🟠Residents of Kobani face suffocating siege, attacks on countryside🔵The residents of the city of Kobani are living under a suffocating siege imposed by factions of Syria’s interim government, depriving them of the most basic necessities of daily life, including water, electricity, and internet access. At the same time, food supplies, medicines, fuel, and infant formula are rapidly running out, deepening the humanitarian crisis amid intense attacks targeting the city’s countryside.🌐More (https://hawarnews.com/en/residents-of-kobani-face-suffocating-siege-attacks-on-countryside)
🔵Mercenaries of the interim government carried out the killing of a Kurdish family from the village of Kork, in the northeastern countryside of Kobani. The family, consisting of five members, was murdered while attempting to leave the city of Raqqa.https://t.me/enhawarnews/17798
In Suruç, in Turkey, the police attacked a march towards the Kobani border, and the youth resisted. All the streets of Suruç have become a zone of resistance. Fierce clashes are taking place between the youth and the police. ➡️Follow RiseUp4Rojava: t.me/RiseUp4RojavaEng
🟠SDF fighters issue urgent appeal to protect al-Aqtan prison
🔵SDF fighters continue to secure al-Aqtan prison in Raqqa, which holds ISIS mercenaries, despite it has been being besieged since six days by factions of the Syrian Interim Government.
🟠Seventh batch of Youth from Southern Kurdistan arrives in Rojava
🔵The seventh batch of youth from Southern Kurdistan has arrived in Rojava in response to the call for general mobilization, in support of the people of Rojava during this sensitive phase, and to reaffirm unity and a shared destiny among the people of Kurdistan.
🟠Cutting YPJ fighter’s braid triggers protests in Amuda
🔵A group of young women in the city of Amuda organized a protest action in response to an incident in which a mercenary cut the braid of a female fighter from the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ). The participants stressed that women’s freedom is a red line that cannot be violated.🟠Widespread women’s anger sweeps social media: “In Place of One Braid, Millions Will Grow”
Turkey has apparently supplied the forces of the Islamist-led Syrian Transitional Government (STG) with a fairly large number of armored vehicles.
While evidence of these supplies first emerged last year, the government’s recent operations against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) revealed that the number of Turkish-made armored vehicles handed over to STG forces could very well be in the hundreds. The supplies included Cobra and Cobra II armored tactical vehicles, made by Otokar, as well as Amazon mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles, made by BMC Otomotiv. In addition, STG forces were supplied with Ejder 6×6 armored personnel carriers manufactured by Nurol Makina.
The Syrian government’s Turkish and US backed offensive breaking ceasefires and unleashing terrorist mercenaries to destroy Rojava feminists, direct democracy and Revolution.
A year ago, as you might remember, Drop Site hosted a virtual screening of the film “Belkî Sibê,” a documentary directed by Alexis Daloumis that followed leftist Western fighters—of which he was one—who fought alongside the Kurdish-led, American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in their battle against ISIS. Daloumis recently traveled back to the Kurdish-held area of northeastern Syria and we asked him to send us a new dispatch as the region braced for war. That war broke out in earnest in the past few days.
Syrian government military reinforcements, Turkish supplies, arrive via the international M4 highway at Al-Jarrah Military Airport,east of Aleppo city on January 17, 2026. (Photo by Abdulmonam Eassa/Getty Images)
Story by Alexis Daloumis
On Sunday, January 18, the text of a reported agreement between the Syrian central government based in Damascus, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began circulating on social media and local news channels.
The agreement was intended to be signed after a meeting between Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF Commander-in-Chief Mazloum Abdi in Damascus that would avert a long-feared, all-out war between the two sides.
It was wishful thinking. The meeting, and along with it the tenuous ceasefire, collapsed.
The government had demanded full and immediate handover of SDF-held territory to its control, the disbandment of the SDF as an armed force, and liquidation of independent civil institutions—steps the SDF was unwilling to take.
Instead, local Arab tribes formerly allied to the group, which had recently switched allegiances and joined the government, pressed forward with attacks on SDF positions.
