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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Kurdish militias block fuel convoys entering rebel-held areas |
| 2016-05-20 |
| [EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (PYD) militia banned fuel shipments from crossing to opposition-held areas in Idlib province and Aleppo countryside which led to a rocket increase in fuel prices. A barrel of diesel reached 91000 SP while gasoline barrel 155000 SP. A field leader in Free Syrian Army (FSA) said the PYD ban of entrance of shipments came in conjunction with PYD snipers targeting of civilians on Kastilou road in Aleppo, the only passage between Aleppo city and Aleppo western countryside and Idlib province. Official of civil administration in western Aleppo countryside Ibrahim Shihab al-Deen told Zaman al-Wasl, the civil administration has alternatives for fuel cut in opposition-held areas including solar energy and other available options. Shihab al-Deen stressed that cutting the road is not in the interest of both PYD and opposition since the road secures both parties’ needs. Head of Local Council in Dar Izzeh Marwan al-Hilou told Zaman al-Wasl that Kurdish fighters have retained more than 400 fuel shipments and they are using it to negotiate, oil in exchange of food. This caused a crisis in fuel prices in rebels-held areas. Al-Hilou pointed out that Kurds demanded from parties in Dar Izzeh formation of a committee to contact decision makers. However, the PYD death parade exhibition of rebel fighters’ corpses in Efrin made them refrain from communications with the Kurds. In this context, sources revealed to Zaman al-Wasl, a number of civil actors in opposition-held in Dar Izzeh and Atma, near Efrin, with a number of prominent local actors in Efrin are to form a committee of civilians to find solutions for problems facing the locals; however, military actors at both sides are preventing the formation of such a body. Kurdish militias refuse to deliver 40 FSA and Islamist factions fighters bodies who died during battles in Ayn Danqh near Azaz in northern countryside of Aleppo. Protests came out to demand the fighters’ bodies in addition to a wide resentment by locals in Kurdish opposition-held areas. A Kurdish official from Efrin who spoke on condition of anonymity attributed the ban of fuel shipment to the blockade implemented by what he described as “extremist factions” on the city. These factions banned entrance of food shipments as well as repeatedly bombed Jandarees town adjacent to Atma on the borders. Tension between Kurdish PYD and rebel factions increased due to the PYD death parade exhibition of FSA and Islamist faction fighters’ bodies on a truck in Efrin. This led rebel factions to impose a blockade on Kurdish cities north of Syria and ban food shipments from entering. Also, rebel factions bombed PYD strongholds in Jandarees and Efrin in response to Kurdish militia targeting the civilians in Kastilou road in Aleppo. |
| Posted by:Fred |