Official from Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces survives assassination attempt
Abdullah serves as the spokesperson for the Deir al-Zor Military Council.
The local Hawar News Agency (ANHA) reported that gunmen attacked her vehicle along the al-Kharafi Road in the provincial countryside. Although she escaped unharmed, according to the report, her driver was injured.
Dried blood could be seen on the driver’s side seat in photos taken after the incident.
“I joined the SDF because I wanted to be one of the people who helps to liberate the area from the Islamic State. I remember once in 2016 I was traveling through the countryside of Deir Ezzor, which was under the control of ISIS. I saw how an ISIS man was whipping a woman, saying she was not supposed to show her hands,” Abdullah told the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in an interview on Thursday.
“And at the entrance of the city of Mayadeen, I saw human heads on a post. I thought it was some kind of nightmare, that it couldn’t be real. But it was. Five of my cousins were killed by Da’esh. This is why I wanted to be part of the SDF.”
Abdulla was born in Deir ar-Zor city, where she received her high school degree. She then studied agricultural engineering at Furat University in Hasakah.
After Islamic State militants took control of Deir al-Zor in 2014, she left with her family for the northern city of Qamishlo. During the 2016 Raqqa campaign against the group, she joined the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) and fought in several significant battles.
In September 2017, the SDF appointed her as the official spokesperson for the Jazeera Storm campaign to liberate Deir al-Zor from Islamic State rule.
The SDF and Coalition announced the territorial defeat of the Islamic State in March 2019. However, regular sleeper cell attacks by the terrorist group persist in multiple liberated territories in what appears to be a deliberate campaign to destabilize the general area.
Abdullah herself has survived at least four assassination attempts to date. Earlier this month, she was also in a car accident that was at first reported by local media as an attack, but the Deir al-Zor Military Council later denied this, saying instead that a motorcyclist had died in the incident.
Deir al-Zor has consistently been one of the most unstable regions in areas under SDF control.
According to a monthly report of the Rojava Information Center published in early August, 79 percent of Islamic State attacks in July occurred in Deir al-Zor, while all those occurring outside the province were in either Raqqa or Manbij.
Moreover, unrest recently increased in Deir al-Zor after the assassination of tribal leaders in late July. The SDF and the US-led Coalition held several meetings with tribal leaders in recent weeks to help de-escalate the situation.
The local North Press Agency reported that, on Thursday, the SDF carried out an operation with Coalition support in Wadi al-Ajaj that targeted Islamic State tunnels and smuggling routes near the Iraqi border,
Editing by John J. Catherine
