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 Kurdish-run areas after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a “national language” and granting the minority group official recognition.
The Kurds have said Friday’s announcement fell short of their aspirations, while the implementation of a deal agreed to in March last year — intended to see Kurdish forces integrated into the state — has stalled.
Photo: REUTERS
Government troops drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighborhoods last week and on Saturday took control of an area east of the city.
Yesterday, the government announced the capture of Tabqa, about 55km west of Raqqa.
“The Syrian army controls the strategic city of Tabqa in the Raqqa countryside, including the Euphrates Dam, which is the largest dam in Syria,” Syrian Minister of Information Hamza Almustafa was quoted by the official SANA news agency as saying.
However, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they had “taken the necessary measures to restore security and stability” in Tabqa.
In Deir Hafer, about 50km east of Aleppo, reporters 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. Both sides traded blame for violating a withdrawal deal.
Kurdish authorities ordered a curfew in the Raqqa region after the army designated a swathe of territory southwest of the Euphrates River a “closed military zone,” warning it would target what it said were several military sites.
SANA yesterday reported that the SDF destroyed two bridges over the Euphrates in Raqqa city, which lies on the eastern bank of the river.
Raqqa’s media directorate separately accused the SDF of cutting off the 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 neighborhoods in government-controlled territories in the city center 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.
On Friday, 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 on Saturday said that Damascus had “violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces,” with clashes erupting with troops south of Tabqa.
The army urged the 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 northeast, areas captured during the civil war over the past decade.
US envoy Tom Barrack met Abdi in Erbil on Saturday, the presidency of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said.
While Washington has long supported Kurdish forces, it has also backed Syria’s new authorities. US Central Command on Saturday urged Syrian government forces “to cease any offensive actions in the areas between Aleppo and al-Tabqa”.
Al-Sharaa’s announcement on Friday marked 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 marginalization. It made Kurdish a “national language” and granted nationality to all Kurds — about 20 percent of whom were stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.
The Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast said the decree was “a first step,” but “does not satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people.”
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