Syria’s new government and the Kurdish-majority Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have signed an agreement ending days of heavy fighting and establishing the withdrawal of the SDF from large parts of their territory.
Despite the fact that Syria’s civil war has dragged on for 15 years, much has changed in the span of just over a week.
In December 2024, now-president Ahmed Al-Sharaa shocked the world in a stunning reversal of a frozen conflict, by ousting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in just 11 days.
It now appears Al-Sharaa has managed to pull off another stunning advance over the last 11 days with a deal which also secures the SDF’s disarmament and integration into the state.
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The shadow of a war between Syria’s new government and the SDF has hung heavy over the country for the last year. Many feared it could plunge the country back into interminable war. Instead it seemed to last less than a fortnight.
The SDF, which until yesterday controlled large tracts of territory in Syria’s northeast, was the last remaining player from the country’s civil war that remained beyond the authority of the new government in Damascus.
Tensions have been growing over the last year as negotiations to integrate the SDF into the new government stalled. Clashes have frequently erupted around the Kurdish neighbourhoods of Aleppo and a 700km frontline that stretches along the Euphrates river in the country’s east.
On January 8th the government launched an offensive to seize parts of Aleppo from the SDF. Over the next 10 days, they pushed through SDF-held towns in the east of the province and, by Saturday, reached the outskirts of Raqqa, Islamic State’s former capital that was liberated by the SDF in 2017.
The SDF was the US coalition’s key ally on the ground in the fight against Islamic State – also known as Isis – and has been its primary security partner ever since. However, Damascus’ new government has increasingly cozied up to Washington, officially being invited to the US anti-Islamic State coalition in December – in a potential sign of shifting loyalties.
It remains unclear whether Washington greenlit this latest offensive., Some reports suggest that US officials have grown increasingly frustrated with the SDF intransigence in negotiations.
Developments culminated on Sunday, when a seemingly co-ordinated tribal uprising in the eastern governorate of Deir Ez-Zour forced the SDF to abandon the province.
By the evening, fireworks were exploding over Raqqa, as the largely Arab populace celebrated the withdrawal of the SDF from the city as well.
That very evening, Ahmed Al-Sharaa appeared on televisions across the country to announce that a deal had been agreed between the government and the SDF essentially ending hostilities.
The deal stipulates the SDF’s withdrawal from the Arab-majority provinces under its control, as well as its integration into the institutions of the Syrian state.
US special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said the deal was “a pivotal inflection point, where former adversaries embrace partnership over division”.
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Syria’s ministry of defence began deploying forces in Deir Ez-Zour governorate on Monday. By morning, the last remaining bridge across the Euphrates was rammed with military traffic, as convoys of armed men, some clearly affiliated with the new Syrian army, others appearing to be rag-tag tribal elements wrapped in headscarves and bandoliers, flooded north.
On the far side of the Euphrates things remained quiet, except for the occasional rattle of celebratory gunfire.
At a tribal meeting house in the village of Mohaimida, Sheikh Hisham Al-Bashir, the chief of the Begara tribe – which represents at least three million people across Syria – sat surrounded by a retinue of robed figures. The Begara tribe had been allies of the SDF until they defected to the government on Sunday.
“It is our duty to see Syria unified,” he explained. “We were allies because the Asaad regime was the only other option. Now there is an alternative.”
The SDF withdrew to the provinces of Kobane, Qamishli and Hasake on Sunday – all of which have large Kurdish populations. Sporadic fighting is ongoing on the provincial borders, with the SDF presumably scared that government forces entering these regions could spark sectarian massacres as occurred when the Syrian army deployed into Alawite and Druze minority provinces last year.
On Sunday, reports emerged of killings by the SDF targeting Arabs in the SDF-controlled province of Hasake. The extent of the killings is unclear as local media has been reporting various death tolls ranging from 20 to 200.
A local source in Hasake said they have verified the deaths of five women and children.
A lot of those targeted in the attacks were from the Begara tribe, said Al-Bashir. “We have confirmed the killing of seven members of our tribe, and an unknown number have been injured.” The Irish Times has not been able to independently verify this claim.
“If such acts continue it could elicit a response,” he warned.
