The Assault on North & East Syria – Violations during SAA’ January 2026 Offensive
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Open in new tab This report shares the outcome of Rojava Information Center’s investigations into alleged violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) conducted largely by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and affiliated forces in January 2026, when the latter attacked territory in North and East Syria (NES) formerly controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and governed by the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES).
RIC documented a series of violations which can be divided into the following legal categories: targeting the civilian population and civilian infrastructure, arbitrary arrests (deprivation of liberty); summary executions; outrages upon personal dignity including abuse and the desecration of graves, and corpses; and property crimes such as looting and pillage. Many instances of violence or mistreatment also show clear ethnic and gender-based motivations.
A ceasefire agreement published on January 30, 2026, halted the SAA’s onslaught on NES. At the same time, the agreement both renewed and set new terms for the integration process between the Syrian Transitional Government (STG) and SDF. This process, first initiated in March 2025, had stalled seemingly to the point of collapse by the end of 2025, with both sides blaming the other.
The STG had opted to the force the SDF’s hand by launching an attack on NES on January 6, beginning in Aleppo’s two Kurdish-majority neighborhoods, before moving across the Euphrates River to Deir ez-Zor, Tabqa, Raqqa, and into the Heseke and Kobane countryside.
RIC reviewed approximately 180 pieces of visual material appearing to show abuses against SDF personnel and mostly Kurdish civilians in those areas. These crimes were perpetrated largely by SAA soldiers or STG-affiliated fighters. In the course of conducting scores of interviews with individuals directly affected by such violations, RIC verified cases reported in the press and uncovered new violations potentially amounting to war crimes. RIC field teams spoke to survivors of SAA heavy weapons shelling in Aleppo, medical staff, IDPs who faced attacks as they fled Raqqa and Tabqa, family members of victims, Internal Security Forces (Asayish) and SDF fighters and NGO staff, civil officials, and civilian activists working to assist those affected. We have compiled this evidence in a spreadsheet which is available to journalists, researchers and other experts upon request.
Through this investigation, RIC confirmed 18 instances of SAA and its affiliates intentionally directing at tacks against the civilian population and civilian infrastructure resulting in the confirmed death of 31 civilians and the injury of at least 40. Children as young as eight months old were among the fatalities. RIC believes that at least nine of those killed and six of those wounded were children.
Forces under and affiliated to the SAA targeted civilian homes and vehicles, hospitals, medical staff, and ambulances in the course of January’s conflict, plus carried out violations towards civilians and civilian infrastructure using artillery, drones, small arms, and in some cases stones and physical beating. Additionally, RIC confirmed six specific incidents of arbitrary arrest affecting well over 244 people including women, children, journalists, medical staff, and military aged men.
Furthermore, forces under and affiliated to the SAA carried out summary executions of a minimum of 47 individuals. These fatalities are spread across 16confirmed incidents involving children, civilians, SDF fighters, and members of the Asayish. Besides this, one SDF fighter filmed himself outside Kobane city, standing over 21 dead bodies speaking about taking revenge for Kobane, in a clear instance of summary execution.
RIC confirmed 26 cases of forces under and affiliated to the SAA committing outrages upon personal dignity including abuse, humiliation, and the desecration of graves and corpses. Seven of those cases involved the violating of corpses including removing the head from the body of a child, and gouging out eyes. Furthermore, in four separate locations, SAA fighters and unidentified individuals destroyed the graves of SDF fighters.
Detained SDF fighters and civilians alike faced torture, physical abuse, verbal abuse, and humiliation from forces under and affiliated to the SAA, such as being insulted on a religious and racial basis, forced to mimic animals, or repeat chants such as the Shahada (Islamic declaration of faith).
Women in NES have faced additional levels of violence from forces under and affiliated to the SAA, ranging from physical abuse, threats of being sold into sexual slavery, and gender-based slurs while alive, to having their corpses maimed, thrown from buildings, and most famously the braid (a hairstyle which has come to be associated with the women of YPJ) of a slain female fighter being cut and shown off on camera.
As many of these abuses have been committed by forces formally integrated within the new SAA, Ahmed al-Sharaa and the STG are formally responsible for their activity. So far, the Syrian Ministry of Defense has not addressed the specific issue of the track record of criminality of some of the armed factions now incorporated inside the MoD, and have instead chosen to grant commander positions to several leaders of such factions.
The violations perpetrated throughout the conflict in January have left a scar on the local population of NES and a lack of accountability remains an impediment on the path towards a peaceful and democratic Syria.