Syria government-SDF clash on first anniversary of rebel offensive that toppled Assad

Syrians on Thursday marked the anniversary of the beginning of the rebel offensive, which ended up toppling the regime of former dictator Bashar al-Assad, as government troops clashed with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Aleppo.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that there was no prospect of peace with Syria, amid months of Israeli attacks on government positions in Syria.

Clashes broke out between SDF and government forces around the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud area of Aleppo, as well as along the Tishreen Dam axis near Manbij in northern Syria.

The SDF’s Asayish security forces said on Wednesday evening that they had been attacked by government forces in Sheikh Maqsoud.

In a statement, the SDF added: "Our forces in Aleppo confirm that elements affiliated with the interim government targeted, this evening (Wednesday), one of our points in the vicinity of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, after an explosion was heard followed by direct gunfire."

"[The SDF] responded to the source of the fire within the framework of legitimate defence to protect their positions and ensure the safety of their personnel," the statement added.

The New Arab’s sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported that clashes broke out between the SDF and Syrian government around the Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates near Manbij, with reconnaissance aircraft seen overhead.

Last week, the two sides announced a ceasefire following five days of clashes in eastern Raqqa province, which killed two government soldiers and five SDF fighters.

The SDF controls most of northeastern Syria despite the government wanting a handover of the territory. In March, the two sides signed an agreement, which stipulated that the SDF's militias and institutions would be integrated into the government.

However, this has been delayed, and the SDF have shown reluctance to combine their forces with those of the government or give up the Arab-majority territory under their control. 

Syrians mark first anniversary of rebel offensive

Thursday 27 November marked the first anniversary of the rebel offensive – codenamed “Deterring Aggression” - which toppled longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

The offensive came at a time when it seemed that Assad had managed to solidify his control of Syria after 14 years of horrific conflict, which was sparked in 2011 by peaceful protests which the dictator brutally repressed.

For years, Syrian anti-Assad rebels had seemed like they were on the back foot, confined to the northwestern province of Idlib, with Assad’s forces – backed by Russia and Iran - seizing many rebel areas, including eastern Aleppo, Ghouta, and Daraa province, between 2016 and 2019. Initial predictions suggested that the rebels would only capture a few towns and villages in northwestern Syria.

However, led by current Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s now-dissolved Islamist group Hayaat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the rebels managed to capture one Syrian city after another as government forces collapsed, eventually reaching Damascus and ousting Assad on 8 December, leading to celebrations across the country.

A development like this would have been unthinkable just months before, but seismic political shifts in the region and the world paved the way for it.

Assad’s key backer Iran, and its proxy ally Hezbollah, had been severely weakened by war with Israel, with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in an Israeli airstrike on the day the rebel offensive started.

His other key backer Russia was preoccupied with the Ukraine war and embarrassed by the Assad regime’s corruption and mismanagement of Syria. It had held secret talks with the rebels before the offensive began.

However, Syria’s sectarian and ethnic complexity and the same regional dynamics which allowed the rebel victory, ensured that the new Syrian government which replaced Assad never managed to control the full extent of the country.

Following Assad’s fall, Israel, which had illegally occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967, proceeded to invade and occupy more territory in southwestern Syria, some of which had been part of a UN-patrolled buffer zone. It also launched massive airstrikes on Syrian army bases.

It has refused to withdraw despite Syrian offers of a security deal to replace the 1974 UN-brokered disengagement agreement which Israel claims is no longer operational.

‘No peace’: New Israeli threats to Syria

On Thursday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz made a new threat to Syria, claiming that there were forces there planning an attack on Israeli settlements in the occupied Golan Heights.

Israel recently claimed that Palestinian groups - such as Islamic Jihad - were building up a military force in Syria, with the secret acquiescence of the Syrian government, but this has been strongly denied by Palestinian factions and there has been no evidence to suggest a link.

Katz said that Israel was "not moving towards peace" with Syria and bizarrely also claimed that Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis, who have previously launched missile attacks on Israel from Yemen, were present in the country.

The Syrian government has previously said it is not interested in any confrontation with Israel, and it has hostile relations with Iran and its proxy forces in the region.

Katz also raised the issue of the Druze minority in Syria. Israel has positioned itself as a “protector” of Syria’s Druze community, while openly stating its desire to partition Syria on ethnic and religious lines.

Following sectarian violence last July which killed hundreds of people, Druze rebels are in control of Syria’s Suweida province amid intermittent clashes with government forces.

Katz said that Israel would intervene if the clashes continued.

“The Israeli army has a ready plan, and if the incursions in Jabal al-Druze [Suweida province] are repeated, we will intervene, including closing the border,” he said.