The Constituent Council of the Deir az-Zor Civil council elected two co-chairs for the council and also decided to form 15 committees to manage the areas liberated by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) the local Hawar news agency reported.



After extensive discussions, the members elected Ghassan al-Yousef and Laila al Hassan as co-presidents of the Deir al-Zour civil council. They also decided to form 15 committees of the Deir al-Zour civil council to manage the liberated areas of Deir al-Zour.



Each committee includes five members including two-co chairs, one woman and one men, and three deputies. This joint co-chair system to create equal presentation among women and men was adopted in all committees of the council.

The Deir ar-Zour Civil Council will hold bi-monthly meetings of its members of the committees to discuss their work and develop a plan of action for each committee.



“All the different committees are exactly what you would expect to get local administration up and running very soon after ISIS leaves. It is a key part of what the US military calls "Phase IV," or stability operations,” Nicholas Heras, Middle East Security Fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington told the region. “It signals the SDF has no plans ceding the territory in Deir Azzour to Assad and his allies,” he added.



The US-backed SDF forces including the Deir ar-Zour Military Council on 9 September launched the Jazeera Storm Operation. “The goal is to clear ISIS out of Deir Ez-Zour Province,” a U.S. official said.



According to the US-led coalition, the SDF have cleared more than 1,000 square kilometers.



However, the fighting has lead to tensions between the Syrian regime backed by Russia, and the US-backed forces. But the coalition says deconfliction efforts are ongoing.



“We're fighting in Deir ez-Zoir province. They are fighting in Deir ez-Zoir city proper. And there is a separation between the locations where they are fighting and where our partner forces are fighting,” coalition spokesperson Colonel Ryan Dillon told reporters on 21 September.



“They also continue to receive, screen and assist internally displaced people moving north from Deir ez-Zour. Hundreds of people have fled through the area to protected SDF areas in the past week,” he added.

Ali (23), the pseudonym of an IDP who fled from Deir ar-Zour 20 days ago and is now in the Ain al Issa camp, said the situation in the Deir ar-Zour province is very bad. “The price of the food, such as sugar, tea, and bread is very high, and the health situation is also bad. There are no medicines, and if there is, Daesh [ISIS] takes it,” he said. Moreover, many say they are fleeing now that ISIS is implementing a military service forcing the people to fight.

Most IDPs say they do not want to return to Deir ar-Zour if the regime takes it, but if the SDF takes it, they do not have a problem with returning.

“We do not want the regime to return to Deir al-Zour. At the beginning of the revolution, the regime massacred and bombed it,” he concluded.