SDF officials accused Syrian government aligned forces of executing captives and vowed to resist the onslaught, with officials sharing a video that they said depicted the partial beheading of SDF fighters.
In a statement posted on social media hours after news broke of the failed talks with the Sharaa-led government, SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami indicated that the group was steeling itself for a full-blown confrontation, writing: “For our people, either a life with dignity or a death with honor.”
The SDF is a militant group that emerged from the maelstrom of the Syrian civil war and controlled at its peak roughly a third of the country’s territory under an independent political administration known as the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), which includes the area known as Rojava to the Kurds.
The DAANES, which has described itself as a democratic confederalist project inside Syria at odds with both the previous Ba’athist regime and the country’s new Sunni Islamist rulers, also attracted large numbers of left-wing and anarchist foreign fighters to its cause during its fight against the Islamic State.
At its peak, the DAANES included all territory east of the Euphrates river—home to most of Syria’s oil resources and two major dams.
Since the fall of the Assad regime just over a year ago, the new government has been pushing for the SDF to integrate itself under the Syrian Ministry of Defense and return the DAANES to centralized rule under Damascus.
Prior to the collapse of talks, al-Sharaa circulated a decree offering protection for Kurdish civil rights inside a future Syria, though the decree did not represent material changes to the Syrian constitution. ( Note: the decree was an attempt to splitntg the SDF. It was declared and signed exclusively by Sharaa/Jolani, the self appointed Turkish baacked ‘Al Qaeda’ warlord, sitting alone in his office, trumpeted in the West and ridiculed by the SDF.
Several former SDF fighters who spoke with Drop Site described themselves as committed to fighting against attempts by Damascus to reintegrate them and expressed suspicion and hostility towards the country’s new rulers, particularly in the wake of bitter fighting between Damascus and Kurdish groups in Aleppo earlier this year and previous massacres targeting Druze and Alawite minorities in the country.
“The current Syrian interim government has through its actions proven its murderous mentality,” said Serafin, a former SDF fighter based in the city of Hasakeh, who declined to give a full name for security reasons. “If a total war for survival were to break out on this land we live on tomorrow, whether we like it or not, we would have to take up arms again to defend our people and our land.”
European cities and the four parts of Kurdistan witnessed massive demonstrations in solidarity with Rojava, condemning the attacks of the Syrian Interim Government’s mercenaries, and demanding a halt of the attacks and the protection of the civilians.
The Trump administration has reportedly been involved in efforts to broker another detente between Damascus and the SDF. On late Monday, President Trump reportedly held a phone call with Sharaa to discuss the deteriorating situation. According to a readout of the call, “both sides emphasized the need to guarantee the Kurdish people’s rights and protection within the framework of the Syrian state,” adding that they also “affirmed the importance of preserving the unity and independence of Syrian territory.”
🔵🟠Kongra Star members announce their joining general mobilization. The Kongra Star members confirmed their joining the general mobilization, and stressed the continuation of their struggle in the squares, supporting the forces, and defending the region against the attacks of the Interim Government’s mercenaries.🌐More (https://hawarnews.com/en/kongra-star-members-announce-their-joining-general-mobilization)
The lack of U.S. commitment to defending the SDF foothold in the country has embittered many former allies who fought with the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS. “The international coalition betrayed us. We were retreating from the Arab majority regions to not have a big war between Arab and Kurdish people, but now they will see our real war,” Mahir Bakirciyan, a former SDF field commander who took part in the anti-ISIS war, told Drop Site.
Kurdish political leaders aligned with the SDF and other factions have also alleged that Turkey, which has been pushing aggressively for the reassertion of Syrian government control over the DAANES, played a role in the present breakdown of ties between Damascus and the SDF. Turkey enjoys close ties with Damascus and views the SDF as a hostile force aligned with the Turkish-based PKK movement.
On January 11, Sipan Hemo, a senior SDF commander, claimed in public comments that a “foreign actor” had disrupted a meeting between SDF and Syrian government officials in Damascus earlier in January and reversed progress towards an agreement between the two sides.
