Several days have passed since the fighting in Aleppo. It is easy to prove that global powers were behind the attacks in Aleppo. Gangs classified as international terrorists were involved in the attacks, in which dozens of civilians were killed and at least 120,000 people were forced to flee.
All four commanders of the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Army Divisions from Aleppo who are or were part of the Syrian National Army (SNA), a Turkish proxy militia in Syria, are involved in the attack on the neighborhoods. Some of them, such as Sayf Abu Bakr, Brigadier General of the 76th Division in Aleppo, are on the EU sanctions list for the massacres of Alevis in the spring of last year.
In recent days, the Syrian Arabic National Agency (SANA) has been showing images of massive troop movements from eastern Syria to regions west of the Euphrates, about 60-70 kilometers from Aleppo. The troop buildup and military clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian army are already taking place in the regions around Deir Hafer, Maski, Al-Hafsah, Sebhat al-Jabbul, Tabqa, and around the Tishreen Dam. Yesterday, January 14, 2026, the post office and bakery in Deir Hafer were completely destroyed by drone strikes. Today, January 15, 2026, HTS called on the population to evacuate the region around Deir Hafer and to make their way to Aleppo via the main road. Sources from the region have informed us that a large-scale attack is expected during the night of January 15 to 16 or during the day on January 16.
Since mid-2025, both Turkey and some Arab media outlets, such as the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), have been deliberately attempting to incite the Arab population against the Kurdish population, thereby making further negotiations between the government and the Democratic Self-Administration of North and East Syria impossible. Now, all signs point to war. A democratic solution seems a long way off for the time being. The revolution in North and East Syria is under greater threat than it has been for years.
Who is HTS, who supports them, and why?
Haya’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS) is an organization that emerged from the al-Nusra Front. The al-Nusra Front is the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, one of the most notorious and brutal Islamist terrorist organizations in the world.
Baghdadi himself, the man who led the so-called Islamic State, sent Jolani to Syria to establish the al-Nusra Front there. In 2017, after several disputes between Jolani and Baghdadi, Jolani founded HTS. Among other things, he attempted to cleanse himself of his Islamist history. This is how he began his journey into international politics.
In the Syrian province of Idlib, in the northwest of the country, HTS established a “Syrian Liberation Government” (SG) in 2017, which was to become the social arm of the newly repainted jihadists. England, the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey had been supporting opposition groups in Syria since 2011 in order to overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Why? Bashar al-Assad was primarily under Russian and Iranian influence. His overthrow was one of the goals of the reorganization of the Middle East, because, on the one hand, new and more efficient trade routes were planned, and on the other hand, most of the states mentioned, such as Israel, aimed to cut off Hezbollah’s logistics route through Syria by supporting the coup.
Terrorism on the international stage
After HTS took power in Syria, it was showered with congratulations by the Western international community. The UN Security Council, the US, and the UK, along with other organizations and governments, had classified HTS as a terrorist organization. Today, all of the above have lifted this classification, despite the organization’s documented human rights violations and war crimes, including those committed last year.
The situation in Syria remains unstable. A multitude of groups, organizations, and armed militias are just waiting for the opportunity to seize power from the fragile transitional government. Attacks such as those in Aleppo are grist to the mill in an already unstable geography. And international powers are also wrestling even more intensely for influence in Syria in crisis situations.
Turkey: Foreign policy of total war
Starting with Turkey, we want to explain the role that the interests of international governments play in the conflict. Ayşegül Doğan, spokesperson for the DEM Party, had already criticized the government in Ankara in July for its destabilizing foreign policy and proposed an “alliance of peace” between Syria, Iraq, the autonomous region in South Kurdistan, and Turkey. However, the efforts of some parts of the government in Ankara last year went in a different direction.
Hakan Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister, in particular, used his influence in Syria to torpedo the negotiations between Damascus and the Self-Administration. Several sources say that the foreign minister of the transitional government, al-Shaibani, in particular, is in close contact with Fidan. The line that Fidan represents within the Turkish state is the line of war. “The SDF will only change its position if it is confronted with force,” he said in an interview.
Turkey’s foreign policy is responsible for the major humanitarian crisis facing the peoples of the region. The announcement by Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler that “Turkey would rush to Syria’s aid if requested” is part of a massive arms build-up campaign by the new Syrian army over the past few months, co-directed from Ankara.
According to recent reports by the “Strategic Research Center of Kurdistan” (NLSK), Turkey has already sent over 2,000 gang members to Girê Spî, a region in northern Syria occupied by Turkey since 2019. According to NLSK, the aim of transferring these Islamist gangs is to weaken the SDF forces with short-term attacks from the north, while the main attack will focus on the regions of Deir Hafr and Meskene.
The complicity of the EU, the US, and Israel
The US is publicly advocating de-escalation in response to the current attacks. However, the attacks in Aleppo and the impending offensive in Deir Hafr also serve US interests. There is no question that an unstable government such as HTS would never launch such a large-scale attack without the consent of the US and Israel. This is because the US wants to put DAANES in a negotiating position where surrender is the only way out. It could therefore be in their interest to quickly resolve the conflict in Syria so that they can focus on their planned attack on Iran.
Representatives of the European Union are traveling to Damascus during the fighting in Aleppo to announce that they will support Syria with 620 million euros. As always, the focus is primarily on long-term economic interests. For them, for example, the security of new trade routes is best guaranteed if the only armed group in the country is the HTS government, which is loyal to the West. The fact that this government’s fighters are already openly threatening on the internet to massacre Kurdish children and families does not seem to bother them in view of the economic advantages.
Only a matter of hours: The attack is imminent
Following the initial attack by HTS and Turkish state forces in Deir Hafr and Meskene, the transitional government is planning a second attack on Raqqa and Deir Zor with former IS fighters. Turkish drone strikes on the region in recent days reveal that this plan was developed directly by the Turkish intelligence service MIT.
Sleeper cells of the so-called Islamic State are already trying to exploit the situation and are launching attacks on prisons and IS prisoner camps in order to mobilize their fighters for the planned massacres. The SDF has declared that it is ready to repel any attacks.
Meanwhile, the war propaganda machinery of HTS and the Turkish state is already in full swing. Fear, insecurity, and division are the main targets of their black propaganda. Ahmed al-Sharaa is currently attempting to deliberately detach the Kurdish population from the Democratic Self-Administration of North and East Syria by actively strengthening nationalist thinking and movements. His goal is to pacify the Kurdish population through cultural rights and break their struggle for a free, multi-ethnic, and democratic Syria.
The resistance will prevail!
But the Kurdish population has already proven in recent days that it stands behind the DAANES. The resistance against the Islamic State in Kobane and the reality of the war of the last 10 years in Kurdistan have proven that Kurdish society can repel even the strongest military opponents through its resistance.
If the attack plan of the HTS and Turkey works, they will encircle the forces of the SDF and try to crush the entire revolution, the revolution of the peoples of Syria. The leader of the HTS militias has openly declared in an interview what the attack is about: namely, oil, gas, agriculture, water, and the energy sources of Northern and Eastern Syria.
The path of negotiations may have failed for now. But defending the revolution, believing in victory, and hoping that good can and will prevail should now become the basis of our resistance: Together on one front, together with our comrades in Rojava, we will fight back against the Islamist gangs and their international accomplices!