*Don't hesitate to boost if you enjoy reading the reports!*
Weekly Highlights
04.01.26 - 11.01.26
[Content Warning: descriptions of war violence]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
# SHEIKH MAQSOUD AND ASHRAFIYEH RESISTANCE AGAINST DAMASCUS ATTACKS IN ALEPPO
After constant pressure, blockade and low-intensity attacks from regime forces on Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh during 2025, last two months saw these attacks escalate. Intense attacks on the two neighborhoods began since the end of December and became especially heavy in the first days of January. Since January 6th a major offensive took place, involving thousands of combatants from different brigades, most of them affiliated with the Turkish state; tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, various types of heavy weapons and munitions including gas bombs, as well as support by Turkish drones.
Internal Security Forces (Asayish) organized defense and led the resistance of the neighborhoods. After its initial attacks, the Damascus forces pushed for full displacement of the neighborhood. The General Council of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah neighborhoods refused to surrender and leave Aleppo, chose the resistance and called for general mobilization. As a response to that decision, a civilian convoy from most cities of NE Syria came together and headed towards Aleppo, aiming to support the resistance.
The number of people who gave their lives in fighting, were injured or are missing is currently unknown. There are reports, messages and videos of fierce resistance and organized self-defense of the neighborhoods, where defenders of the neighborhoods are explaining the situation on the ground, singing, fighting and dancing. At the same time there are many evidences of hundreds of Kurdish people being kidnapped, footages of executions and tortures, mutilations of bodies of fallen female and male Kurdish fighters.
The fighting culminated towards January 9th and 10th, when civilians went to the Khalid Al-Fajr Hospital to help treating the wounded and take refuge. Turkish-backed groups shelled and attacked the hospital dozens of times.
On January 11th a partial ceasefire was reached in order to evacuate the wounded, civilians, children and women, as well as bodies of fallen defenders of the neighborhoods. The general mobilization brought protesters to the streets of Bashur and Bakur (Southern and Northern Kurdistan), European cities and across the northeast Syria. In Turkey and Northern Kurdistan clashes with the police took place.
# EU PROMISE 620 MILLIONS FOR SYRIA
According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union is set to provide Syria with 620 million euros this year and next, aimed at post-war recovery, bilateral support, and humanitarian assistance.
During her visit to Damascus on Friday 9, she noted, "After years of devastation under the Assad regime, Syria's recovery and reconstruction needs are immense." Von der Leyen expressed the EU's intention to initiate discussions on renewing a cooperation agreement with Syria and to establish a new political partnership. Last year, the EU lifted economic sanctions on Syria following the fall of Assad.
Von der Leyen also highlighted the recent clashes in Aleppo between government forces and Kurdish fighters, calling it "worrisome" and emphasizing the urgent need for continued dialogue among all parties involved.
# ISRAEL-SYRIA INTELLIGENCE AGREEMENTS
Following US-mediated discussions in Paris, on January 6, Israel and Syria agreed to establish a US-supervised "fusion mechanism" for intelligence coordination. The United States, Israel, and Syria would create a joint "fusion mechanism" to oversee intelligence sharing, border de-escalation, diplomacy, and commercial matters.
No timeline has been provided for the implementation of the mechanism.
A senior US official stated that this mechanism will facilitate further demilitarization discussions, and outline the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area. He also added that the Israel Occupation Forces (IOF) and the Syrian military will stop all military activities in southern Syria until the details of the "fusion mechanism" are finalized.
Additionally, the US delegation in Paris proposed the creation of a "demilitarized economic zone" along both sides of the Israel-Syria border. Israeli negotiators have previously pushed for a larger demilitarized zone spanning four Syrian provinces, extending to Damascus, without requiring Israeli demilitarization on the border.
# CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENTS
- Following a military incursion and the establishment of a temporary checkpoint, Israeli forces arrested on Thursday four young men in the northern countryside of Quneitra, southern Syria.
