The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have tightened their siege on Syria’s northeastern city of Hasakah, preventing the entry of wheat and fuel into the government-controlled zone of the city for the sixth day in a row.

The SDF said they have taken control of more than 10 Syrian government offices relating to local finance, grains, and education in the city of Qamishli in Hasakah governorate.

According to local sources, the SDF have also closed the highway leading to the government-run Qamishli airport.

Media reports said that the SDF and the Asayish, the police force of the autonomous administration of north and east Syria, expelled Syrian troops and took control of the government zones without resistance. Government forces remain in control of military security, state security, and political security buildings.

On 9 April, when the siege began, the SDF took over the main bakeries in Hasakah, preventing civilians from securing bread and prompting the government to accuse the US-backed militia of attempts to starve the people.

“The SDF, which is linked to the American occupier, is in full coordination with the US over the siege it is imposing on the city of Hasakah,” Hasakah governor Ghassan Khalil told media on 12 April.

“The SDF is preventing the entry of flour, foodstuffs, and fuel that operate bakeries, and this increases pressure on citizens who are already under difficult circumstances and in the month of Ramadan,” he added.

The siege reportedly comes in response to the Syrian government blockade on two Kurdish-controlled neighborhoods in Aleppo that began on 13 March.

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) blockade on the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh, which are separated from the rest of Aleppo by checkpoints, is an attempt by Damascus to pressure the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), who are aligned with the SDF, into handing the Aleppo neighborhoods over to the government.

Russian-mediated talks with the YPG failed on 12 March, with the Kurdish militia insisting that the government end the blockade on the two Aleppo neighborhoods.