QAMISHLI, Syria - A Kurdish mother has been separated from her three children, who have been missing for more than two weeks after clashes in northern Syria forced her family to flee Raqqa, adding to a growing number of unresolved disappearances amid renewed fighting between Damascus-affiliated armed groups and Kurdish-led forces.
The woman told Rudaw on Saturday that her two daughters and son went missing as violence spread across parts of northern Syria. She has since reached Qamishli, saying she fears that speaking publicly could endanger the rest of her family.
The disappearances come amid intensified military operations by the Syrian Arab Army and allied armed groups. Since mid-January, Damascus-affiliated factions have advanced into Kurdish-held areas of eastern Aleppo, as well as parts of Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, and the predominantly Kurdish Hasaka province.
“It’s been 15 to 20 days since we entered the fighting zone, and they went missing. No one has seen them. No matter how much we ask, no one knows anything about them,” said the distraught mother. “We had three men; all three are gone. We women fled alone. No one came with us. They took all our men away. Where are we supposed to go?”
Asked who was responsible for taking them, the mother declined to identify any group.
“They took them. I don’t dare say [who],” she said.
Another displaced woman described similar uncertainty as families struggle to trace relatives amid ongoing instability.
“It’s been four days, and I have no information about them. My sister said he was wounded. She said my brother went to the village of Hamdoun to bring hay. She said he returned and collapsed in front of my house,” said Khalisa Ahmed, another displaced person. “She said a girl was driving. I shouted, ‘Mohammed, Mohammed!’ He passed away before I could reach him, but I saved the girl.”
“I haven’t heard from them again since then,” she added.
Ahmed has since become the sole caregiver for four orphaned children. She said she has been unable to contact her two sisters and only brother for five days and does not know whether they are alive.
Since January 6, hundreds of people have gone missing amid the Syrian Arab Army’s offensive across several regions, with families still desperately awaiting information about their loved ones.
The latest wave of displacement unfolded as a fragile ceasefire took effect on Tuesday, following deadly clashes that began in mid-January.
During the fighting, Syrian government forces and allied armed groups captured areas that had been under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for nearly a decade, after the group helped prevent the Islamic State (ISIS) from seizing the territory.
On Saturday, Syria’s interim defense ministry and the SDF said they had agreed to extend the ceasefire by 15 days after an initial four-day truce expired, despite reports of troop mobilizations and tense standoffs.
Meanwhile, Damascus and the SDF continue U.S.-mediated talks aimed at integrating Kurdish-administered regions and Kurdish-led forces under Syrian state control.
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