MESOP : LATEST – BUT FOR HOW LONG ? – Kurdish Forces and Syrian Regime Reach Ceasefire in Hasaka – The ceasefire put an end to a week of violent clashes in Hasaka

23 Aug 2016 – HASAKA — After a week of violent clashes between the Kurdish security forces and the forces of the Syrian regime and the militias loyal to the Syrian government in the Kurdish city of Hasaka in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), the sides reached an agreement today to halt the hostilities, confirmed a local source.

According to informed sources in Hasaka, the Kurdish security forces in the city and the Syrian regime declared a ceasefire to put an end to the fighting, which lasted for a whole week, in which both sides used various kinds of weapons, including heavy arms as well as airstrikes by the Syrian regime forces, which resulted in the death of dozens of civilians and the wounding of many others. A source told BasNews that “clashes between the Kurdish forces and National Defense Forces (NDF), a Syrian regime backed militia force in Hasaka, stopped immediately after declaring the cessation”.The source also said that the community elders in the city mediated between the two sides to end the fighting, adding that “the most prominent terms of the ceasefire is to dissolute the NDF militias and replace them with civil police.

Nasir al-Haj Mansur, a leading figure from the Kurdish forces in the city revealed the terms of  the ceasefire , noting that one of the terms is that the areas controlled by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) will remain under its protection. Another term of the approach, according to the Kurdish official, is the withdrawal of the Syrian regime forces and the militias from the city, and only the police needs to protect the administrative part of the city without the presence of any other military forces. www.mesop.de