🟠Syrian Women demand protection for civilians and end to massacres 🔵Women in Raqqa Canton and those forcibly displaced from the occupied areas of Afrin and Shahba called for the protection of civilians, an end to violations and massacres against various Syrian communities, and the guarantee of their rights in the new Syria.🌐More (https://hawarnews.com/en/syrian-women-demand-protection-for-civilians-and-end-to-massacres)🔔 HAWAR NEWS AGENCY #ANHA
Drop Site News spoke with Kurdish political figures who blamed Syrian officials closely aligned with Turkey for interrupting the talks at the behest of Ankara.
Ismet Akkurt, a member of the Kurdistan National Congress, claimed that Turkish pressure on Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani had paused talks between the two sides on January 4 and prevented the signing of an agreement that may have averted a conflict.
Akkurt further speculated that ongoing talks in Paris mediated by the U.S. between Syria, Israel, and Turkey just days before the outbreak of fighting in Aleppo had also resulted in a green light for Syrian attacks on SDF positions in the country. “We cannot separate the meeting in Damascus and the meeting held in Paris between Israel, the US, Syria, and Turkey from the Aleppo attack,” he said.
Qamislo’s central street market in northeast Syria, November 17, 2026. Photo by Alexis Daloumis.
“War is knocking at your door”
In the initial stages of the government offensive, several tribal groups that had allied with the SDF during the war switched sides, leading to a rapid loss of territory including in major urban centers like Raqqa. Adding to the chaotic situation, reports have emerged of the release of ISIS-linked prisoners from facilities formerly controlled by the SDF—a major concern of the U.S. military which has allied with both the SDF, and more recently Syria’s new rulers in Damascus, to prevent a resurgence by the group.
Inside the remaining cities held under SDF control, a sense of grim acceptance that an escalated conflict is inevitable has begun to take hold.
“A full-scale war in the region seems inevitable at this stage. We don’t know who would win such a war, but the losers would certainly be the people of the region,” said Berxwedan, another former SDF fighter living in Hasakah, and lamented the impact of the climate of uncertainty on the region even before the current crisis.
“Many people we know are afraid to even invest in their own land. Because of the intense migration, permanent investment is not a wise option; people are forced to position themselves in their own countries in a way that allows them to mobilize quickly.”
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) released footage showing the moment militants of the Interim Government removed ISIS detainees from Al-Shaddadi prison.The SDF confirmed that Al-Shaddadi Prison is no longer under their control, noting that despite the prison being only two kilometers away from the International Coalition base, the coalition did not intervene despite repeated calls. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) confirmed that clashes around Al-Aqtan Prison in the city of Raqqa are still ongoing, and that these clashes have resulted in the martyrdom of 9 of its fighters and the injury of 20 others..🔵
While the Syrian government presses forward with what may be intended as a final offensive against the SDF, other people living in the DAANES say that they will enlist to defend themselves—partly out of fear after witnessing the actions of government-aligned militias that previously targeted Alawites and Druze minorities in the country, some of whom have since fled to SDF-held territory.
“After what we’ve seen in Suwayda and the coast I’m very worried that the Damascus government will do the same to our people in Ashrafiyah and Sheikh Maksoud,” Kadrokh, a 27-year-old in the DAANES living in the city of Qamislo told Drop Site weeks before the current outbreak of fighting.
“I can see a possibility of total war between SDF and the Damascus government, if they murder our people in Aleppo,” he said. “I don’t wish for a war here or any place in Syria. But when war is knocking on your door you must fight.”
“…they have to cross over our dead bodies…” 📹 The footage shows a Kurdish fighter saying that the Kurdish forces remain in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsud
The forces of Syria’s Islamist-led ‘Interim’ Jihadi terrorist Regime took control of Ashrafieh and much of neighboring Sheikh Maqsoud by January 11, besieging Kurdish fighters affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Khaled Fajr Hospital and nearby areas in the latter neighborhood in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo-
Turkey declared support for killing these “Kurdish Terrorists” in Aleppo
Jihadi Regime forces advanced in the two Kurdish neighborhoods rapidly overnight, forcing Kurdish fighters to retreat to the hospital, which was struck more than once since the start of the battle, killing patients and staff.
