According to local Arab and Kurdish sources, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) has been enlisting Arab loyalists in its armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), in a bid to boost its credibility among Arabs and join efforts with the Syrian regime on the battleground against the opposition. This military strategy was reportedly accompanied by some intense consultations held in Qamishli between the regime and its Arab allies immediately before the formation of the PYD-led autonomous government on Jan. 21.

On Nov. 2, Rihab News reported that the Arab Brigade of the Free Patriots joined the YPG in Ras al-Ain, northwest of Hassakeh. The brigade's commander Hawas Jammo and another of its fighters, Osama Jasim al-Karot, are known to be regime collaborators who attacked anti-regime demonstrators in 2012, according to the Rihab News report and local Kurdish activists and journalists who spoke with Al-Monitor.

On Dec. 24, the press agency of the pro-Barzani Yekiti Syrian Kurdish Party (PYKS) denounced the merging of the Abu Jabal Brigade with the YPG in the area of Tel Hamis, southeast of Qamishli. The Arab-populated town of Tel Hamis is one of the few rebel strongholds left in the northern Hassakeh province. The brigade's commander, Yusuf al-Abdullah from the Arab Sharabia tribe, is a member of the Popular Army, otherwise known as National Defense Army (NDA), a pro-regime militia whose local branch is headed by Mohammad Faris from the Tayy tribe.

"In Ras al-Ain, people still voice their opposition to the recruitment of supporters of the regime by the YPG," Nasser al-Khalil, a Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network researcher from Ras al-Ain who recently moved to Turkey, told Al-Monitor in a phone interview.