Dead, Syria – Mohammad Khalawi explains the destruction of the Syrian province of Deir al-Zour by the scars that were left by the many conquerors who came through civil war in 13 years.
Here in this resource-rich province of Ostkhalawi, rebels of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which were replaced in 2012, were replaced by Jihadi fighters, which in turn were triggered by militants of the Islamic State.
One of the many destroyed quarters in Deir al-Zour, Syria.
Here the Islamic State anchored and converted Deir al -Zour into an oil -gas -Led Militia with us undlied offions in 2019 to defeat the group, which is also known as ISIS.
And here, the day before Assad's fall in December, Khalawi saw thousands of soldiers and pro-Iran fighters fled to Iraq and put their positions to Kurdish militia tales; The Kurds also went a few days later.
“Everyone went through this place,” said Khalawi. “These groups were not here to work for us. They were here to loot everything and steal everything they could. “
Every new force paints over the propaganda posters and insignia of its predecessors and left the buildings of the province a palimps test of the winners and losers of the war.
In Hirri, a tiny village between the Euphrates and the border with Iraq, Khalawi referred to the faded outline of an Islamic state logo on the wall. Nearby it was a banner with the inscription “Death for Israel”-a artifact from a militia supported by Iranians who checked his neighborhood. Painted about this was the red and white-black tricolor of the government of the Assad era and an unrecognizable poster from Assad.
Khalawi, an accountant of the municipality of Hirri, is now experiencing a further revision, this time from the Islamist rebels, which Assad displaced at the end of last year. In the almost two months since the takeover of power, the new government, led by the Islamist faction Hayat Tahrir al Sham, was busy symbols.
The marketplace in Bukamal in the Syrian province of Deir al-Zour is brought back to life after President Bashar Assad's fall was brought to life in December 2024.
Khalawi has so far been optimistic. Like many here, he considered Assad's case as the harbinger of a new beginning for Syria and the disabled province of Deir al-Zour.
Although the war has decreased in large parts of the country, Deir al-Zour, which is halved by the Euphrats, remains a hostage for competing ambitions.
Areas east of the river-WO a large part of the province's oil and water resources are controlled by the Syrian democratic armed forces, or SDF, a Kurdish-dominated government that is supported by the USA
The area west of the river is in the hands of the new government. And somewhere in the desert shadows of the province, Islamic Statschläferzellen expect their chance.
The consequences of Israeli air raids at Deir al-Zour airport.
The United States has a 2,000-person group in the region that counteracts a possible revival of the Islamic State and protects the prisons and camps guided by SDF, which hold thousands of ISIS loyalists. But the SDF has used its partnership with Washington to build a proto state in northeastern Syria, and refuses to dissolve despite Damascus' new government.
Turkey annoyed this, which supported the rebels who are now controling Syria. Turkey sees the SDF as a branch of the Kurdistan workers' work, which marks a terrorist group. Turkey has threatened to start an offensive to destroy the group.
Syria's young leadership has to navigate this labyrinth. The United States needs to raise sanctions against Syria because it is trying to revive the oil and agricultural balance of the northeast.
“We have had enough of our employees in SDF areas that we don't even need balls to take them. But the Americans are there and we can't confront with them, ”said Abu Humam Al-Deyri, who heads security at the border crossing.
Al-Deyri, who gave his nom du Guerre to protect his family from reprisals, is one of many Hayat Tahrir al Sham commanders who cannot return to his village in Deir al-Zour because it remains under SDF control . He looked at the SDF little better than the government of Assad, with a Kurdish minority imposed its rule and ideology for areas of aravers.
“My joy of driving Assad will not be complete until my village is freed from the SDF,” he said.
So far, the provisional government officials have pushed for a peaceful approach. In an interview with Syrian television this week, Interim President Ahmad al-Saraa said that negotiations with the SDF were underway, and added that “disagreements exist”.
One of the many destroyed districts in Deir al-Zour. The city among the civil war affected most in the Syrian Civil War suffers chronic power outages and water shortages.
A solution is urgently needed in Deir al-Zour. Whole districts were wasted in the provincial capital. The electricity runs every six hours less than an hour, which is due to war damage to generators, but also because the SDF controls the gas fields and has refused to deliver more electricity.
Water shortage is common. Residents, many of whom have returned to houses who are hardly more than rubber heaps, are desperate for opportunities.
“I was a teacher of computer studies. Now we are back on the days of the carrier pigeons, ”said Mahmoud al-Ali, a 35-year-old who repaired a blown wall in a shop. “We are so tired. We can no longer go through war. “
Next to him was Ahmad al-Ali, a 20-year-old nursing student who was now under construction to pay the expenses for his wife and two children as well as his parents.
“I can do this friendly work because I am young. But my parents are teachers and there are no schools to return. What will you do? “he said.
There are fears that all fights between the SDF and the government would see that Isis takes advantage of the security vacuum. Although the extremist group is greatly reduced, it holds around 5,000 fighters, say analysts, and could appeal to prisons and camps in order to release prisoners who have described US military officers as “ISIS Army-in-warmth”.
“The idea of a clear handover of prisons during an offensive by Turkey or the government is an impossibility,” said Mohammed Saleh al-Affayeh, a political researcher by Deir al-Zour. “The moment the SDF sees the troops crossed through the Euphrates, it opens the cell doors and lets the Turks or whoever handle it.”
For his part, Turkey says that it has already started preliminary talks with regional governments to combat the Islamic state and that the new Syrian government would take responsibility for ISIS prisoners. All of this would enable the United States to cut relationships with the SDF, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Sunday at a press conference in Doha, Qatar.
“We hope that President Trump makes the right decision and that this is wrong,” he said.
Khalawi was repellent.
“The regime, the Iranians, the Russians, the Kurds, the coalition – every page that came here used the Islamic state as its apology,” he said. “It's all a shard.”