Amid the clashes in Sheikh Maqsoud, multiple fixed-wing suicide drones attacked Aleppo city, with one hitting the governro’s building and another hitting the military intelligence headquarters.
Tens of thousands of Kurds are trying to cross Syria to stand as human shields against the Jihadi regime massacre in their district in Aleppo
State media said that the drones were launched from the town of Deir Hafer in the eastern Aleppo countryside by the SDF, but the group denied any involvement. SANA said that four people were wounded.
🤬Trump allows Massacre of Civilians by Govt Jihadis in Aleppo🤬- but Kurds fight back
The attackers on the civilian Kurdish neighbourhoods are led by the extreme jihadi and Al Qaeda factions backed, trained, paid and equipped by occupying Turkey, with apparent US (and Israeli) permission.. The confrontations yesterday however resulted in heavy losses among the mercenaries.
As with the ongoing Gaza genocide Donald Trump can stop the massacre with JUST ONE PHONE CALL, as the Syrian ‘government’ is completely depenjdant on the present US cancellation of the crippling Caesar Sanctions, etc.
By abandoning its long standing allies, the anti-ISIS, Kurdish led, and anti-capitalist Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the US cynically nods an OKAY to the extermination of large minority and religious communities, as well as total abnegation of women`s freedom.
Trump and his BFF Netanyahu made an agreement to give Israel contriol over southern Syria and allow the Aleppo massacre of autonomy seeking Kurds, Next day the Jolani ex Al Qaeda reginme began the massive onslaught on the Kurdish districts in Aleppo city.
Instead Trump (and the ‘West’) backs a terrorist ex Al Qaeda led Sunni state, controlled militarily between Israel and Turkey, and wide open to corruption, neo liberal exploitation, money laundering, and capitaliust looting, following the Ukrainian and Israeli playbook.
Clashes raged between the forces of Syria’s Islamist-led Interim Government and fighters affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh in Aleppo on January 9, with reports indicating that the death toll from the battle in the northern Syrian city has risen 50.
The hospital this morning. video still
The early morning saw a temporary ceasefire declared between 3 a.m. and 9 a.m. with the government, which also sent buses to the entrance of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh claiming that an agreement was reached with the SDF to withdraw Kurdish fighters from there.
However, the stunt failed, with the general council of the two neighborhoods later issuing a statement rejecting calls to surrender.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on January 10 accused Turkey of joining the ongoing attacks on its forces by the Islamist-led Interim Government, as its last fighters withdrew from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
In a statement, the Kurdish-led group said that a Turkish Bayraktar Akıncı combat drone bombed one of its positions near al-Thawra oil field to the south of the city of Tabqah in the southern Raqqa countryside.
The SDF also accused government forces of arresting dozens of men who left Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood after separating them from their families.
In a revealing video, government fighters are seen throwing a female Kurdi desh fighter from the balcony of a damaged building in Sheikh Maqsoud.
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬Another statement released shortly after by the SDF said, “Our fighters managed to destroy three tanks belonging to the Damascus government militias while they were shelling Khaled Al-Fajr Hospital in the western part of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood.”
It further added that attacks are still ongoing with “intense tank shelling and direct targeting by Turkish Bayraktar drones, which keep striking the hospital crowded with wounded civilians, in a dangerous escalation that threatens the lives of civilians and medical personnel.”
Attacks escalate in the nth Syrian Aleppo by the Islamist-led Interim Govt factions and fighters affiliated with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Damascus reportedly to go to war against the Kurdish-led autonomy..
Civilians carry their bags and belongings as they flee clashes between the Syrian army and the SDF in Aleppo, Syria, on January 8, 2026
A recap of recent developments
More than 100,000 civilians flee Aleppo neighbourhoods, the director of the media department in Aleppo has told Al Jazeera.
At least 100,000 more remain trapped.
