SUWAYDA, Syria (North Press) – Residents of Suwayda governorate in southern Syria say that they follow the news coming from the city of Hasakah and that they advised their friends there not to be dragged into sedition planned by government security agencies.
Mahmoud Narash (a pseudonym), a math teacher in Suwayda, considers the events of Hasakah a “farce” by the Syrian government forces.
Narash said that Syrians are in constant contact through friendships and social relations, and everyone knows that the government “has a long history in falsifying the facts and media during the past ten years of the Syrian war.”
Official media outlets close to the Syrian government, and even those affiliated with the opposition, broadcast the events as an Arab tribal uprising against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Autonomous Administration.
Raafat Zeno (a pseudonym), a civil and media activist residing in the city of Shahba, called on the residents of Hasakah not to be used by the government forces to drag them into fighting in the area known for societal diversity and multiple nationalities.
Raja Khairi (a pseudonym), a politician from the region of Salkhad in the Suwayda countryside, said that the governor of Hasakah, Ghassan Khalil, is directly responsible for what is happening in the city.
“He is the son of government security intelligence, and he has a file full of arbitrary arrests from when he was the head of the Information Department of the State Security Agency,” he added.
Khalil was appointed as governor of Hasakah according to a presidential decree issued by Syrian President Bashar Assad in May 2020.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) mentioned the name of Ghassan Khalil in one of its special reports in 2011 as one of the officers supervising repression operations at the start of protests in the country.
Khairi pointed out that the governor and the intelligence services sought to creating security and military tensions in Syria’s Jazira region after it witnessed a state of economic growth and relative security stability.
He stated that previous endeavors by the intelligence to create sedition in the southern region had failed.
On Sunday, the city of Hasakah witnessed a shootout between Syrian government forces and the Internal Security Forces (Asayish), which resulted in the death of a member of the government forces and the injury of others.
Also on Sunday, the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) issued a statement in which it held the officials of the Syrian government in Hasakah responsible for the recent tensions.
In its statement, the Asayish said that the government’s National Defense groups continue to try to “sow discord among the components of the region.”