Syrian forces seize northern towns after Kurdish withdrawal

Syria’s government forces moved into two northern towns after the commanders of Kurdish-led fighters announced plans to withdraw.

Early on Saturday, the Syrian army said it had seized full control of Deir Hafer, east of Aleppo, and the nearby town of Maskana.

It also said it had captured the Jarrah airbase, east of Deir Hafer, and the oil fields of Sufyan and Thawrah, near Tabqa, alongside more than 30 villages.

Images showed Syrian forces, including tanks and pickup trucks carrying heavy machine guns, closing in on Deir Hafer.

On Saturday afternoon, the government also announced that its soldiers were advancing from several directions to the Tabqa military airport.

At least two soldiers were killed and more wounded in clashes as both sides accused each other of violating a withdrawal deal that saw Kurdish forces leaving dozens of towns and villages to stave off a bloodbath.

The US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement that Syrian forces had “created a highly dangerous situation with potentially serious repercussions” after violating an agreement which specified a 48-hour withdrawal window and urged guarantees of safe passage.

Later on Saturday, it added that groups of its fighters remained besieged in the towns “as a result of the Damascus government’s treachery”.

The government, in turn, alleged that SDF fighters had attacked its troops in Maskana, killing two soldiers and injuring several others.

More than 11,000 people had fled Deir Hafer and Maskana through side roads to state-controlled territories after the government announced its lightning offensive to claim control over the towns.

Mazloum Abdi, the leader of the SDF, said on Friday that his forces in northern Syria would redeploy east of the Euphrates river “based on calls from friendly countries and mediators and in a demonstration of good faith” as the Syrian military announced that it had begun striking SDF positions.

It came hours after a US military designation met SDF officials in Deir Hafer to stabilise the situation, urging both sides to refrain from escalation. Tom Barrack, the US special envoy to Syria, is scheduled to meet Mr Abdi in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on Saturday.

The SDF’s decision to withdraw also came after Ahmad al-Sharaa, Syria’s interim president, issued a decree to expand the rights of the country’s Kurds, designating Kurdish a national language and declaring the traditional Kurdish celebration Newroz an official holiday.

The decree formed the first ever formal recognition of Kurdish national rights since Syria became independent in 1946.

Despite this, the Kurdish administration in Syria’s north and north-east said the “temporary” decree failed to measure up to their hopes and called for the expanded rights to be enshrined in the country’s constitution.

The decree “does not form a real guarantee for rights of Syria’s ethnic groups”, it said.

Mr al-Sharaa has been seeking to bring Kurdish organisations into Syria’s official institutions since Bashar al-Assad was removed from power in late 2024.

In March last year, he reached a deal with the SDF that has yet to take effect almost a year later amid mutual recriminations.

[Source: Enab Baladi English]