The commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, has called on Syria’s interim president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, to take decisive action against those responsible for mass killings in Syria’s coastal regions. Abdi, in a statement to Reuters on Sunday, accused factions backed by Turkey and Islamic extremists of being primarily responsible for the brutal violence. He urged Sharaa to intervene and prevent further massacres in the area.
The Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria also condemned the violence, describing the attacks against civilians as a return to the dark periods of Syria’s past that the people do not wish to relive. The violence has been escalating since Thursday, when at least 200 Syrian security personnel were killed in attacks by former army members loyal to ousted president Bashar Assad. These attacks have sparked a cycle of revenge killings, with thousands of armed supporters of Syria’s new leadership converging on the coastal regions to support the new government’s forces.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, over 1,000 people have been killed in the ongoing clashes. Human rights groups, including the Syria Campaign and the Syrian Network for Human Rights, reported that both Syrian security forces and pro-Assad gunmen have been involved in mass executions and systematic killings of civilians.
Turkish authorities have not responded to Abdi’s accusations, and while Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed groups have been at odds for much of Syria’s civil war, tensions remain high in certain northern regions. Abdi called for a reassessment of how Syria’s new army is being formed, criticizing certain armed factions for exploiting their positions to fuel sectarian conflict and settle internal disputes.
Sharaa, who has led the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) group and played a key role in the rebellion against Assad, was appointed interim president earlier this year. He has been working on merging various rebel factions into a unified national military force. Abdi has expressed his willingness to integrate the SDF into this new army, but only under conditions that ensure the avoidance of sectarian violence.
Source: https://www.arabnews.com/node/2593042/middle-east