🟠Two more tanks of the Interim Govt’s mercenaries destroyed in Shaqif, Castello axes 🌐More (hawarnews.com/en/two-more-…)
🔵The Kurdistan Women’s Union (KJK)affirmed that the attacks on the residents of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh, and Bani Zaid in Aleppo are an extension of the attacks carried out against Alawites and Druze, and that they represent an assault on the Kurdish people in particular. They called on all peoples to declare general mobilization against these genocidal attacks t.me/enhawarnews✅
A Syrian military source has told Al Jazeera the Syrian army has begun artillery bombardment of SDF positions in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh districts.
🟠Casualties toll of shelling on besieged neighborhoods in Aleppo rises to 72 🌐More (hawarnews.com/en/casualtie…)
Our colleagues on the ground report that ambulance teams have been forced to withdraw from Zouhour Street due to heavy mortar fire and sniper activity targeting the area, as civilians continue to flee.
The SDF is supported by the US but only in its fight against ISIS. The US stood aside as NATO ally Turkey occupied and ethnically cleansed Kurdish Afrin and the border strip.
The SDF consists of many ethnic groups and women’s militias of the Autonomous Administration (AANES), Rojava Revolution.
The SDF says its forces are engaged in heavy clashes with the Syrian army near the Syriac Quarter (Hayy al-Seryan).
Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh are Kurdish districts of Aleppo city which resisted the whole civil war and practice the Rojava Revolution, including women’s equality, communal economy and direct democracy.
At least five civilians have been killed and 44 injured from SDF shelling of the city’s neighbourhoods, according to the govt.
Turkiye’s military is ready to “support” Syria in its battle with SDF fighters if Damascus asks for help, a defence ministry official has repeated.
The HTS government is of known jihadists consolidating their power with genocide of non Sunnis, building up a system of sex slavery and forced marriage, and must be stopped!
🟡 Read our new analysis of the political situation in Syria.
🟡 Focuses on the rise of HTS to power and their efforts to keep it by building a fundamentalist Islamic state
🟡 Read to understand more about HTS, Ahmed al-Sharaa (Jolani), the genocide of Alewi people in Latakia, the massacre of Druze people in Sweida, and the war on women in Syria.
We have seen many great tricks in the Middle East and today in Syria we see another. State leaders and their national media have transformed men once seen as Islamist fascists into respectable politicians.
The US removed HTS from the terrorist list, took the $10 million bounty off al-Sharaa’s head and they became the “Syrian Transitional Government”. But make no mistake.
These are the men of al-Nusra and ISIS. Men who murdered hundreds of civilians, raped hundreds of women, assassinated women leaders like Hevrîn Xelef, and sold women as sex slaves. And they have not changed. This diplomatic face of jihadism reflects a change in tactics, but the ideology remains: to impose Islam with violence for power.
Hevrîn Xelef, Kurdish leader murdered by SNA jihadists
Background
In 2016, al-Nusra split from al-Qaeda. It was dissolved when it joined with other jihadist groups to form Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (“Organization for the Liberation of the Levant”).
HTS declared itself on 28 January 2017, with Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as al-Jolani) as its emir and overall military commander. With the support of the Turkish-backed SNA (Syrian National Army) HTS took control of Idlib in 2018, a city in north-western Syria, between Aleppo and Latakia. Here they established their “Syrian Salvation Government” under Islamic law.
In Idlib, Turkey’s support allowed HTS to keep control and gain experience in state building and governance.
Attacks on women were a basis for this state building. They used both law and culture to erase them from public life and present house-bound care takers and mothers as the ideal woman.
Women must be fully covered and can only be in public with a male guardian. Many women attend university in Idlib but they can only study religion and domestic skills and take jobs in women-only environments like girls schools and women’s health.
Not all these restrictions are legal, but breaking any of them risks harassment, intimidation and arrest and openly protesting them is heavily punished.
With its strength from Idlib, HTS launched its offensive in November 2024 and overthrew the Assad regime. Videos and pictures from the beginning showed many HTS and SNA fighters carrying ISIS flags and wearing ISIS badges on their military uniform. When the Assad Regime fell, HTS suddenly started talking about a “Syria for all Syrians”. At the same time they created their new government.
