HASAKEH: Syria&#39;s government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces agreed on a new ceasefire on Tuesday as Washington said the SDF&#39;s purpose in fighting the Islamic State group was largely over. The announcement came after the army sent reinforcements to the Kurds&#39; Hasakeh province stronghold in the northeast, and Kurdish forces withdrew from the Al-Hol camp, which houses thousands of people with suspected IS links, including foreign women and children. The latest truce opens the way for further talks on a deal announced Sunday between President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi that includes integrating the Kurds&#39; de facto autonomous administration into the state, in a major blow to the Kurds. The SDF once controlled vast areas of north and east Syria, which it seized from IS with support from a US-led international coalition. But they have now withdrawn from Arab-majority Raqa and Deir Ezzor provinces after a government military escalation that began in Aleppo earlier this month. The defense ministry in Damascus announced a four-day ceasefire starting Tuesday evening. The SDF said it was committed to the truce and ready to &quot;move forward with implementing&quot; Sunday&#39;s agreement. An AFP correspondent saw major military reinforcements moving toward Hasakeh province, while a military official said his tank convoy had &quot;assault and defensive vehicles behind us for support.&quot; Sharaa&#39;s forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in 2024. The new authorities are seeking to extend state control across Syria, resetting international ties, including with the United States, now a key ally. US President Donald Trump backed Sharaa as a &quot;tough guy&quot; on Tuesday, adding, &quot;But you&#39;re not gonna put a choir boy in there and get the job done.&quot; &#39;Largely expired&#39;US envoy Tom Barrack said earlier, &quot;The original purpose of the SDF as the primary anti-ISIS force on the ground has largely expired, as Damascus is now both willing and positioned to take over security responsibilities, including control of ISIS detention facilities and camps.&quot; Syria&#39;s presidency on Tuesday announced a fresh &quot;understanding&quot; with the Kurds over the fate of Kurdish-majority areas of Hasakeh province, and gave the Kurds &quot;four days for consultations to develop a detailed plan&quot; for the area&#39;s integration. If finalized, government forces &quot;will not enter the city centers of Hasakeh and Qamishli ... and Kurdish villages,&quot; it added. In Hasakeh city earlier Tuesday, an AFP correspondent saw Kurdish residents, including women and the elderly, bearing weapons in support of the SDF, which patrolled and manned checkpoints. Fighter Shahine Baz told AFP: &quot;We promise our people to protect them until the end.&quot; In northeast Syria&#39;s Qamishli, Hasina Hammo, 55, holding a Kalashnikov, said, &quot;We will not surrender.&quot; Earlier Tuesday, the SDF said its forces &quot;were compelled to withdraw from Al-Hol camp and redeploy&quot; near north Syria cities &quot;that are facing increasing risks and threats.&quot; Northeast Syria&#39;s Kurdish-administered camps and prisons hold tens of thousands of people, many with alleged or perceived IS links, nearly seven years after the group&#39;s territorial defeat. Al-Hol is the largest camp. The defense ministry said it was ready to take responsibility for Al-Hol camp &quot;and all IS prisoners.&quot; &#39;Red line&#39;&nbsp;SDF chief Abdi urged the coalition to &quot;bear its responsibilities in protecting facilities&quot; holding IS members. &quot;We withdrew to predominantly Kurdish areas and protecting them is a red line,&quot; he added. Al-Hol director Jihan Hanan told AFP in December that the camp was home to more than 24,000 people, including thousands of foreigners. The Kurds have repeatedly urged countries to take their citizens from the facility, which has a high-security section holding non-Syrian and non-Iraqi women and children, but most have repatriated only a trickle. Trump told the New York Post on Tuesday that he had helped stop a prison break of European fighters in Syria, a day after the army accused the SDF of releasing IS detainees from the Shadadi prison. The Kurds said they lost control of the facility after an attack by Damascus. The SDF on Monday had urged Kurds at home and abroad to &quot;join the ranks of the resistance&quot; in Syria. The Kurds are spread across Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey, where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers&#39; Party (PKK) said it would &quot;never abandon&quot; Syria&#39;s Kurds. Clashes erupted on the Syria-Turkey border on Tuesday between police and pro-Kurdish protesters angered by the Syrian military offensive, an AFP correspondent said. Dozens of Kurds residing in Iraqi Kurdistan headed for Syria in response to the call, a correspondent there said. Nadia Murad, the Iraqi Yazidi survivor of sexual slavery at the hands of IS, condemned what she said was the world&#39;s abandonment of Syria&#39;s Kurds.

Middle East

Presidency announces fresh 'understanding' with Kurds over fate of Kurdish-majority areas, gives Kurds 'four days for consultations to develop a detailed plan' for the area's integration; if finalized, government forces 'will not enter the city centers of Hasakeh and Qamishli ... and Kurdish villages.'

Syria government agrees new truce with Kurdish forces

BAGHDAD: Iraq said on Sunday US-led coalition forces had finished withdrawing from bases within the country&#39;s federal territory, which excludes the autonomous northern Kurdistan region. &quot;We announce today... the completion of the evacuation of all military bases and leadership headquarters in the official federal areas of Iraq of advisers&quot; of the US-led coalition, the military committee tasked with overseeing the end of the coalition&#39;s mission said. With the withdrawal, &quot;these sites come under the full control of Iraqi security forces&quot;, it said in the statement, adding that they would transition to &quot;the stage of bilateral security relations with the United States&quot;. The vast majority of coalition forces had withdrawn from Iraqi bases under a 2024 deal between Baghdad and Washington outlining the end of the mission in Iraq by the end of 2025 and by September 2026 in the Kurdistan region. US and allied troops had been deployed to Iraq and Syria since 2014 to fight the Islamic State group, which had seized large swathes of both countries to declare their so-called &quot;caliphate.&quot; The jihadist group was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, but continues to operate sleeper cells. The vast majority of coalition troops withdrew from Iraq over previous stages, with only advisers remaining in the country. The military committee on Sunday said Iraqi forces were now &quot;fully capable of preventing the reappearance of IS in Iraq and its infiltration across borders&quot;. &quot;Coordination with the international coalition will continue with regards to completely eliminating IS&#39;s presence in Syria,&quot; it added. It pointed to &quot;the coalition&#39;s role in Iraq offering cross-border logistical support for operations in Syria, through their presence at an airbase in Erbil&quot;, the capital of Iraq&#39;s Kurdistan region. In December, two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in Syria in an attack blamed on IS, sparking fears of a resurgence in the country. The statement added that anti-IS operations would be coordinated with the coalition through the Ain al-Assad base in Anbar province in western Iraq. IS attacks in Iraq have massively declined in recent years, but the group maintains a presence in the country&#39;s mountainous areas. A UN Security Council report in August said: &quot;In Iraq, the group has focused on rebuilding networks along the Syrian border and restoring capacity in the Badia region.&quot;

Iraq announced completion of the US-led coalition’s withdrawal from federal territory, transferring all bases to Iraqi security forces and shifting to bilateral security ties, while coordination continues against Islamic State threats, particularly regarding Syria

Articles tagged with "Kurdistan region"

Syria government agrees new truce with Kurdish forces

Iraq announces complete withdrawal of US-led coalition from federal territory