Rising tension | “Self-Defence Forces” seize regime’s telecommunication center in northern Al-Hasakah

Reliable sources have informed the Syrian Observatory that “Self-Defence Forces” seized the telecommunication center in the SDF-controlled village of Safia in the northern countryside of Al-Hasakah. Although the village is under the control of Syria Democratic Forces, the telecommunication center belongs to the Syrian regime with pro-regime employees working in it. The center’s workers have been driven out this morning, while the reasons behind this action have been not known yet.

 

This development comes as a part of the growing tension between regime forces and SDF in Al-Hasakah province, especially Al-Hasakah and Al-Qamishly cities. Thus state of tension has escalated greatly since the retired major general, Ghassan Halim Khalil, became the governor of Al-Hasakah.

 

In late June, SOHR sources said that Syria Democratic Forces seized several buildings used to belong to the Syrian regime in Ghuwayran neighbourhood in Al-Hasakah city, they were: the building of grain, electricity company, sports city, Directorate of Tourism and Industry.

 

SOHR sources confirmed that these buildings located in areas which came under the control of SDF since they entered the neighbourhood a few years earlier, and that the buildings were empty all through this period.

 

The seizure of these buildings came in the light of US-backed Coalition forces’ intention to expand their military base in the area.

 

It is worth noting that Al-Hasakah and Al-Qamishli cities have experienced a state of tension from time to time. This tension escalated after the retired major general, Ghassan Halim Khalil, had assumed the position of the governor of Al-Hasakah province. Since Khalil became Al-Hasakah governor, he has worked on defaming SDF and inciting ethnic hatred between the Arabs and the Kurds. The major general had served as the chief of the information branch in the Syrian regime’s state security department.