Syrian pro-government forces captured north-eastern areas near the border with Iraq in overnight fighting against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in an attempt to cut off the remaining supply line to the group, sources told The National on Tuesday.
There were no immediate reports of casualties but both sides have accused each other of targeting civilian areas with drones, despite a US-brokered ceasefire that was extended by 15 days on Saturday.
An SDF official told The National that the regular government forces, along with Arab tribes who were allied with the SDF but switched sides, had captured Al Safa area near Road 6. The route connects the SDF-held city of Qamishli with the town of Malikyah, near the last remaining border crossing to Iraq still controlled by the SDF.
Al Shara's goal
The government has retaken most of the vast SDF-held territory in eastern and north-east Syria over the past two weeks, after the erosion of US support for the group. The SDF has presented the most formidable challenge to President Ahmad Al Shara's goal of bringing all Syrian territory under the control of Damascus since his rebel group ousted former president Bashar Al Assad in December 2024.
Government forces, bolstered by Arab tribes and formations comprising former Turkish proxies from the Syrian civil war (2011-2024), have squeezed the SDF into pockets near Iraq and Turkey.
The official said the government was not seeking the immediate capture of SDF-held cities, but "wants to cut them off from each other first".
After losing the governorates of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa, the SDF has been left with only patches of territory, comprising mainly the triangle of Hasakah, Amouda and Qamishli cities in north-eastern Hasakah governorate, and the city of Kobani, also known as Ain Al Arab, to the west. Over the past 10 days, hundreds of armed Kurds, many originally from Syria, have crossed into north-eastern Syria from Iraq to support the SDF, Iraqi sources said.
Fears of forced displacement
The US is mediating talks for the remaining SDF-held areas to be handed over to the government-led police forces and civil agencies rather than the Syrian military, the official said. The SDF is also seeking guarantees for the safety of thousands of its fighters and that the Kurdish inhabitants of the north-east will not be subject to forced displacement.
The official said the SDF would fight to prevent an "Afrin scenario". In 2018, thousands of Kurds fled to Aleppo city after the countryside area of Afrin fell to Turkish forces and to an Ankara proxy called the Syrian National Army, which has since become part of the post-Assad Syrian army.
The Kurdish-Iraqi Masoud Barzani, leader of Kurdistan Democratic Party, who is involved in the mediation, does not want a mass of Syrian Kurdish refugees streaming into the area that he and his clan control in northern Iraq.
A security source in Jordan who has been monitoring the fighting said the Syrian government was aiming to isolate the SDF into four separate pockets − Hasakah city, Qamishli-Amouda, Malikyah and Kobani, all areas with large Kurdish populations. Anticipating this scenario, Russia has pulled its forces from a small base in Qamishli, the source said. Moscow was a key supporter of Mr Al Assad during the civil war, along with Iran.
Arab tribes
The source said the SDF has chosen not to defend Arab areas that were under its control. "It seems that the SDF is preserving its strength in case of a protracted war over the Kurdish areas," they said.
The Syrian government’s push to retake areas held by the SDF marks the end of a unique experiment in the history of the Kurds, a transnational minority left out of deals between the great powers that shaped the Middle East at the beginning of the 20th century.
Kurdish SDF commanders, many of whom were members or surrogates of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the European Union, had the ultimate say over a mostly Arab population. This is in contrast to northern Iraq, which is majority Kurdish and has held regular elections, although two parties, each led by different families, remain the dominant political players.
The SDF ran the east and benefited from oil revenue, with US support, but without awarding real decision-making to Arab tribes who were also part of the group and participated in its civil structures. Many of these tribes turned against the SDF as soon as it became clear last week that US support would end.
