Syria’s Kurds fear facing a new massacre, as Islamist-led rebels have already begun fighting them just hours after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Following Assad’s fall, the Syrian National Army, an umbrella coalition of Turkish-backed militias led by Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that fought to overthrow the dictator, entered the northern city of Manbij, fighting for control. of the Kurdish forces there.
A Turkish source told Reuters this afternoon: ‘The fight… is very close to victory. Air and ground interventions are being carried out to take Manbij.
The Syrian National Army (SNA) later claimed that it had seized several nearby villages, including Jamous, al-Far, al-Dandaliya, Jubb al-Arous and Awn al-Dadat.
But the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed coalition of Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian groups, exclusively told MailOnline that without Western intervention, they could face further SNA invasion, leading to a possible massacre. twenty years after Assad’s forces massacred dozens of Kurds in the northeastern city of Qamishli.
SDF spokesman Ferhad Sami told MailOnline: ‘We have to defend ourselves, we have no other options. We have to protect our people from violence. (The) SNA is a criminal faction that has already committed many crimes. “They have displaced more than 300,000 Kurds and built settlements in their places.”
‘The SDF is calling for the UK and US to intervene to maintain security and help us be part of the next stage of the Syrian dialogue. We depend on international aid. Without it, we may face another massacre.”
The 2004 Qamishli massacre began when tensions erupted between Kurds and Arabs, culminating in a group of Kurds toppling a statue of Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez, who ruled Syria with an iron fist from 1971 to 2000.
Flames engulf the criminal security section of Syria’s Interior Ministry in Damascus on December 8, 2024.
An opposition fighter walks past a government forces tank left abandoned on a road in Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024.
Ferhad Shami (pictured) told MailOnline that Syria’s Kurdish population could face another massacre if they do not receive help.
In response to this, military personnel were deployed along with tanks and helicopters.
They killed 30 Kurds and left more than 160 wounded. In addition to this, about 2,000 people were arrested.
Sami added that the West should intervene in northern Syria to prevent a possible outbreak of ISIS prisoners held in the region.
‘These attacks will pose a threat to prisons holding ISIS detainees. We can lose control of these prisons, with our forces busy on the front,’ Sami warned.
MailOnline has contacted the UK Foreign Office and the US State Department for comment.
Sami’s warning comes after UN war crimes investigators Bashar al-Assad called the fall from power a “historic new beginning” for Syrians, urging those in charge of ensuring that “atrocities” committed under his regime are not repeated.
“Today marks a historic new beginning for the Syrian people who have suffered unspeakable violence and atrocities over the past 14 years,” the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said in a statement, singling out in particular those held for years in arbitrary detention. .
“It is up to those now in charge to ensure that such atrocities are never again repeated within the walls of Sednaya (prison) or any other detention center in Syria.”
An opposition fighter on a motorcycle steps on a broken bust of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Sunday, December 8, 2024.
The Syrian Association in Denmark demonstrates, after Syrian rebels announced that they had overthrown Syrian Bashar al-Assad, at City Hall Square in Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 8, 2024.
A man has his face painted with the opposition flag as members of the Syrian community and their supporters gather to celebrate the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to an offensive by Islamist-led rebels, in the Fatih district of Istanbul on December 8th. 2024
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Damascus on December 8, 2024.
Crowds have already been gathering in Damascus to celebrate the fall of Bashar Assad’s government with chanting, prayers and occasional gunshots after opposition fighters entered the capital following a surprising advance.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syrian opposition war monitor, said Assad took a flight from Damascus and left early Sunday. There was no immediate official statement from the Syrian government and Assad’s whereabouts remain unknown.
It was the first time opposition forces had reached Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital after a year-long siege.
The night before, opposition forces had seized the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as government forces abandoned it.
The rapidly unfolding events have shaken the region. Lebanon said it would close all of its land border crossings with Syria except one linking Beirut with Damascus. Jordan also closed a border crossing with Syria.