Clashes erupted on April 4 between the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) and Syrian government forces in Qamishli, the unofficial capital of the Kurdish-dominated areas of northern Syria. They were the first such clashes in that city, still under the control of the Bashar al-Assad regime, in Hasakah province.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, three members of the YPG were killed after government forces attacked a “YPG checkpoint by the al-Basil roundabout by the Qamishli airport highway.” A while later, at least three members of the Syrian security services were killed and seven captured when YPG militiamen attacked two checkpoints at entrances to Qamishli. The violence complicates an already chaotic situation in Syria’s Kurdish regions.
