Arima (), also spelled Orayma or Arimah, is a town and seat of a subdistrict (''nahiya'') in

Al-Bab District al-Bab District () is a district of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of al-Bab Al-Bab ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Bāb'') is a Syrian city, administratively belonging to the Aleppo Governorate. Al-Bab is loca ...

, located northeast of the city of

al-Bab Al-Bab ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Bāb'') is a Syrian city, administratively belonging to the Aleppo Governorate. Al-Bab is located northeast of Aleppo, south of the Turkish border, and has an area of . Al-Bab has an altitude of . According to the Cen ...

and northeast of

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

in northern

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. In the 2004 census, it had a population of 2,839. The town of

Qabasin Qabasin () is a town located northeast of the city of Al-Bab in northern Syria. It is administratively part of the Al-Bab nahiya in the Al-Bab District of the Aleppo Governorate. 11,382 people lived in the town in 2004. A nearby town is Arima, to ...

is also to the south-west, and closer than Al-Bab.

Manbij Manbij (; ; ) is a city in the northeast of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, west of the Euphrates. The 2004 census gives its population as nearly 100,000.

city is to the north-east. In course of the Syrian Civil War, the town repeatedly changed hands. As of 2020, it was under dual control of the Syrian government and the

Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria The Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), also known as Rojava, is a ''de facto'' Autonomous administrative division, autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing Regions of North and E ...

(AANES).

Syrian civil war

During the Syrian civil war, the village came under the control of, first the rebels in 2012, and then

ISIL The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signif ...

in 2014. During its Manbij offensive in the summer of 2016,

Syrian Democratic Forces The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is a Kurds in Syria, Kurdish-led coalition of U.S.-backed Left-wing politics, left-wing ethnic militias and rebel groups, and serves as the official military wing of the Democratic Autonomous Administration ...

(SDF) forces approached the village. In the morning of Monday 20 June 2016,

fighters attacked the Syrian Democratic Forces that had besieged Manbij city, from the Arima village, the

Manbij Military Council The Manbij Military Council (MMC) is a coalition established by several groups in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), primarily the Northern Sun Battalion, on 2 April 2016 at the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates. The MMC led the SDF's Manbij offen ...

said. The clashes continued until the afternoon and were repelled by SDF forces. The Al-Shahba documentation centre said ISIL militants arrested 143, mostly Kurdish, civilians in the neighbourhood of the village on 20 June. On 22 June Arima came back in the hands of ISIS, but was retaken by the SDF on 3 October. According to the

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (also known as SOHR; ), founded in May 2006, is a United Kingdom-based information office whose stated aim is to document human rights abuses in Syria; since 2011 it has focused on the Syrian Civil War. ...

as of November 2016 the town was under the control of

Buffer zone

Early 2017 saw military clashes in and around Arima between

Syrian National Army The Syrian National Army (SNA; ), also known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA), is a coalition of armed Syrian opposition groups that participate in the Syrian civil war. Comprising various rebel factions that emerged at the sta ...

(SNA) and the Manbij Military Council (MMC). President

Tayyip Erdogan Tayyip () is a Turkish given name for males. Tayyip may refer to: * Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 1954), Turkish politician, and Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey from 2003 to 2014, and current President of Turkey since 2014 *Tayyip Talha Sa ...

of Turkey had declared that

Operation Euphrates Shield Operation Euphrates Shield () was an offensive by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, which led to the Turkish occupation of northern Syria. Operations were carried out in the region between the Euphrates river to th ...

's target after

would be to rid Manbij of the mostly Kurdish

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

. On March 1, 2017, an agreement between the SDF and the Syrian government, established a buffer zone along the border between the MMC controlled Manbij area and the Turkish buffer zone. The deal brokered by

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

gave control of five villages including Arima to the Syrian government, and by March 4 the Syrian Army had entered the zone. By 13 March Russian troops had also entered the zone. However, the local governing council remained aligned with the al-Bab Military Council, part of the AANES' SDF. The Russian and U.S. American militaries also maintained bases near Arima. On 25 December 2018, Arima was again placed under Syrian Army control after a deal with the SDF. This was in response to renewed threats of a Turkish-led operation against the SDF in and around Manbij. The SDF also continued to maintain a presence in the village through the al-Bab Military Council, Manbij Military Council, and

Kurdish Front The Kurdish Front (, transliterated: Jabhat al-Akrād; , former full name: ''Liwa' Jabhat al-'Akrād an-Nuṣrah Shaʿbnā al-Sūrī'', "Brigade of the Kurdish Front to Support Our Syrian People") is a predominantly Kurdish Syrian rebel facti ...

. By 2019, the local population suffered from the area's tensions and blockades, as farmers were unable to access their fields in the Turkish-occupied areas. Occasional fighting between the Syrian National Army and the al-Bab Military Council also continued. In March 2020,

SOHR The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (also known as SOHR; ), founded in May 2006, is a United Kingdom-based information office whose stated aim is to document human rights abuses in Syria; since 2011 it has focused on the Syrian Civil War. ...

reported a rocket attack by the SNA against the Russian base and SDF-aligned factions in Arima. In 2024, the town was targeted as part of a Turkish-backed SNA offensive.

References

Populated places in al-Bab District Towns in Aleppo Governorate {{Syria-geo-stub