support for the Syrian Arab Army and the national forces supporting it in confronting the armed terrorist organisations. The participants in the event, which was held at the Health Centre, praised the sacrifices and bravery of army members who have confronted an ISIS attack against the city that has been going on for days.
This blood donation drive, they told SANA, sends ‘a clear message to the supporters of terrorism in the world that the Syrian people in general and the people of Hasaka in particular never bargain on the homeland’s soldiers and its honest people.’
ISIS terrorists carried out several car bomb explosions targeting civilians in their attack on the city, which started last Thursday, leaving many dead and causing material damage to public and private properties. However, the Syrian army units, backed by the Air Force, have inflicted heavy losses upon ISIS terrorists during intensive operations to repel their attack.
Units of the army and armed forces have eliminated large numbers of members of the terrorist organisations across the country during military operations against their hideouts and positions. A SANA reporter quoted a source in Hasaka province, located in northeastern Syria, as saying that ISIS terrorists were pushed back from large swathes in the neighbourhoods of al-Nashwa al-Shari’a and al-Nashwa al-Villat and they were hemmed in within limited areas.
The source added that heavy losses were inflicted upon ISIS terrorists, who had carried out car bomb explosions and committed ugly massacres against civilians in the neighbourhoods they infiltrated. The source noted that large numbers of the terrorists were killed, adding that most of those are of Arab and foreign nationalities.
It referred to the steadfastness of the forces defending the departments of Immigration and Passports and the Central Prison and the Law Enforcement battalion in confronting ISIS terrorists and preventing them from entering other neighbourhoods in the city. Many of the locals have returned to their homes thanks to the steadfastness of the army and the national forces fighting on its side in Hasaka.
• TURKEY’S main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has warned the government against any military intervention in neighbouring Syria, saying such a move would cost Ankara dearly. ”I am warning them (government officials) not to drag Turkey into an adventure; it would have a high cost,’ said CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu on Monday, the Turkish Hurriyet daily reported.
The senior opposition figure said that it is ordinary Turkish people and not the politicians who would face the consequences of a potential military action against neighbouring Syria. Kilicdaroglu’s comments came a day after several Turkish media outlets reported that Ankara may be considering a ground incursion into Syria. According to the unconfirmed reports, the government has ordered the army to deploy forces to the border areas in a bid to prevent potential significant gains by Kurdish forces fighting against the Takfiri ISIL terrorists inside Syria.
On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Syrian Kurds of trying to establish a state in the crisis-hit country’s north, saying Ankara will leave no stone unturned to prevent such an establishment near its borders. Kilicdaroglu, the Turkish opposition leader, further said he has always criticised the government over its policy toward Syria, rejecting claims that Turkey could be a ‘playmaker’ in the Middle East.
He urged Ankara to consider the suggestion made by former Chief of Staff General Ilker Basbug, who has recently advised the Turkish government to revise its policies on Syria and support the Damascus government in settling the crisis in the neighbouring Arab state.
• Israel”s defence ministry has warned Syrian rebels that they should keep jihadists at bay and avoid attacking the Druze minority, if they want to continue receiving humanitarian and medical aid from the Zionist state. Israel has a policy of giving medical assistance to wounded Anti-Assad Syrians who reach Israeli lines, but tensions have flared recently due to rebel violence against the Druze in Syria.
The violence has led to concern among their Druze brethren in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Last week, Druze attacked an Israeli military ambulance on the Golan transporting wounded Syrians to hospital, killing one of them. The deadly incident took place hours after Druze in the neighbouring Galilee region of Israel blocked and stoned a military ambulance they suspected was taking Syrian rebels to hospital.
Following a briefing by Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, a defence spokesman told journalists that if ‘a wounded person reaches the fence – you have to help,’ continuing , ‘he gets better, you return him, and you convey a message through him: if you want the humanitarian aid to continue, please make sure not to let jihadists approach the fence, and secondly, don’t mess with the Druze.’
Israel says it is not involved in the internal Syrian fighting, but cannot rule out the possibility that some of those given medical care are rebels. Rebels dominated by Islamist fighters have in the past few weeks battled government forces on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Druze – a minority that straddles the Syrian-Israeli ceasefire line, and traditional allies of President Bashar al-Assad – have been caught up in the unrest.
Israel is also concerned about the presence of jihadist rebels on its frontier with war-torn Syria. Last week’s incidents targeting the Syrian wounded demonstrated the anger felt by Druze towards the rebels as well as towards the Israelis, whom they rightly suspect of providing medical help to the fighters.
The Druze are an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Officials say there are 110,000 of them in northern Israel and another 20,000 in the Israeli-occupied Golan. Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from neighbouring Syria in the 1967 Six Day War.
