Turkish-backed rebels fight each other in Ras al-Ain, Syria

Apr 22, 2020

Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups are fighting themselves in the border town of Ras al-Ain, which is experiencing renewed violence since Turkey ended its major military operations in northeast Syria in November.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Ahrar al-Sharqiya and the al-Mutassim Brigade began fighting with machine guns and rocket launchers Monday. The Syrian state news agency SANA also reported fighting between the two groups. Both the observatory and the news agency reported casualties among the fighters.

Ras al-Ain is near the border with Turkey and has a population of Arabs and Kurds. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) took the city in 2013. In 2019, Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies in the Syrian National Army (SNA) took the city from the YPG.

Turkey began its incursion into northeast Syria in October because it considers the YPG to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought Ankara for decades inside Turkey.

The groups in the SNA originally fought the Syrian government in the civil war. The SNA was formed in 2017 and since then has largely battled the YPG for territory in northeast Syria, though it has fought the Syrian army and the Islamic State as well. The YPG is the dominant force in the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which control most of northeast Syria.