Wusta clashes

Wusta clashes (2016)
Part of the Syrian Civil War
Date 12 January 2016 (1 day) Location Qamishli, Hasakah Governorate, North-Eastern Syria Status Ceasefire
Belligerents
Assyrians	Syrian Kurdistan
Units involved
Sootoro (GPF)	YPG Asayish
Strength
~ 500 fighters	30 vehicles, hundreds of fighters
Casualties and losses
1 killed, 2 wounded	3 killed
3 wounded

The 2015 Qamishli bombings refer to three bombs, that detonated in three restaurants in Wusta, an Assyrian district of the Syrian-Turkish border town of Qamishli on 30 December 2015. The first reports stated, that it were suicide bombings, however the military spokesman of the Assyrian, Sootoro, in Qamishli, said, that the attacks were not suicide bombs. A Kurdish militia spokesman said, that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was responsible for the blasts and that the bombings were targeting Christians, but Assyrian organisations claimed that the bombings were not likely a deed by ISIL, but possibly a crime by the Kurdish YPG. A total of 16 people were killed, 14 of the victims were Assyrian Christians and 2 Muslims, also 35 people were wounded.

In the aftermath of the 2015 Qamishli bombings that targeted Assyrian Christian restaurants, the Assyrian Sootoro defense militia set up security checkpoints around the perimeter of the al-Wusta neighborhood, a predominately Christian district of Qamishli.

On 12 January, at around 12:45, a group of Kurdish YPG fighters approached a GPF manned checkpoint and demanded that the militia take down the security barriers, stating that the checkpoints bothered residents and must be removed. When this was refused, a YPG gunner opened fire from a 30. or 50. caliber machine gun mounted on a technical vehicle. A GPF fighter was struck in the head and killed instantly. In the aftermath, fighting and exchanges of gun fire continued for over an hour between both sides and ended when the YPG asked a Syrian government representative to mediate a ceasefire. During the clashes, 3 YPG fighters were killed, 2 GPF were wounded, and 3 civilians were injured in the cross-fire.