Military escalation | Explosions and exchanged shooting take place between SDF and regime forces in Deir Ezzor

Deir Ezzor province: SOHR activists have reported that violent clashes erupted at the banks of Euphrates river between regime forces and SDF members on the crossing of Al-Janina area in Deir Ezzor countryside.

The clashes erupted with medium and heavy weapons, coinciding with explosions that hit the region.

On December 13, Special units of SDF launched security campaign against drug dealers and those accused of “murder and theft” in SDF-held areas, and stormed several houses in Jazarat Al-Milaj town in western Deir Ezzor countryside and arrested three people, where they were taken to an unknown destination without knowing their fates, amid military mobilization in the region.
This came in light of repeated campaigns by SDF against drug dealers from areas of Iranian militias and Lebanese Hezbollah in areas western of Euphrates in Deir Ezzor countryside.
Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian militias work on filling SDF-held areas with drugs, in addition to all areas in Syria.
On October 6, SOHR activists reported that illicit drugs are smuggled from areas dominated by Iranian-backed militias in Deir Ezzor to SDF-controlled areas in the same province across Euphrates river via crossings linking the river’s eastern and western banks. Iranian-backed militias sell narcotics to local dealers in SDF-held areas. Those dealers sell a share of the smuggled drugs in SDF-controlled areas, while another share is smuggled, with the help of the same dealers, to areas controlled by Turkish-backed factions.