Deadly tensions in Syria between Kurds and fighters from Arab clans. Clashes left at least 25 dead on Tuesday (September 26th) in the east of the country between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, dominated by the Kurds) and men of the Sunni clan of Oukaïdat.

"There were clashes again yesterday (Tuesday) and they have resumed since September 25," Wassim Nasr, a journalist specializing in jihadist movements, told France 24. "This is proof that after the period of calm that we may have had, the fighting has resumed. This is concentrated around the village of Dhiban, on the Euphrates, but also in several villages nearby."

In early September, clashes between the SDF and fighters from local Arab tribes in this region left 90 dead in about ten days.

"Making trade-offs" between the Arab and Kurdish components

The Arab-majority province of Deir Ezzor is crossed by the Euphrates River, which marks the border between areas held by Bashar al-Assad's regime and those controlled by the SDF.

"The SDF, chaperoned by the Kurds, send Arab fighters to fight against other fighters from the Arab clans," Nasr said. "There were several micro-arrangements between clan leaders and the Kurds via the coalition (dominated by the United States, editor's note), but those who did not want to give in - as in Dhiban - resumed the fight because they feel that they did not get what they wanted from the coalition and the SDF."

The SDF spearheaded the offensive that defeated the Islamic State in Syria in 2019 and still enjoys Washington's support. They control a semi-autonomous Kurdish area in the northeast of the country, including swathes of oil-rich Deir Ezzor province, where U.S. forces are deployed.

The clashes in September were triggered by the arrest in late August by the SDF of a local Arab allied military leader. The SDF announced at the end of the fighting that it had dislodged fighters from local Arab tribes from the region, and in particular from Dhiban, who had rebelled against them.

They had assured that this was a local dispute and not a Kurdish-Arab conflict.

"The coalition - the Americans in this case - is watching this from afar and trying to arbitrate, because both the Arab and Kurdish components are part of the coalition's effort against the Islamic State," Nasr said. "She is also afraid that some of the Arab clans will ultimately be rather attracted to the Syrian regime."

Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham 'plans to take control of all free zones'

The fighting raging in eastern Syria "is linked to those taking place in the north of the country," Nasr said. "Those who mobilized for the benefit of the Arab clans in the north are displaced from the same areas of Deir Ezzor."

And the specialist of jihadist movements continues: "There was some fighting in Manbij, but we saw that all the convoys left Idlib via the area directly controlled by the Syrian rebel factions and the Turkish army, all this mobilization had consequences - that is to say the resumption of fighting between rival rebel factions for about a week and the control of several villages."

"The mobilization in the north has obviously had consequences on the internal balance of the so-called free zones," says Wassim Nasr. He cites Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist organization that now rules Idlib in northwestern Syria. "HTS plans to take control of all free zones," he concludes. "The Turks remain spectators because they do not want to enter directly into the confrontation with HTS."

With AFP

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