Suluk, Syria

Syrian civil war

In June 2015, Suluk was taken over by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in the course of their Tell Abyad offensive.^[5] Kurdish YPG forces were accused of expelling the entire population of the town (35,000 people), although they allowed only 10,000 of them to return,^[2] Furthermore, Amnesty International accused YPG of "razing" nearby villages,^[6] and "ethnic cleansing" of Arabs.^[3] They have denied the Amnesty report, calling it "biased, unprofessional and politicized" as it made no mention of the human rights violations by the Islamic State.^[7]

On 27 February 2016, fighters of the Islamic State attacked Suluk, the village Hammam at‑Turkuman and Tall Abyad.^[8] At this point, the towns were not directly at the front to ISIL-held territory anymore and the jihadists were able to expel the Kurdish People's Protection Units in this surprise attack from Suluk and Hammam at-Turkuman. Kurdish security forces soon were able to encircle the attackers and recaptured the villages on March 3, 2016.^[9] One day before the recapture, IS jihadists executed 15 civilians with the charge of "Refusing to corporate with IS and helping the YPG earlier".^[10]

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 70 fighters from the Islamic State and 20 Kurdish fighters were killed during the clashes.^[11]

A spokesman of the YPG, Redur Xelil, accused Turkey of supporting the terrorists because some of them infiltrated from the Turkish border to the north. Turkey denied the accusations.^[9]

During the Turkish offensive in north-east Syria in October 2019,^[12] Suluk was captured by Turkey and the Syrian National Army.^[13]