Click to see full-size image. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
The forces of the Islamist-led Syrian Democratic Forces (STG) have captured the strategic city of Tabqa in the southern Raqqa countryside from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Syria’s Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa announced the capture of the city along with the Euphrates Dam early on January 18. It was reported that several sleeper cells made of Arab tribal fighters linked to the STG facilitated the government’s final assault on the city.
Initially, the SDF and affiliated media denied losing Tabqa, but later in the morning it became clear that the city was under government control.
STG forces took heavy losses while capturing the Tabqa and nearby areas. SDF drone units killed and wounded many government troops.
The loss of Tabqa was a major blow to the SDF, whose leadership agreed to withdraw from a nearby area around the town of Deir Hafer in the western Aleppo countryside to de-escalate a day earlier. The STG took over that wide area, then pushed towards the city, effectively violating the agreement.
As STG forces were deploying in Tabqa, an Arab tribal uprising began in the areas controlled by the SDF in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside.
The group said in a statement released early in the morning that “armed groups linked to Damascus” attacked its positions in the towns of Granij, Abu Hamam, al-Kashkiya, al-Dhiban and al-Tayyana, all located on the right bank of the Euphrates River.
Fierce clashes were reported and it became clear later that Kurdish forces collapsed, with tribal fighters, backed in some areas by STG forces, taking over most of the right bank of the Euphrates in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside, including the vicinity of the Omar oil field and the Conoco gas plan where United States troops were previously deployed.
Some Syrian activists claimed that SDF were still holding up in these facilities, as well as in other military positions, but this is yet to be confirmed.
Tribal fighters advanced as far as the town of al-Shaddadi, which is a part of the southern countryside of al-Hasakah, a Kurdish-majority governorate.
Notably, the STG and its media has refrained from directly claiming responsibility for the advance in Deir Ezzor, attributing it to tribal forces.
Back in Raqqa, there were reports of tribal fighters, again backed by STG forces, crossing the Euphrates in the western countryside of the governorate. Clashes also broke out in the eastern countryside of the governorate, around Tishreen Dam, where the SDF said in a statement that its forces repelled three attacks and neutralized two assault groups, two main battle tanks and an armored vehicles
Commenting on recent developments, SDF spokesman Farhad Shami told Ronahi TV that more than 100,000 fighters linked to the government are currently involved in the offensive against the group with support from the Turkish government and even the ISIS terror group.
“Our forces targeted dozens of militant convoys,” Shami said.
“The interim government, Turkish-backed factions, and ISIS are attacking the area,” the spokesman continued.
“International forces bear responsibility for the attacks on ISIS detention facilities,” he added, hinting at the fact that tribal fighters linked to the government have already stormed several such facilities in Tabqa, Deir Ezzor and even al-Hasakah releasing many detainees.
The United States military’s Central Command issued a warning to the STG over the offensive, and Special Envoy Tom Barrack held a lengthy meeting with SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi in the Iraqi semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan a day earlier. However, these efforts produced nothing.
More efforts will be made on January 18, with Barrack set to arrive in Damascus to hold a meeting with President Ahmad al-Sharaa.
No de-escalation is to be expected, however. Recent reports indicate that the STG has presented the SDF with a last offer, a 12-point plan that very much ends the presence of the group and brings all of its territories, including Kurdish-majority areas, under government control. Kurdish forces will likely fight to the end over accepting this.
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