Turkey is now openly seeking cooperation from Russia, foremost foreign backer of the Bashar Assad dictatorship, in a long-planned cross-border operation into northern Syria against the Kurdish autonomous zone [10] in the region, known as Rojava. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, speaking to reporters Dec. 25, said: "We are in talks and discussing with Russia about all issues including opening the airspace." (Reuters [14])
Meanwhile, ISIS sleeper cells are coming to life in the extremist group's former de facto capital of Raqqa [11], which is jointly occupied [12] by the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF [10]) and Assad regime forces. The SDF said Dec. 26 that a checkpoint of its affiliated Internal Security Forces came under attack, sparking a clash in which one of the assailants was killed.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR [15]) reported that the attack targeted an area where the Internal Security Forces were holding some 200 detainees. The SDF is holding thousands of suspected ISIS collaborators at camps and prisons [16] across its occupation zone.
According to SOHR, the attack was the 16th operation carried out by presumed ISIS sleeper cells in SDF-controlled areas since the beginning of this month, with several dead on both sides. (Al Jazeera [17])
