“Sweeping operations in Dhiban has completed. And now the town is clear of the intruding armed groups who fled to regime-controlled areas they originally came from earlier.,” Farhad Shami, head of the SDF media center said on X, formerly known as Twitter, announcing the complete control of the town.
Tensions escalated last week after the SDF arrested Ahmed Khbeil, better known as Abu Khawla, commander of the SDF-linked Deir ez-Zor Military Council, and four of his colleagues on a list of charges including drug trafficking and coordinating with “external entities.”
According to the UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), 90 people were killed since the start of the clashes on August 27, including nine civilians, and at least 104 others were injured.
On Wednesday, SDF General Commander Mazloum Abdi stated during a televised interview that the tensions in Deir ez-Zor were part of a larger scheme by the Syrian regime to remove the SDF from the city. He said that both Turkish and Syrian media have been exaggerating the situation in Deir ez-Zor.
Abdi stated that the Arab tribes in the region supported the SDF, “If the tribes of Deir ez-Zor had been against us, we would not have stayed there” he said.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ethan Goldrich and Major General Joel B. Vowell, commander of the US-led coalition, met on Sunday with SDF and tribal leaders from Deir ez-Zor where they “agreed on the importance of addressing the grievances of residents” and “the dangers of outside interfering” in the province, the US Embassy in Syria said on X.
The Kurdish-led force then issued a statement saying that it has the support of tribes in the Arab-majority province and that both sides have agreed to cooperate on security matters.
On Friday, the SDF announced a 48-hour curfew in parts of the province under its control, before declaring the curfew, the SDF said that pro-Damascus groups attacked several sites in Deir ez-Zor and simultaneously Turkish proxies attacked a village near Manbij in the north of the country.
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