Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) captured the cities of Serê Kaniyê and Dirbêsiyê, during clashes with pro-government forces in Al-Hasakah.

The Syrian civil war began with the Syrian revolution in March 2011, when popular discontent with the Ba'athist regime ruled by Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring. The Assad regime responded to the protests with lethal force, sparking a civil war. The Syrian revolution lasted almost 14 years and culminated in the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. Many sources regard this as the end of the civil war.

The People's Defense Units (YPG), also called People's Protection Units, is a libertarian socialist US-backed Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Ras al-Ayn, also spelled Ras al-Ain, is a city in al-Hasakah Governorate in northeastern Syria, on the Syria–Turkey border.

Al-Dirbasiyah is a Syrian town on the Syria–Turkey border opposite the Turkish town of Şenyurt. Administratively it is part of the Al-Hasakah Governorate. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), al-Dirbasiyah had a population of 8,551 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of a nahiyah ("subdistrict") consisting of 113 localities with a combined population of 55,614 in 2004. The majority of the inhabitants of the town are Kurds while Arabs and Assyrian are a minority.

Al-Hasakah Governorate is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is located in the far north-east corner of Syria and distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water, natural environment, and more than one hundred archaeological sites. It was formerly known as Al-Jazira Province. Prior to the Syrian Civil War nearly half of Syria's oil was extracted from the region. It is the lower part of Upper Mesopotamia.