Now
The project of this new government is clear in its leadership, constitution and actions. The proposed constitution declares Syria as an “Arab Republic”, with Islamic law as its legal system and Arabic as its official language. It also gives al-Sharaa dictatorial powers.
For example, only Jolani can appoint ministers and judges and there are no processes to challenge these decisions.
💢 Multiple people killed and wounded at Tishreen in bombing by Turkish state 💢
Again the Turkish state has bombed Tishreen dam. By now at least20 of the heroic ‘Human Shield’ civilians have been murdered by Turkish (NATO) jets and drones.
Others are injured. The Tishreen dam is under direct strikes and the Turkish state, under Erdogan’s orders, is aiming at the civilians in a barbaric attempt to clear the way into eastern Rojava,promising loot, lands, rape and torture to its SNA jihadi – badly paid Turkish mercenaries.
Mass funerals: The KCK condemns Turkey’s deadly attacks on Northeast Syria and calls on the UN, the Arab League, and the international coalition to take action.
Even so, yesterday another convoy of Human Shields arrived at the dam, of people determined to save their revolution or die trying. Meanwhile Turkey and the international Media continue a cowardly news blackout..
🟨🟥🟩 Defend Kurdistan Catalunya: Join us on 26 January!! 🟨🟥🟩
Friends at Defend Kurdistan Catalunya will join the call for mobilisations on 26 January and called on all allies and friends of the revolution in North and East Syria to join them
Kobane has not fallen and will never fall! An serkeftin an serkeftin!
The co-chair of the Kurdish Democratic Unity Party (PYD) of Syria in Qamishlo, Menica Heyder, has also been killed by a Turkish attack
🟠Co-Chair of PYD in Qamishlo martyred as Turkish shelling
PARIS (https://www.nuceciwan133.xyz/ku/archives/219230) – The youth of the Revolutionary Youth Movement TCŞ marched in Paris, in the Melun district, as part of the initiative “Freedom for Leadr APO, a solution to the Kurdish issue
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Famous Kurdish artist & actor Cuma Xelîl (Bave Teyar) was martyred in yesterdays Turkish airstrikes against civilian protest at the Tishreen Dam.
Bave’s last interview
“You can not break our spirit for a second Our spirit is high We have our fighters, so our spirit will always be high Not with your tanks, your jets, not with your father We said it before there is no fear left in us Do you see all the people? Everyone is on their feet.”
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🟠Call for strike against death sentences in Iran
🔵A number of political parties and entities in East Kurdistan have announced the start of a general strike on the 22nd of this month in protest against the death sentences issued by the Iranian authorities against ‘Woman Life Freedom’ activists Wrisha Moradi and Bakhshan Azizi.
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🟠K Star: Martyr Manija Haidar fought with great will and determination for women’s freedom
These five civilian supporters were murdered on 8th Jan by Turkish drones on the march of 10’s of thousands to the Tishreen Dam to block the entry of the Turkish jihadi mercenary gangs into what’s left of Rojava
These 5 people on the civil demonstration were murdered by Turkish drone fire. The demonstration and convoy continued and occupies the Dam which the mercenaries, including many ex ISIS and Al Qaeda, must cross to continue to destroy, massacre and loot. Many more people were injured.
THE SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE AT THE TISHREEN DAM WILL BE THE SPIRIT OF THE INTERNATIONALIST COMMUNITY!
➡️ Today thousands of cars from all North-East Syria gathered in a convoy to reach the Tishreen Dam and make a human shield action in support of the SDF.
💥 The convoy, composed by families, journalists, institutions, civilians and youth was deliberately attacked by the fascist Turkish State through genocidal airstrikes, causing deaths and injuries.
Turkey attacked the civilian demonstration.
Today, 8th of January, thousands of people from all over the region went to the Tishrin water dam to stand side by side with the SDF. Despite Turkey attacking civilians, the resistance remain unbroken.
The Autonomous Administration called on international institutions and forces to stop the attacks by the Turkish state. At the same time, it called on the population to take action to protect the dam and support the SDF fighters fighting against it.
The Free 