SDF, allies set up civilian council to run Deir Ezzor

The SDF appointed 100 tribal figures to meet and elect a council to run the province on Sunday.

In a final communique, the council said its priority was the return of tens of thousands of displaced residents of the province who fled during the conflict and restoring basic utilities. It urged the US-led coalition to provide aid to the war-torn province.

“We want to cement ties among the people of the province,” the statement of the newly formed Deir Ezzor civil council said.

The extent of Kurdish control in the eastern province that lies at the heart of Arab tribal area is sensitive both for residents and for Ankara.

Many local Arab tribes from the region also complain they are marginalized in decision making and blame the YPG for discrimination against them, including the forced conscription of their youths. The YPG denies these allegations.

On Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Russian airstrikes had killed 45 members of an extremist group in the northwestern province of Idlib.

It was unclear why the strikes, which took place Saturday, targeted members of the Faylaq Al-Sham rebel group, which has taken part in peace talks supervised by Moscow in the Kazakh capital Astana.

The strikes hit the group in the province of Idlib, which is part of a so-called “de-confliction” zone agreed in a deal between Russia, Iran and Turkey.

The Observatory initially reported a lower toll, but said the figure had risen as bodies were recovered after the strike on one of the rebel group’s headquarters on the outskirts of the village of Tal Mardikh.

Faylaq Al-Sham is a radical group considered close to the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

It has fought against the former Al-Qaeda affiliate that now effectively controls nearly all of Idlib after chasing its former rebel allies from their positions in fighting this summer.

A spokesman for Faylaq Al-Sham confirmed the group’s headquarters had been targeted, despite their participation in the last round of talks in Astana.

“Our participation in Astana does not in any way mean that Russia is a friendly or neutral country,” Idriss Al-Raed said.

“The Russian bombing is not surprising, since its policy since its intervention in Syria is based on criminality and killing,” he added.

Russia began an intervention in Syria in support of ally President Bashar Assad in 2015.