Thread by @TimInHonolulu

1. I've been trying to keep up with events in north and east #Syria since 2014, but I concede I've never really understood what the deal was in #Hasakah and for me the reports of operations there taking down #ISIS cells is an interesting development.

2. The maps all show the regime still holding territory east of the city including a hill that looks to me like an intercept station. I have no clue how the #SAA forces there are supplied. The coexistence with #SDF was for me early evidence that #SDF were not a separatist group.

3. What concerns me most is that I believed that the area was more under the regime control than the SDF control and now it appears to have been a hotbed of ISIS cells. That raises a question I addressed years ago and that gained zero traction and that is whether the Regime and

4. it's Russian benefactors have had a clandestine relationship with ISIS. I always viewed the early ISIS videos as very Russian works. Plus I believe Putin is capable of any degree of evil. But now we see that the area of liberated Syria that was under partial Regime control

5. is apparently crawling with ISIS. If anyone has good open source intel on this I would be grateful. I can only say that the SDF has been very tight lipped on Hasakah and as far as I can tell so has the @coalition.