Representatives of Syrian Arab tribes have stormed several local headquarters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the cities of Deir ez-Zor, Diban, and Al-Hawaij in the eastern Deir ez-Zor Province. The armed tribesmen also detained SDF militants present in the buildings at that moment.
Sputnik has obtained a video showing how the representatives of the Arab tribes rushed into one of the headquarters in Deir ez-Zor. Around 100 men participated in the storming of the building.
The seizure of the SDF headquarters in the province happened after representatives of the tribes protested against arbitrary actions by militant groups supported by the US. They demonstrated against a recent surge in killings of elders and sheikhs of the local tribes by the SDF militants, demanding the group to hand over those responsible for the arbitrary murders.
A local Sputnik correspondent says that the demonstrations in Deir ez-Zor and neighbouring regions are far from being over, reporting that the number of protesters continues to grow at the moment.
The SDF and other Kurdish groups currently control most of Syria's oil-rich east with the support of American soldiers, who have been tasked with "keeping" the local crude fields since October 2019 from alleged attempts by Daesh* militants to seize them. The Syrian government has repeatedly objected to the presence of US troops in the country, pointing out that they were deployed in violation of international law since Damascus never invited them and the UN never gave the US and its allies a mandate to operate in Syria.
*Daesh (also known as IS and ISIS) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia