Title: TURKEY’S ATTACKS IN NORTH AND EAST SYRIA, AL-HOL CAMP, AND THE BATTLE AGAINST ISIS
Author: RIC
Release date:04 DECEMBER 2022

Turkey has severely escalated its offensive in North and East Syria (NES), and Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is maintaining that plans remain in place for an eventual ground invasion. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have warned that Turkey’s current attacks pose a threat to the region, and the world as a whole, because they severely undermine the fight against the so-called ‘Islamic State of
Iraq and Syria’ (ISIS). This explainer examines the and Syria’ (ISIS). This explainer examines the current situation in al-Hol camp and the relationship between Turkish attacks and ISIS activity.using the unclaimed bomb attack in Istanbul on November 13th as pretext for the offensive. Employing 70 warplanes and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs),1 Turkey carried out a string of aerial attacks across NES (and parts of northern Iraq), over both United States (US)- and Russian-controlled airspace.Seemingly, both the US and Russia gave the green light for the attacks. In tandem, Turkey intensified its usual heavy weapons strikes on villages near its border and near the Turkish-occupied areas of NES. As of November 30th, Turkey’s attacks have killed 14 civilians2 (including 1 journalist) and injured 35 (including 1 journalist), according to RIC data. Turkey has also extensively and systematically targeted essential civilian infrastructure: oil fields, gas facilities, electricity power stations, medical buildings, schools, and grain silos.3 In addition to this, some military positions of the SDF, as well as of Damascus’ Syrian Arab Army (SAA), were hit. Within this period of escalated Turkish offensive activity, three particular incidents again threw into the spotlight the relationship between Turkey’s attacks in NES and the strength of ISIS in Syria and beyond. [1]

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