MESOP TODAY : Hasakah’s Kurds under fire

January 20, 2015 – ARA News – Hasakah, Syria – Kurdish neighborhoods in the city of Hasakah, northeastern Syria, experienced cautious calmness on Monday, after the clashes came to a halt between the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Assayish forces (military and security arms of the Democratic Union Party “PYD”) against the forces of the Syrian regime backed by allied militias.

The YPG issued a statement on Monday, saying that the pro-regime military forces used cluster bombs against their forces. “Our units targeted Talaa neighborhood, the Khashman checkpoint and the Sabbagh roundabout, and were able to kill dozens of the regime’s forces,” the YPG leadership said. “During the clashes, which lasted for a few days, five of our fighters and two civilians joined the convoy of martyrs, in addition to the injury of 14 civilians,” the YPG’s statement read.“Our fighters (YPG) seized an amount of ammunition and other military supplies from pro-Assad military.”

Speaking to ARA News in Hasakah, civil rights activist Sohrab Saadi said that some Arab tribes in the Geweran and Nashwa neighborhoods were asked by Maj. Gen. Mohammed Kaddour, military governor of Hasakah, to get involved in the struggle against the YPG, but the Arab tribes in the Aziziyah neighborhood rejected his demand.

Saadi added that the deadline (which was apparently held between the two parties) was extended for 48 hours, and the military commander of the regime called YPG to surrender the Sabbagh checkpoint, but the Kurdish forces refused and prevented civilian vehicles from exiting the city through that checkpoint. A source from Tel Hajar neighborhood, in Hasakah, stated to ARA News that the Syrian regime militias broke the truce on Monday morning, at the Church roundabout, where the pro-regime militia fired a mortar shell at one of the shops in the roundabout.

An exchange of fire took place between the two sides, as the civilian Rashad al-Assaad (shop owner) was injured and transferred to outside the city for treatment, the source added.In the meantime, civil rights activist Baz Hussein pointed out that during the truce meeting, Hasakah Governor Mohammed Za’al denied the possibility that the Islamic State group (IS/ISIS) entering the city if they stopped the bombardment. Some activists from Hasakah reported the presence of Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, head of the National Security Bureau in Syria, to oversee the truce and an agreement between the two parties. ARA News could not verify the accuracy of this information from other sources. Reporting by: Zozan Shekho Source: ARA News