Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stand guard during a recent anti-ISIS operation along the Eurphrates River in Northeast Syria (via @cmoc_sdf on Twitter).
The Kurdish-led Autonomous Region of North and East Syria (NES) announced both its first official COVID-19 case and its first death yesterday. The 53-year-old male victim lived in the provincial capital of al-Hasakah, near the Turkish border. There are several other suspected cases pending test results in the impoverished region, which is buckling under the strain of sealed border crossings and lock-downs.
At the same time, the pandemic has not allayed the threat of jihadist organizations in the region, as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continue to carry out anti-ISIS operations along the Euphrates River, including a sweep that netted 5 active members of an ISIS cell and their weapons cache today. The SDF still maintains primary responsibility for administering the al-Hol detainee camp and other ISIS detention facilities in the region which house tens of thousands of the former caliphate’s militants and their families.
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Meanwhile, along the Turkey-Syria border, the Turkish military and their Syrian jihadist allies are still shelling Kurdish and Assyrian Christian villages from their positions in the occupied cities of Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ayn. The Assyrian town of Tel Tamr and its surrounding villages have been a constant target of artillery and mortar fire. The persistent and often indiscriminate attacks have killed soldiers and civilians alike since the beginning of March, including members of the SDF and Syrian Army as well as several civilian women wounded in an artillery attack on April 1st.
The challenges faced by the Kurds, Assyrians and their compatriots in Rojava are monumental, as they battle against human and viral enemies simultaneously with increasingly limited resources and support. We send out an urgent plea to all of our global partners to intercede for the people of Northeast Syria, that the Lord would thwart the plots and attacks of Islamist forces, and that border crossings between Syria and Iraq would be opened to allow for the transport of critically-needed aid. FAI teams are continuing to work together with Kurdish authorities just across the border and are praying for the opportunity to serve the people of Syrian Kurdistan.
