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19-01-2026
DAMASCUS: The Syrian army has launched a military operation against Kurdish fighters in the Kurdish-controlled area of Deir Hafer, following violent clashes in Aleppo.
The army issued warnings on Friday ahead of strikes targeting the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Deir Hafer, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Aleppo, saying it would focus on areas that Kurdish forces were using “as a launching point for their terrorist operations towards the city of Aleppo and its eastern countryside”.
SDF leader Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani) said in response that his forces would withdraw to the east of the Euphrates River.
In a post on social media, Abdi said that “based on calls from friendly countries and mediators … we have decided to withdraw our forces tomorrow morning at 7am (04:00 GMT)” east of Aleppo “towards redeployment in areas east of the Euphrates”.
Abdi said he was withdrawing fighters “in demonstration of … our commitment to implementing the provisions of the March 10th agreement”, referring to stalled plans to integrate the Kurdish de facto autonomous administration into the Syrian state.
Delays with implementation of the deal, which was supposed to see the Kurdish-led SDF integrating with the Syrian Ministry of Defence by the end of 2025, led to fierce clashes in Aleppo this month that left at least 23 people dead, according to Syria’s Ministry of Health.
As Syrian forces advanced, more than 150,000 fled two pockets of the city that the SDF, which controls swaths of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, had held since the early days of Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011.
By Sunday, Syrian troops had taken full control of Aleppo.
Friday’s attack came despite a meeting between a delegation of the United States-led coalition and Kurdish forces seeking to ease tensions.
At least 4,000 people left the Deir Hafer area on Friday after the army issued a deadline to flee, according to Syrian authorities.
The Syrian government has been seeking to extend its authority nationwide following the removal of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
In an apparent gesture of goodwill following the fighting in Aleppo, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree on Friday declaring Kurdish a “national language”.
The decree, the first formal recognition of Kurdish rights since independence in 1946, declares the minority “an essential and integral part” of Syria, where they have suffered decades of marginalization and oppression.
Al-Sharaa also made Nowruz, the Kurdish New Year falling on March 21, an official holiday and granted nationality to Kurds, as 20 percent had been stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.
In a televised address announcing the decree, al-Sharaa urged Kurds to “actively participate in building this nation”, promising to “guarantee” their rights.
On 6th January, Syrian government forces engaged in deadly clashes with Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Aleppo governorate, with at least four people killed in artillery fire and gun battles.
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said a soldier was killed and three injured in an attack by SDF fighters on Tuesday.
Citing the Interior Ministry, state television later reported three civilians, including two women, were killed and others wounded, including two children, in shelling of a residential area that it blamed on the SDF.
“Heavy fighting between government forces and the SDF fighters is continuing and is particularly concentrated in the districts of Ashrafiyah and Sheikh Maqsoud, where the majority of the Kurds live. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
