Assad regime, PKK mutually ease blockades in northeastern Syria

TAL ABYAD, Syria – The Assad regime and the YPG/PKK group are mutually easing the blockades they imposed on each other in northeastern Syria’s Al-Hasakah and Aleppo provinces with the mediation of Russia.

The Assad regime and YPG/PKK representatives have met in the Qamishli district of Al-Hasakah via Russia. The parties decided to loosen the blockades imposed by the Assad regime forces on the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods of Aleppo, and the military zone known as Security Square in Al-Hasakah and Qamishli by the YPG/PKK members.

The fourth armored division affiliated with the Assad regime will allow the entry and exit of items such as flour and fuel to and from the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh.

The YPG/PKK group in return will allow the entry and exit of the regime elements to and from the Security Square through the so-called checkpoints in the Al-Hasakah city center and the Qamishli district center.

However, the Assad regime and the YPG/PKK have not removed the so-called road checkpoints they established during the blockade.

The Assad regime forces had surrounded the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods of Aleppo, which were occupied by YPG/PKK on April 7. In response, the YPG/PKK fighters had blockaded the Assad regime forces in Al-Hasakah and Qamishli on April 9.