Syrian army extends hold over north Syria; Kurds report clashes

DEIR HAFER, Syria - Syria’s army has seized swathes of the country’s north, dislodging Kurdish forces from territory over which they held effective autonomy for more than a decade.

The government appeared to be extending its grip on parts of the country under Kurdish control a day after President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a “national language” and

granting the minority official recognition.

The Kurds have said that the Jan 16 announcement fell short of their aspirations, while the implementation of a March deal – intended to see Kurdish forces integrated into the state – has stalled.

Government troops

drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighbourhoods

last week and took control of an area east of the city on Jan 17.

On Jan 18, the government announced the capture of Tabqa, about 55km west of Raqa.

“The Syrian army controls the strategic city of Tabqa in the Raqqa countryside, including the Euphrates Dam, which is the largest dam in Syria,” said Information Minister Hamza Almustafa, according to the official SANA news agency.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), however, said they had “taken the necessary measures to restore security and stability” in Tabqa.

In Deir Hafer, some 50km east of Aleppo city, an AFP correspondent saw several SDF fighters leaving the town and residents returning under heavy army presence.

Syria’s army said four soldiers had been killed, while Kurdish forces reported several fighters dead, as both sides traded blame for violating the withdrawal deal.

Kurdish authorities ordered a curfew in the Raqa region after the army designated a swathe of territory south-west of the Euphrates River a “closed military zone” and warned that it would target what it said were several military sites.

The SANA news agency reported on Jan 18 that the SDF destroyed two bridges over the Euphrates in Raqa city, which lies on the eastern bank of the river.

Raqa’s media directorate separately accused the SDF of cutting off Raqa city’s water supply by blowing up the main water pipes.

Deir Ezzor governor Ghassan Alsayed Ahmed said on social media that the SDF fired “rocket projectiles” at neighbourhoods in government-controlled territories in the city centre of Deir Ezzor, Al-Mayadin and other areas.

The SDF said “factions affiliated with the Damascus government attacked our forces’ positions” and caused clashes in several towns on the east bank of the Euphrates, opposite Al-Mayadin and which lie between Deir Ezzor and the Iraqi border.

‘Betrayed’

On Jan 16, Syrian Kurdish leader and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi had committed to redeploying his forces from outside Aleppo to east of the Euphrates.

But the SDF said on Jan 17 that Damascus “violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces during the implementation of the withdrawal provisions”.

The army urged SDF to “immediately fulfil its announced commitments and fully withdraw” east of the river.

The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and north-east – areas captured during the country’s civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group over the past decade.

US envoy Tom Barrack met Mr Abdi on Jan 17, the presidency of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said in a statement.

While Washington has long supported Kurdish forces, it has also backed Syria’s new authorities.

The US Central Command urged “Syrian government forces to cease any offensive actions in the areas between Aleppo and al-Tabqa”.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron and the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Mr Nechirvan Barzani, called for de-escalation and a ceasefire.

Presidential decree

Mr Sharaa’s announcement on Jan 16 was the first formal recognition of Kurdish rights since Syria’s independence in 1946.

The decree stated that Kurds are “an essential and integral part” of Syria, where they have suffered decades of marginalisation.

It made Kurdish a “national language” and granted nationality to all Kurds, 20 per cent of whom had been stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.

The Kurdish administration in Syria’s north-east said the decree was “a first step” but “does not satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people”.

In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country’s north-east, resident Shebal Ali, 35, told AFP that “we want constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people’s rights”.

Mr Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, told AFP that the decree “offers cultural concessions while consolidating military control”.

“It does not address the north-east’s calls for self-governance,” he said.

Also on Jan 17, the US military said a strike in north-west Syria a day earlier had killed a militant linked to a deadly attack on three Americans in December. AFP