Crowds lined the road close to Hasaka, northeast Syria, waiting for the civilian convoy to come back. They waved flags; women dancing in a straight line; children craning their necks to squint into the distance, the final rays of the setting sun casting them in golden light.
The vehicles came slowly, then all at once. The occupants were men, women and some children, who had driven hundreds of kilometres, after spending the previous few days on Tishreen Dam.
The dam, on the Euphrates river, has become a flashpoint in the conflict between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA). The SNA’s latest offensive began amid the fall of Syria’s Assad regime in December, which saw various powers, including Israel in the south, push to increase their control of Syrian territory.
Local civilians have been travelling to the Tishreen Dam, hundreds at a time. “We were volunteers, people of the region ... We were there to protest and protect the dam,” said Khadija Asam Ibrahim (34), apologising because her voice was hoarse from chanting. She said they witnessed “attacks and bombing by the jets”.
“It’s a happy feeling because we are safe right now but we would be ready to go back for a second, third, fourth time,” she said. “My life is not worth more [than this].”
Not everyone arrived safely. A car in the convoy was hit by a drone, witnesses said – one holding out his phone which showed a video of a vehicle on fire. Inside was Kurdish journalist Egîd Roj. Colleagues said Roj had been reporting at the dam for the previous week, both his flak jacket and the vehicle he was in marked with the word “PRESS”. Roj’s death was later confirmed by local media.
The SDF’s head of media, Farhad Shami, says Turkey and Turkish-backed militias want to capture Tishreen Dam because it is a strategic point, the “gate” to the city of Kobani. By mid-February there was fighting both north and south of the dam, he said, with 260 SDF soldiers killed and at least 41 civilians. He said the SDF cannot “prevent” civilians from going there. “It’s kind of like a revolutionary position for the people. At the end, they’ve been bombed, they’ve been hurt.”
The dam has not been functional since December 10th, with Shami saying there are cracks in it. He said the SDF is also using drones to fight back. “The Turks have advanced weapons, drones, warplanes ... we had to do the same.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross in Syria issued a statement on January 20th saying dams are “critical infrastructure”, meaning they are specially protected under international humanitarian law. The Turkish government has denied targeting civilians and infrastructure, and accuses the SDF of using human shields.
This comes at a momentous time for Syria’s northeast. The SDF is the military arm of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), a de facto autonomous administration that controls large areas, including the majority of the country’s oil and natural gasfields.
It is in talks with the interim government in Damascus about dissolving into the broader Syrian armed forces, but SDF officials say it cannot do so without guarantees, including that it remains a distinct bloc. Some told The Irish Times their talks with the interim government have been positive, but they also mistrust its close relationship with Turkey. Interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa has visited Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.
Resentment against the SDF is building in other parts of Syria, with many repeating the accusation that the SDF is bringing “human shields” to the Tishreen Dam. All of the civilians who spoke to The Irish Times said they were volunteers going as part of a community-organised effort, though other reports have suggested that the SDF’s civil wing arranged some transportation and encouraged civilians, including its employees, to go.
The SDF led the fight against Islamic State, which once controlled huge swathes of this region and was declared defeated in early 2019. For that reason, the SDF is backed by the US, which still has troops in the area – though US president Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw them.
Turkey considers the SDF to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it designates as a terrorist group. Last week, the PKK’s imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan called on the group to dissolve and lay down arms. The implications of this on Syria’s northeast is yet unclear. SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said this announcement was “not related to us in Syria”, though “if there is peace in Turkey, that means there is no excuse to keep attacking us here in Syria”.
Hospital
At the Sari Military Hospital in Hasaka, an administrator said 300 wounded soldiers had come in the previous two months, and a smaller number of civilians.
In one room was an SDF soldier who lost an eye and broke his hand as a result of a drone attack at the dam, less than a fortnight before. Four of his colleagues were killed, he said.
In another room lay a 19-year-old from Raqqa, a scar up his neck and cheek. Doctors said he had been there more than a month. He was partially paralysed and was missing a finger.
“I joined the SDF to help my family,” he said – referring to both his salary of $330 a month, and his belief that his family needed protection. Of 11 soldiers, he was the only survivor, he said, tearing up.
A 26-year-old man with two fractured hands wrapped in plastic lay in a dark room. He had undergone surgery on his stomach, but now had an infection. A “border guard” with the SDF, he was the victim of a drone attack.
“As many times as they bomb, even 10, it doesn’t matter, when we get better we will go to the front line,” he said defiantly. “When I get better I will go, we will never surrender.”
The man – who did not give his name – joined the SDF in 2017. Fighting Islamic State, also known as Isis, “wasn’t as horrific because there were no drones bombing us, there were no air strikes”, he said. But “this is normal for us now”.
Recovering in another room was Lea Bunse, a 27-year-old German environmental activist. She said she was dancing on the dam itself when a drone attack occurred; she was hit by shrapnel in her stomach, chest and leg. The SDF says six people were killed and many more injured. Human Rights Watch verified drone footage that Bunse also showed The Irish Times. It was published by a Telegram account affiliated with the SNA, and showed two projectiles being dropped by a line of dancers on the dam, though Human Rights Watch said it could not determine whether the drone strikes were conducted by the SNA or Turkish Armed Forces.
Bunse said she first came to northeast Syria 2½ years ago, and decided to travel to the dam in January after feeling “there’s no international attention” on the issue. About 100 cars left together.
“I think it’s such a big struggle for the whole humanity, for the whole world, that I saw it as important to witness,” she said. “One of the main wars [globally] at this time is water. Water is life. Water is the future.”
If the dam broke it would put the surrounding cities in danger and “cost a lot of lives” she said. “Bombs falling on the dam, next to the dam, is a big danger.”
An attack, before the one that injured her, led to two people being killed and more than 20 injured, Bunse said. An ambulance that tried to take them away was attacked by a drone, she added.
In an interview in a Kurdish Red Crescent base in the city of Kobani, a 270km drive northwest, nurse Abdi Ali explained how medics had been accompanying the convoys. One ambulance had been hit directly, he said, with one staff member killed and three wounded. Human Rights Watch called this attack, on January 18th, an “apparent war crime”.
A second strike landed in front of an ambulance. “I believe they hit in front of the ambulances to stop them from treating the wounded,” he said. Two ambulances were now completely out of service.
“The job we do is a humanitarian job ... but despite all this we are being targeted,” said Ali. “Of course, there’s no doubt this is war crimes ... For now our job has been restricted because we’re so afraid.”
