Russia has been sanctioned relentlessly by the US, EU and others since it invaded Ukraine on February 24, pushing up prices for livestock fodder. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also put another nail in the coffin for Syria’s livestock sector, which relies on maize and barley imports from Russia. APĭespite controlling the majority of the country, the Syrian government is faced with a number of problems as its Russian ally focuses on its invasion of Ukraine.Ī long way from 2013, when the Assad regime controlled only a fifth of the country, now two thirds of Syria is under government rule - 12 million of the country’s population of 17 million.Īside from fuel and food shortages and an economic crisis that has been worsened by the situation in neighbouring Lebanon and US sanctions, Syrian government territories have faced renewed attacks by Israel and ISIS in recent weeks. Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Damascus, in January. They make sure that the conditions under ISIS live on and part of that is to police other women,” Amarnath Amarasingam, an extremism researcher at Canada's Queen's University, previously told The National. “Some women there are trying to recreate another so-called caliphate. The Al Hol camp in north-east Syria houses at least 64,000 ISIS-affiliated women and children, and is thought to have become a breeding ground for terrorist ideology. #StrongerTogether #DefeatDaesh - Coordination & Military Ops Center - SDF January 15, 2022 Lack of action on this by the #Int_Community towards terrorist groups operating in the area will continue to raise the threat of #Daesh on the security and see terrorist cells more active in #NES. Turkey has categorised the SDF as a terrorist organisation and launched attacks against its forces.Ī massive but deadly operation by ISIS sleeper cells in an SDF-run prison earlier this year raised alarm bells about the potential threat still posed by ISIS long after their reign ended. Turkey considers the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian Kurdish armed groups which make up the bulk of the SDF, as terrorists linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration and its armed wing, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), are close US allies and have been instrumental in the fight against ISIS and eventual triumph in 2017.Ĭurrently, the Autonomous Administration runs almost a third of the country in the north-east, along the southern border with Turkey. Syrian Democratic Forces fighters attend a funeral in the north-eastern city of Hasakeh on February 4 for members of the group killed in clashes during a jailbreak attempt by ISIS at Ghwayran prison. The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria Regardless of how HTS is viewed by Syria watchers, its iron fist rule over the country’s north-western city of Idlib and its population of three million is not in dispute among the international community. The US has called HTS a “vehicle to advance position in the uprising and to further its own goals". Today, the group's influence is more local as it attempts to break away from its links to Al Qaeda, even going as far as arresting individuals linked to the group, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report last year.ĭespite these attempts to rebrand itself, “the US government believes that a link between the two groups remains”, the CSIS report said. HTS was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the US State Department in 2018, along with its predecessor which was an Al Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat Al Nusra. “The UN estimates that HTS is made up of 12,000-15,000 fighters but this number cannot be verified because of a lack of transparency by the HTS about the fighters in its ranks,” said Orwa Ajjoub, a senior analyst at the Centre for Operational Analysis and Research (Coar). AFPĪnalysts differ in their categorisation of the Sunni Islamist militant group HTS - on whether it’s an offshoot of Al Qaeda or a separate entity altogether. Syrian fighters take part in a mock battle in anticipation of an attack by the regime on Idlib province, during the graduation of new Hayat Tahrir Al Sham members. Here are the players you need to know about: Hayat Tahrir Al Sham Russia says 16,000 Middle East volunteers want to join Ukraine invasionĮffectively, Syria has been split four ways areas under government control the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria under Kurdish rule a region controlled by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) militant group and the Syrian Interim Government backed by Turkey.
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