81 months of International Coalition operations in Syria | Over 20 people arrested in four security campaign with SDF, amid subsiding logistical and military reinforcement
Completing the 81st consecutive month of military operations against the “Islamic State” in Syria, the International Coalition continues sending in military reinforcement to SDF-held areas, carrying out raids, arrests and various security operations in several areas controlled by SDF. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in turn, tracked and monitored all operations and movement of the International Coalition during the last month.
The International Coalition logistical and military reinforcement was subsided greatly this month, as 55 trucks and vehicles affiliated to the Coalition, carrying military and logistical supplies, crossed into Syria from Kurdistan Region of Iraq in the 81st month of its military operations in the country. These trucks entered Syria in two batches with 30 vehicles entered on June 16 and 25 others entered on June 20.
International Coalition Forces ran several patrols in different areas in north-east Syria region, mostly were concentrated in al-Hasakah countryside, near the Syria-Turkey border.
In mid-June, SOHR activists reported that several residents in Farfarah village, which is under the control of the regime-backed National Defence Forces (NDF), pelted US patrol escorted by an SDF vehicle with stones, after they and NDF members blocked the patrol which was touring the area.
In the past month, SOHR activists also documented the participation of the International Coalition in four joint security campaign with SDF in Deir Ezzor and al-Hasakah, including raids and an airdrop. These campaigns resulted in the arrest of 19 people in al-Shuhayl, al-Hawaij, al-Busayrah, al-Zar and other areas in al-Hasakah province for “belonging to and collaborating with ISIS”.
In mid-June, an airdrop carried out by US-led International Coalition Forces in al-Shuhayl town in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, where they arrested an ISIS member from al-Baghouz and killed another member from the same town.
Shortly before the airdrop, Coalition helicopters struck rafts and ferries used for smuggling at the river crossings in al-Shuhayl as a part of attempts to put an end to smuggling operations in regime-controlled areas.
While on June 21, SOHR activists reported that International Coalition aircraft dropped paper leaflets in south al-Hasakah countryside calling on the region’s people to report any information about an ISIS leader.
Abductees forgotten by Coalition and SDF
27 months have passed since the International Coalition’s official declaration of the elimination of Islamic State as a dominating force over east of the Euphrates River. Despite all the developments that took place over the past month, the Coalition and SDF’s silence continues regarding ISIS abductees. No details on the fate of thousands of abductees are provided; and no information about the results of the interrogations of ISIS member is available, as thousands are held by SDF and the Coalition, east of the Euphrates.
Concerns about the abductees’ lives and fate are growing, including the fate of father Paulo Dall’Oglio, Bishop John Ibrahim, Paul Yaziji, Abdullah al-Khalil, a British journalist, Sky News journalist, and other journalists, and hundreds of abductees from Ayn al-Arab (Kobani) and Afrin and other people from Deir Ezzor.
June 2021… another month passes and no investigation into alleged Coalition massacres
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights renew its appeals to all international actors, International Coalition and SDF to announce the results of interrogations with ISIS detainees and what happened to the thousands of abductees. The Syrian Observatory had previously called upon the international community to investigate reports regarding the killing of 200 ISIS operatives and their families, women and children, in a massacre committed by the Coalition’s jets by bombing al-Baghouz camp on March 21, 2019.
According to SOHR sources, 200 bodies were buried at dawn on that particular day, without information as to whether the International Coalition was aware of the presence of children and women from ISIS families inside the camp or not.
However, all these appeals remain unanswered. Therefore, SOHR renews its appeals to all relevant parties to announce the whole facts and hold accountable those responsible for the massacres and violations over the past five years during which the Coalition were actively involved in the Syrian crisis.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, while providing adequate monitoring of Coalition operations in Syria, stresses once more that it would have been possible to avoid the heavy losses of Syrian civilian lives if the International Coalition had not ignored SOHR’s calls to spare and protect civilians from its military operations, where the presence of Islamic State militants or other jihadist groups in a civilian area does not in any way justify the blank and discriminate bombardment of area and the loss of civilian lives.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also stresses that the negative impact of Turkish military intervention on civilians could have been avoided, if the US President had applied enough pressure on his Turkish counterpart to stop a new humanitarian crisis, displacing thousands and killing and injuring hundreds.
On the other hand, we at SOHR would like to remind the world that the oil and gas resources, controlled by the International Coalition, belong only to the Syrian people. Therefore, all the concerned parties are obliged under international laws and norms to preserve these resources and ensure that they will not be stolen or seized in any way; these resources do not belong to the “regime”, “Iran” or any other party; they belong only to the people of Syria, who have been suffering the brutalities of an ongoing war for over nine years. SOHR also warns of repercussions of exploiting these sources, seizing them or depriving the Syrians of their rights in resources.