Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)

Raqqa

Following its liberation from Islamic State, Raqqa is rebuilding its damaged infrastructure, economy, health and education sectors, and constructing a pluralistic, grassroots democracy, reports ANF English.

Jiyan Tolhildan

Jiyan Tolhildan (Salwa Yusuf), a leader of the Syrian Defence Force (SDF) Counter Terrorism Units, and who led the fight against ISIS, was murdered by Turkey in a drone strike on July 22, reports Sarah Glynn.

Steve Sweeney writes that Kurdish officials have accused Western powers of complicity in Turkish airstrikes on the United Nations-administered Makhmour Refugee Camp in northern Iraq.

Women fighters from the SDF at al-Sina’a prison in Hesekê. Photo: YPJ Rojava/Twitter

The recent Islamic State (ISIS) attack on the al-Sina’a prison in Hesekê, northeast Syria, made headlines around the world, reports Peter Boyle

As Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan unleashes more assaults on the country’s battered democratic institutions, Sam Wainwright looks at why Australia must support the democratic forces battling to create a just and democratic society in the Middle East.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on March 5, where they agreed on a plan for a ceasefire in Syria’s Idlib province, writes Chris Slee.

The Bashar al-Assad regime has captured more than a third of Idlib, a province in north-western Syria, which had been controlled by rebels. Chris Slee writes that in the process, about 900,000 people have been displaced according to United Nations figures.

There are currently two wars being fought in northern Syria, writes Chris Slee.

A popular uprising has broken out in Idlib, a province in the north of Syria, against the reactionary Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), according to Leila al-Shami, a well known Syrian activist and author.

The uprising began in the town of Kafar Takharim, when people refused to pay increased taxes imposed by HTS on goods and services, including bread, electricity and olive oil. They stormed HTS-controlled olive presses and police stations and evicted HTS from their community.

Despite the agreement reached between Russia and Turkey on October 22 in the Russian city of Sochi, which established a 150-hour ceasefire in Northern Syria from October 23–29, air and ground attacks by the Turkish army and its jihadist mercenaries continued uninterrupted.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on October 27 that, as a result of talks with Russia, they would "reposition" their units and accept the deployment of Syrian central government troops on the border.

There is little about United States President Donald Trump that one can truly be surprised by at this stage in his presidency. Buffoonery and delusion — not to mention racism and the incitement of violence — have become normalised during his time in office to a frightening degree.

Still, even if we take the most jaw-dropping quotes of his more than two-and-a-half years in office into account, there is something remarkably horrifying about the comments he has made in recent days since he de facto supported Turkey’s offensive into northern Syria, writes Marcel Cartier.

More than 200 people attended a protest at Sydney Town Hall on October 12, organised by Rojava Solidarity Sydney and the Democratic Kurdish Community Centre (NSW). The protest was part of a global day of action against Turkey's genocidal invasion of North and East Syria.