Introduction:
When we speak today of national reconciliation in Syria, we cannot ignore the most sensitive and painful chapter in the history of the conflict: the events between the various Syrian opposition factions and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and the preceding clashes between them and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Reviewing this agonizing chapter reveals the catastrophic human toll paid before reaching the path of peace and rationality.
Thousands of civilians and combatants from both sides fell victim, and mutual violations and massacres were documented by international and local human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Syrian Network for Human Rights.
This tragedy is a bleeding wound in the body of the entire nation.
In this article, we review the most prominent events and violations that resulted in victims and massacres on both sides, not to reopen old wounds or lament the past, but to present a compelling moral and realistic argument that the path of war was a path to ruin, and that the path of peace is the only way to overcome this dark period and build the Syria of tomorrow.
Violations and Atrocities Committed by Opposition Factions Against Kurds and SDF-Controlled Areas:
The violations committed by opposition factions were concentrated primarily during Turkish-backed military operations or through indiscriminate shelling of civilian neighborhoods, turning cities and villages into battlefields where innocent civilians paid the price.
Sheikh Maqsoud Neighborhood Bombing in Aleppo (2016):
The Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, predominantly Kurdish and home to approximately 30,000 civilians, became the scene of horrific atrocities.
Revolutionary and Islamist groups in the areas surrounding the neighborhood, operating under the banner of the “Conquest of Aleppo” coalition, launched repeated indiscriminate attacks with artillery, rockets, and mortars, targeting civilian homes, streets, markets, and mosques.
Amnesty International documented the names of at least 83 civilians, including 30 children, killed in these attacks between February and April 2016, while more than 700 civilians were injured, according to the local field hospital. The organization described these attacks as reflecting a “shameful disregard for human life” and deemed them “potentially war crimes.”
Operation Olive Branch in Afrin (2018):
The 2018 battle for Afrin resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties from heavy bombardment.
The entry of the factions was accompanied by widespread violations, including extensive looting of property, known locally as “ta’feesh,” kidnapping civilians for ransom, torture, and summary executions. The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration accused Turkey and its allied factions of committing “genocide and ethnic cleansing” in the region.
Human Rights Watch also documented the looting of more than 50 homes in the al-Mahmoudiya neighborhood of Afrin city by the Ahrar al-Sharqiya faction in March 2018. Reports indicated the displacement of thousands of original inhabitants and the targeting of the region’s cultural identity.
Field executions during Operation Peace Spring (2019):
One of the most prominent incidents that sparked international outrage was the summary execution of Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf, Secretary-General of the Future Syria Party, and her companions on the M4 highway by the Ahrar al-Sharqiya faction of the Syrian National Army.
A BBC Arabic investigation documented this crime, which was condemned by the United Nations as a clear war crime. Washington also imposed sanctions on the group involved.
Violations and casualties by the SDF against the Arab population:
Conversely, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) committed violations that resulted in civilian casualties in areas controlled by the opposition, or in areas they seized from it, deepening the divide between the Arab and Kurdish populations.
Displacement and bombardment of northern Aleppo countryside and Tel Rifaat (2016):
When the SDF took control of the city of Tel Rifaat and the surrounding villages, dozens of civilians were killed in clashes, resulting in the forced displacement of approximately 150,000 Arab civilians towards the border city of Azaz. The opposition accuses the SDF of committing violations against those who remain and preventing the original inhabitants from returning to their homes to this day.
Targeting the city of Azaz and its surroundings with artillery and car bombs:
For years, repeated artillery and rocket shelling by the SDF, launched from the Shahba and Tel Rifaat areas, has targeted residential neighborhoods, markets, and hospitals in the cities of Azaz, Afrin, and al-Bab, killing and wounding hundreds of civilians and children.
Among the most prominent of these atrocities was the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital in Afrin in 2021, which resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries.
Reports of house demolitions and forced displacement:
In a 2015 report, Amnesty International accused the Autonomous Administration, led by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), of carrying out campaigns of forced displacement and house demolitions in villages in the Hasakah and Raqqa countryside after expelling ISIS or opposition factions from them.
The report revealed the deliberate displacement of thousands of civilians and the destruction of entire villages, often carried out as acts of revenge based on the belief that the inhabitants had ties to or sympathized with the Islamic State.
The organization considered these acts, which included the destruction and burning of entire villages and the displacement of their inhabitants without any justifiable military reason, to be “war crimes,” describing them as “a deliberate and coordinated campaign of collective punishment.”
How can this bloody chapter be used to serve the idea of ”making the peace agreement a success”? Raising the issue of victims and massacres in any national discussion should not be for the purpose of reopening old wounds or settling scores, but rather to present a compelling moral and realistic argument that the path of war was collective suicide, and that the rationality embodied in the recent understandings is the only way to build a shared future.
In this context, this issue can be leveraged to serve peace through:
Mutual recognition of loss:
The long years of conflict have shown that there is no single “victim” in this conflict; rather, the entire Syrian social fabric has been torn apart. The thousands of dead and wounded civilians and combatants from all factions, and the destruction that has befallen cities and villages, all bear witness that weapons have not brought any side a complete victory.
No, it brought human tragedies that deepened existing animosities.
This mutual recognition of loss is the essential foundation for any genuine reconciliation.
The agreement as a necessity to stop the bloodshed:
The March 2025 and January 2026 agreements between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) represent the only way to guarantee an end to the bloodshed.
The first agreement stipulated the integration of all civilian and military institutions in northeastern Syria into the administration of the Syrian state, and guaranteed the rights of all Syrians to representation and participation in the political process.
This path, through national legal committees, ensures accountability for those responsible for violations and establishes transitional justice that compensates victims and reveals the fate of the missing.
Blocking the path to ethnic strife:
The armed conflict between the opposition and the SDF nearly transformed the political dispute into an ethnic (Arab-Kurdish) war that would have engulfed the Jazeera region and the north.
However, the rationality embodied in the recent understandings represents the bulwark preventing a return to the cycle of massacres and revenge. Shifting energy from fighting to building and partnership is the only way to ensure that what happened is not repeated and to build a state of citizenship that embraces everyone.
Transitional Justice as a Guarantee of Non-Repetition:
With the formation of the National Commission for Transitional Justice on May 17, 2025, an institutional framework was established to address past human rights violations, ensure accountability, and support national reconciliation.
This framework, comprised of 13 members and chaired by Abdulbaset Abdullatif, represents the mechanism through which the truth can be revealed, victims compensated, and perpetrators held accountable, thus ensuring that the tragedy is not repeated.
Conclusion:
Reviewing the file of violations and massacres committed by opposition factions and the Syrian Democratic Forces is a painful journey through the history of modern Syria.
But this journey, as painful as it is, carries within it a profound lesson: that violence only begets violence, and that bloodshed neither irrigates the land nor builds a nation. Syrians from all walks of life have paid a heavy price in lives and property before realizing that there are no victors or vanquished in this conflict, and that the only remaining option is reason and peace.
The March and January agreements represent a historic opportunity to overcome this dark past and build a new Syria based on equal citizenship, transitional justice, and the political participation of all its communities.
Let this painful chapter, instead of fueling further strife, serve as compelling evidence of the necessity to uphold peace, strengthen reconciliation, and build a state of law that protects the rights of all Syrians, honors its victims, and guarantees that their tragedies will never be repeated. The safety and stability of Syria is the goal worth every sacrifice, and it is the responsibility we must all bear.
