Photo Essay: The Town of Tel Refaat

A return to ordinary life with the fall of the Assad regime

The town of Tel Refaat in north Aleppo countryside became a focal point in the tensions between the insurgency against the Assad regime and the Kurdish-led ‘Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF), which, based out of the Afrin area, seized the town from the insurgents in February 2016. At the time, the SDF forces based in Afrin (which, unlike the SDF in the northeast of Syria, did not have U.S. backing as part of the campaign against Islamic State) exploited the insurgency’s losses in the north Aleppo countryside as the regime and its allies pushed north of Aleppo city and broke the siege of the two Twelver Shi‘a localities of Nubl and al-Zahara’.

The SDF’s seizure of the town led to the displacement of most of the local Sunni Arab population, though a small number of residents remained behind. The insurgency recaptured the town as the Assad regime rapidly collapsed in November-December 2024. I was recently able to visit Tel Refaat and feature some photos and observations below.

“Tel Refaat welcomes you”- marking the entrance to the road leading to Tel Refaat from the Aleppo-Gaziantep highway.

The hill around which Tel Refaat is based- hence the town’s name (Refaat Hill).