Syrian government forces entered northern towns after the withdrawal of Kurdish forces

Syrian government forces entered two northern towns on Saturday morning after the Kurdish-led military command said it would withdraw from the area in an apparent fashion to avoid clashes.

Two soldiers were killed and others were injured in the latest incident, state media reported. The city of Deir Hafer changed hands after deadly fighting broke out earlier this month between government forces and the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. in the city of Aleppothe largest in Syria. It ended with the removal of Kurdish forces from three areas captured by government forces.

An Associated Press reporter on Saturday saw government tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles, including trucks with mounted heavy artillery, enter Deir Hafer after bulldozers cleared the roadblocks. There was no SDF on the outskirts of the city.

The Syrian army said its forces are in full control of Deir Hafer, have captured the Jarrah airbase to the east, and are in the process of clearing mines and explosives. It added that the troops would head to the nearby town of Maskana, where an AP reporter saw a military convoy overturned a few hours later.

The SDF said in a statement that according to the agreement, the Syrian army was supposed to enter Deir Hafer and Maskana after the Kurdish-led forces completed their withdrawal. “Damascus violated the terms of the agreement and entered the cities before our fighters fully withdrew, which created a very dangerous situation with potentially dangerous consequences,” the SDF said.

State news agency SANA reported that SDF soldiers “violated the agreement” by targeting a patrol near Maskana, leaving two soldiers dead and others wounded. SANA added that government forces continued to advance eastward, reaching two villages in the northern province of Raqqa.

Over the past two days, more than 11,000 people have fled Deir Hafer and Maskana using side roads to reach government-controlled areas, after the government announced an offensive on the towns.

On Friday night, after government forces began attacking SDF positions in Deir Hafer, Kurdish-led militia commander Mazloum Abdi wrote to X that his group would withdraw from disputed areas in northern Syria. Abdi said the SDF will move east of the Euphrates River starting at 7 am local time on Saturday.

The easing of tensions came after US military officials visited Deir Hafer on Friday and held talks with SDF officials in the area. The United States has good relations with both sides and has called for calm.

Abdi was scheduled to hold talks with the US special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on Saturday.

The decision of the SDF to withdraw from Deir Hafer was made after Syria interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree on Friday advancing the rights of the Kurds, who made up about 10% of Syria’s 23 million people before the conflict began in 2011. Decades ago, Syrian Kurds were marginalized and deprived of their cultural rights under the rule of the Baath Party which ruled Syria for sixty years until then. The fall of Bashar Assad in December 2024.

Al-Sharaa’s law recognized Kurdish as the national language, along with Arabic, and adopted the Newroz festival, a traditional celebration of spring and renewal marked by Kurds throughout the region, as an official holiday.

A Kurdish-led official in northeastern Syria said on Saturday that the rights of Kurds should not be protected by “temporary laws” but by enshrining them in the country’s constitution. It added that the declaration “does not constitute a real guarantee of the rights of the Syrian ethnic groups.”