The occupying Turkish state not only sees the Rojava Revolution and its autonomous self-rule as a danger to its own fascist system based on the abolition of fundamental human rights and the very principles of law, but it cannot even digest the fact of the Kurds obtaining status in any part of the world and becoming the basic dynamics of wide social movements. Stability, social peace and tranquility in Northern Syria and western Kurdistan are all quite frightening to the Turkish state. It had tried anything it could to disturb this social peace and create a distrust towards the Syrian Democratic Forces among the people of the region, from instigating a proxy war through dozens of mercenary groups operating under different names and attempting to directly invade and violate our borders to imposing an economic and political embargo on our lands. After these efforts have appeared to be in vain, the terrorists trained by the Turkish intelligence services were organized into sleeper cells in order to launch terrorist attacks across our territory.

A terrorist group led by a man called Nazmi, who was receiving instructions from a MIT (Turkish intelligence service) agent Abu Imad and planning many terrorist attacks across our territory, have been followed by our forces since October 2017. This network consists of dormant cells that have been specially trained by MIT in matters such as assassinations and the use of explosives. In the social media channels they called themselves “The Qiyam Movement”. In January 2017, they sent a booby-trapped music loudspeaker, already prepared to be activated, from Jarablus, which is under the control of Turkish-backed mercenaries, to Manbij through a terrorist called “Rateeb”. Once again, in February 2018, an explosive device constructed that same way but this time hidden inside the fruit juice machine was sent to Manbij through the mercenary called “Aboud”, who also planned terrorist attacks. The members of this network, which have been observed and followed directly and by technical means for more than a year, were captured in July 2018 in an operation conducted by our Special Operations Units. In addition, explosive devices, weapons and ammunition were discovered and seized.

The sleeper cells that have been captured by our forces planned and carried out several terrorist attacks against tribal leaders and other leading figures of communities in mainly Arab populated areas such as Manbij, Raqqa, Til Abyad, Sirrin etc. The 4 men detained recently were planning attacks against civilians and fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces in Kobani.

Within the framework of the operation:

1. On July 5, 2018, a mercenary called Abdul Muhammad al-Sheikhani (aka Abu Yazan) was arrested with a large number of explosives. This person is originally from al-Bab and had been trained by MIT in Gaziantep and Jarablus. He was one of the people behind planning the terrorist attacks in Manbij but also committed them himself.

2. On July 10, 2018, a terrorist named Mahmud Abdulkadir Beko was arrested with an explosive device prepared to be activated. He is originally from al-Bab and served as courier for the terrorist attacks planned in Manbij.

3. On July 12, 2018, a terrorist named Rateeb Mohammed Berkel was captured. He was also one of the mercenaries trained by MIT. In January 2018 he committed an attack with the booby-trapped loudspeakers.

4. On July 14, 2018, a mercenary called Aboud was arrested. In February 2018 he transported a bomb hidden inside of the fruit juice machine from Jarablus to Minbic and carried out a terrorist attack with it.

5. During the arrests of the mentioned terrorists, a large quantity of tools related to fabrication of explosive devices, fuses, cordtex (detonating cords), explosives hidden in a refrigerator, all prepared to be used, as well as weapons, ammunition and various documents were seized.

While the ISIS is on the verge of losing its last piece of territory, the attacks of the Turkey on our border and the terrorist activities across our lands are a clear expression of their implicit partnership with ISIS. We announce that targeting theArab populated regions such as Raqqa and Manbij will never succeed and Turkey will never achieve its objectives. Our forces will take all kinds of measures against these efforts and respond by all the means necessary. The attempts at creating chaos in our lands are completely futile and will not bring them any results. Any terrorist activity carried out in the areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces directly benefits the ISIS and prolongs the existence of this organization. Attempts to disrupt peace and stability in northern Syria and western Kurdistan (Rojava), where the peoples have the opportunity to live together in peace, will certainly fail.

YPG Press Office | December 4, 2018