Suluk or Saluq is a town within the Tell Abyad District of Raqqa Governorate in Syria. Suluk is close to the border with Turkey. The population of the town is predominantly Arab. although a Turkish source claimed the population of the town is predominantly Turkmen, while the nahiyah consists mostly of Turkmen and Arabs. In the early 13th century, during Ayyubid rule, the medieval geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi noted that Suluk was "a town of Syria". In June 2015, Suluk was taken over by the Kurdish People's Protection Units in the course of their Tell Abyad offensive. Kurdish YPG forces were accused of expelling the entire population of the town, although they allowed only 10,000 of them to return, Furthermore, Amnesty International accused YPG of "razing" nearby villages, and "ethnic cleansing" of Arabs. They have denied the Amnesty report, calling it "biased, unprofessional and politicized" as it made no mention of the human rights violations by the Islamic State. On 27 February 2016, fighters of the terrorist group Islamic State attacked Suluk, the village Hammam at‑Turkuman and Tall Abyad. At this point, the towns were not directly at the front to ISIL-held territory anymore and the jihadists were able to expel the Kurdish People's Protection Units in this surprise attack from Suluk and Hammam at-Turkuman. Kurdish security forces soon were able to encircle the attackers and recaptured the villages on March 3, 2016. The liberation came too late for 15 civilians in Hammam at-Turkuman, which were executed by the jihadists in the charge of "Refusing to corporate with IS and helping the YPG earlier". According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 70 fighters from the Islamic State and 20 Kurdish fighters were killed during the clashes. A spokesman of the YPG, Redur Xelil, accused Turkey of supporting the terrorists because some of them infiltrated from the Turkish border to the north. Turkey denied the accusations. During the Turkish offensive in north-east Syria in October 2019, Suluk was captured by Turkey and its allies.
