By Levent Tok and Adham Kako
ANKARA (AA) – Amid Syria’s humanitarian suffering due to the seven-year civil war, over the past four months the U.S.-backed YPG/PKK terror group has increased its occupation of Syrian lands from 25 percent to 28 percent.
According to map calculations by Anadolu Agency, between April 18 and Aug. 8, both the terror group YPG/PKK and the Assad regime increased their areas of dominance while the military opposition and terror group Daesh lost ground.
Over the past four months, the Assad regime has increased by 1 percent its control over Syria, now controlling 109,136 of Syria’s total area of 185,180 square kilometers.
While sometimes violating the Astana deal with Russian air support, the Assad regime has recently seized previously opposition-held areas of Eastern Ghouta, Daraa, and Quneitra.
-Terrorist YPG/PKK and Daesh
With the loss of Afrin due to Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch earlier this year, which rid a large part of Turkey's borders of the terrorist group, the YPG/PKK lost some ground but also stepped up its occupation of eastern parts of the country.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — recognized as a terror group by the U.S., EU, and Turkey — has claimed some 40,000 lives, including many women and children. The YPG is its Syrian branch, as documented by Turkey, but denied by the U.S.
The terror group, backed by U.S. air support, increased its occupation in Syria from 51,379 to 45,967 square kilometers, boosting its area of dominance from 25 percent to 27.7 percent.
The terror group Daesh, for its part, is currently present in three different areas in Syria totaling 6,040 square kilometers. Having earlier lost some 3,700 kilometers, the terror group's occupation of Syrian soil has dropped 3.3 percent since April.
Today, Daesh is present in some the villages on the eastern side of the Euphrates River, eastern rural sections of Homs, and certain districts in As-Suwayda.
-Opposition to Assad regime
After losing Damascus’ Eastern Ghouta suburb in April, the military opposition and anti-regime armed groups left the Daraa and Quneitra provinces to regime forces, within the framework of a deal.
The opposition’s area of dominance nationwide thus fell to 18,625 square kilometers, or about 10 percent of Syria.
Today the opposition maintains control over the northwestern province of Idlib, western Aleppo, northern rural areas of Mt. Turkmen in Latakia, and the Al-Tanf region, near Syria’s borders with Iraq and Jordan.
Some 4,147 of the opposition-controlled 18,625 square kilometers is included within the zones liberated by Turkey's operations Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch.
Some 7,700 square kilometers of the Al-Tanf region in eastern Syria are currently under U.S.-backed opposition control.
*Ali Murat Alhas contributed to this story from Ankara
