Government extends grip on north after stalled efforts under Ahmed al-Sharaa to reach accommodation with Kurds and fold their forces into national army

State media said on Saturday that the army took over the northern city of Tabqa and its adjacent dam, as well as the major Freedom dam, formerly known as the Baath, west of the Syrian city of Raqaa. It came despite US calls to halt the advance.

  • perestroika@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    P.S.

    Allegedly (but I trust that BBC checks its sources well) there is a cease-fire agreement. It looks extremely unfavourable to the Kurds, and promises to al-Sharaa that he’ll get almost everything.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gwk37ewvwo

    However, when I checked out what’s being written on “Kurdish Front News” (telegram channel, not news outlet, content warning, some videos depict death and violence, source ) I found a contradicting claim:

    “It is important to note that, as of the time of writing, neither the SDF, Mazloum Abdi, the Autonomous Administration, nor any of their officials or media offices have announced acceptance of this agreement.”

    However, al-Sharaa is pictured presenting a document with signatures (which I can’t verify) so I sort of expect that the ceasefire was signed by both sides, and a statement by the AANES / SDF will follow.

    I think it will be confirmed in the following days that there has been heavy fighting for Raqqa (north / east of Euphrates, 500 000 inhabitants by the last count, largest city in previously Kurdish-held area, with an Arab majority population) between SDF and HTS (government troops backed by militias of some Arab tribes). According to ABC News, SDF has lost the town to Syrian government. source This would make it clear that the river can’t work as a borderline between forces any more.

    In short, it looks bad.

    It could be that the autonomy of North-East Syria is over really soon, SDF will try to save its people by integrating with the Syrian army, and those who don’t want that will hide their weapons and go underground to wait. If the Syrian central government proves central enough and not democratic enough (currently it’s an oligarchy of former terrorists, now called government officials)… I predict that soon enough, quite numerous Syrian Kurds will want to leave their homeland.