On the Ground in Rojava Under Siege
POPULAR FRONT
Jake Hanrahan
4.8 • 978 Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
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Summary
We speak to journalist Wladimir van Wilgenburg. He's just been on the ground in Rojava as HTS jihadists put the region under siege...
Wlad: https://x.com/vvanwilgenburg/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the Popular Front podcast with me Jake Hanrahan. |
| 0:07.0 | We're focused on the niche details of modern warfare and underreported conflict all across the world. |
| 0:13.0 | Popular Front is completely independent. |
| 0:17.0 | Today we're speaking to journalist Vladimir Van Wilgenberg. He's been on the ground in Rajava literally yesterday as it frankly gets put under siege by the jihadists of HTS with the backing of Turkey and the complete abandonment of the US. |
| 0:35.0 | Things are looking very bad. |
| 0:36.3 | The clashes have moved way out of Aleppo. |
| 0:38.3 | Now we're seeing very serious war crimes, ethnic cleansing, mass mobilization by the Kurds. |
| 0:43.8 | Vlad's going to tell us what is happening on the ground. |
| 0:46.8 | I'm going to support what we're doing here at Popular Front, 100% independent. |
| 0:51.0 | Go to patreon.com slash popular front. |
| 0:58.5 | All right, Vlad. |
| 1:02.9 | So I think before we go into what you've seen on the ground yesterday and the day before, |
| 1:10.0 | maybe you can just explain to our listeners |
| 1:12.8 | what has happened in the last few days. |
| 1:16.4 | We did an episode about how HTS were attacking Kurds in Aleppo, |
| 1:21.6 | and of course it's got a lot worse than that now. |
| 1:24.1 | Can you just go over and explain what is happening right now? |
| 1:34.3 | Well, so basically what was going on is that for some time there were negotiations between the Mosques and the SDF and they broke down because the SDF they want to have |
| 1:41.3 | under control over their units and they want to still have some |
| 1:45.6 | form of decentralization in northern Syria. And the Damascus wants to have a centralized |
| 1:51.1 | rule. So in the beginning, when the Assad regime fell, the HS, they didn't immediately move |
| 1:56.9 | on these Kurdish two neighborhoods you mentioned. They didn't want to really fight the S. |
... |
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