- The General Command of the Suweida National Defense Forces reported that Transitional Government forces shelled the city's of Mansoura, killing One fighter from the National Defense Forces. Additionally, it highlighted another incident, where an opposition group attempted to breach a military post. The National Defense Forces successfully repelled this attempt.
- US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Saturday that it had carried out several airstrikes in Syria targeting the Islamic State (ISIS), as part of the military operation launched by the U.S. in December 2025 in response to an attack on American personnel. Jordan stated on Sunday its participation in the air strikes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
# EVALUATION
The end of the year 2025 was marked by anticipation of development in the dialogue between SDF and Damascus government. Despite widespread skepticism, the narrative of Syrian civil war reaching its end has gradually become accepted in the international community. However, many living in Syria know that nothing could be further from truth. Massacres of Alawites and Druze by Damascus government have shown that the original problems which brought Syria to this point are not resolved. Now, the transitional government's assault on Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh has pushed Syria a step further down the war.
Main political and military forces of Damascus government in their base are not opposed to war as a method to establish centralized government for the whole of Syria, including atrocities and massacres. Such methods are seen as justifiable within the Salafist vision of the country. On the other hand, political developments of the new Syrian government is hardly compatible with the views of military forces of HTS and other groups that brought about the government of Ahmed Al-Shara'a. Diplomacy and deals with United States, European union and Russia; intelligence agreements with Israel, Abraham accords and surrender of Golan heights to Israel; crackdown on some foreign brigades within the new army. All of these affects how other forces engage with Ahmed Al-Shara'a and his presidency: he is gaining influence from Western powers but losing popularity in the Islamists ranks that lifted him up.
With that in mind, we can analyze that the current consolidation of political and military power of Damascus is directly linked to Turkey. The brutal attack on the Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo is not a step that the transitional government could or would even decide to do independently without long-term Turkish pressure and assistance. The agenda of the transitional government, its militias and the Turkish state align under leadership of Turkey, this time on the question of integration: they do not accept a federalized, decentralized and multi-confessional Syria, where political dialogue could become the new approach to contradictions and women liberation together with co-existence of diverse communities would constitute a major social revolution. Such a development would ultimately undermine the centralized power and the influence of main hegemonic actors present in the region. Without war and chaos, Turkey, United States, Russia, Israel and other states cannot sustain their existence and economies.
That is why the Syrian state massacres Kurdish people and calls the ethnic cleansing and destruction of the neighborhoods "limited security operation". That is why the Islamist groups that massacred Alawites and Druze months ago, are attacking the Kurdish neighborhoods today, while all the states watched and didn't intervene. That is also why DAANES holds Turkey accountable for the attacks.
We would like to conclude this evaluation with words of Aldar Xelil, member of the Presidential Council of the Democratic Union Party (PYD):
Mercenaries backed by regional and international powers, foremost among them Turkey, a NATO member, claim to have achieved a “victory” in the name of what they call the “Syrian State,” this claim is nothing but an illusion devoid of any moral or realistic value.
A regime that ruled Syria for decades collapsed in eight days due to the absence of the will to resist, while the two small neighborhoods of Al-Ashrafiyah and Sheikh Maqsoud resisted for six days and continue to resist relentlessly, despite being besieged from four sides since the fall of the regime. This alone proves that any so-called “victory” over such will is nothing but self-mockery.
This people has faced multiple forces, supporting states, and various types of weapons, alongside massive Turkish support through drones, yet it has not surrendered. Its free will is immortal, renewing itself across time and place, affirming that resistance is not a temporary event but a continuous path toward freedom.
Revolutionary greetings!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
#Syria #NES #SDF #DAANES #AANES #SNA #SDF #PYD #YPJ #YPG #HTS #Rojava #Kurdistan #Revolution #DefendRojava #Anarchy #Anarchism #Comrades #Internationalism #AbdullahOcalan #Öcalan #PKK #WomenLifeFreedom #TekosinaAnarsist
