A move to divide Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor into four administrative sections to give the local Arab population more control under the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was announced shortly before US Deputy Special Envoy to Syria David Brownstein’s visit to the oil-rich, much-suffering region.
A murky Jan. 30 apparent assassination attempt against the co-chair of the Deir ez-Zor civil council, Ghassan al-Youssef, still hangs heavily, however. Some residents of the Arab region say they believe the SDF planned the attack to get rid of Youssef, who is a leading proponent of the plan.
