The battle in Qamishili is between Asayish and Tayy tribe, the SDF is sticking the "NDF" tag on it to turn into some sort of a political struggle.
For the last few days, Damascus and SAA failed to get Tayy fighters to ceasefire, because they are not just NDF, first and foremost they are tribal fighters.
The assassination of Hayis al-Jarian yesterday was most likely by Asayish. Tribal fighters don't shot people in the back. Asayish likely hoped that this would spark some sort of intra-tribal fight.
The Arab units of the SDF are not interesting in fighting other tribal fighters, at the same time the SDF can't go all in with its Kurdish units against Tayy fighters. You can see how an intra-tribal conflict would be perfect for the SDF.
On the other side, the NDF gets nothing at all from the assassination, shooting messengers in the back is a big deal in tribal culture, I would no tribal force would make the collective decision to carry out such an act.
May be some sniper from Tayy just went on and killed al-Jarian. This may have been the case. But it is not like this is the first time Asayish kill tribal leaders to spark some conflicts and further it is interests. Remember Deir Ezzor earlier this year?
Technically speaking, al-Jarian was shot at night, so who has fancy nigh-vision sights in al-Qamishili? Yeah may be one or two NDF fighters, but just take a look at YAT snipers. Another possibility is that it was a stray bullet, a mistake by Asayish or NDF.
If this very useless, unnecessary battle in al-Qamishli highlights anything it is the striking power of the SDF media machine, which is able to promote any story without being challenged much.
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