SYRIA: Massive fires set in Tel Tamr countryside by Turkish-backed factions

TEL TAMR, Syria – Massive fires set by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) have engulfed parts of the Tel Tamr countryside.

Tel Tamr, in the Khabur Valley west of Hasakah city, and the surrounding villages are largely inhabited by Syriac-Assyrian Christians.

The SNA, a coalition of militias supported by Turkey and known for widespread criminality, invaded the region in October 2019, displacing an estimated 300,000 civilians. Since their occupation, the SNA, with either implicit or explicit Turkish approval, have conducted a campaign against the basica resources of the region’s remaining free peoples.

Water to the region has been repeatedly shut off by the SNA, depriving upwards of one million civilians, internally displaced persons, and refugees access to drinking water.

Since the beginning of the summer harvest, the SNA has targeted the wheat and barley crops around Tel Tamr, Ayn Issa, and Rish Ayno (Ras al-Ayn), intentionally setting fires and targeting locals and firefighters with small arms fires if they attempt to extinguish them.

On Thursday, one man died while trying to put out a fire in his fields in the village of Al-Asadiya near the line of contact between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the SNA. Another man was severely burned in the same incident.