Fighting broke out between Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops in the northeastern city of Hassakeh, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Jan. 18. The clashes reportedly began after Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG [6]) detained around 10 regime loyalists they accused of seizing part of a demilitarized zone. Under a deal made last year, YPG forces control around 30% of the city, with regime forces controlling most of the city's Arab-majority neighborhoods, and a buffer zone off-limits to both sides. The deal was arranged as both sides fought to keep ISIS out of Hassakeh, a provincial capital of some 200,000 people. The new fighting is being portrayed as opening a Kurdish front against the regime. (Daily Star [7], Lebanon, Today's Zaman [8], Turkey, Jan. 18)
Meanwhile in northern Iraq, rival Kurdish forces have fallen out over control of the Mount Sinjar [9] area, which was liberated from ISIS by a coalition of Peshmerga units loyal to Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and fighters form the YPG and aligned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK [10]). The KRG's Council of Ministers on Jan. 17 issued a statement expressing gratitude for the PKK's aid in liberating the area, but protesting the PKK's establishment of a "canton" in the district of Sinjar (also rendered Shingal), calling the step an "illegal action" that "contradicts the constitution and laws of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq." The PKK plans to run a "democratic auto-administration" in Sinjar. (ARA News [11], Jan. 18)
