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Kurdish return to Ras al-Ain suspended after attacks on returnees
Return of displaced Syrian Kurds to Ras al-Ain suspended after armed attacks on returnees. Protests erupted in Qamishli and Kobane. A curfew was imposed in Kobane.
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HASAKEH, Syria – The return of displaced Syrian Kurds to their northeastern hometown of Ras al-Ain was suspended on Monday. A first group of returnees was attacked, prompting protests in other Kurdish-majority parts of Syria.
Hundreds of people had gone back to the town earlier in the day, months after a January agreement with the Syrian government on merging Kurdish forces and civil institutions into the state. The deal included provisions for the return of displaced Kurds.
Jawan Isso, from a committee representing displaced people from Ras al-Ain, told AFP that a "first batch" of around 2,500 people were headed home but were later attacked by "armed groups".
Mahmud Khalil Ali, deputy head of security forces in Syria's Hasakeh province where Ras al-Ain is located, said several of those involved in the attacks were arrested. Return trips were "temporarily suspended as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of residents".
"These trips will resume as soon as the situation stabilises and full protection is provided for the returnees," he said.
A second batch of Kurds was supposed to head to the town in the coming days, according to Isso.
Tens of thousands of Kurds were uprooted when Turkey and allied Syrian fighters seized an Arab-majority strip of territory along the Turkish border from Kurdish control in 2019 during Syria's civil war. That strip includes Ras al-Ain.
The attacks on Monday sparked a demonstration in nearby Kurdish-majority Qamishli. An AFP correspondent saw angry protesters try to break into the security forces' headquarters. Syrian officers pushed them back.
In Kobane, a Kurdish-majority town in the north, Syrian state television said people attacked government offices and took down the Syrian flag in front of the local security forces headquarters. Quoting a security source, state television then said authorities imposed a curfew on Kobane while looking for the perpetrators.