QAMISHLI: US forces that led a coalition against&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/us-kills-alleged-isis-militant-as-syrian-fm-visits-washington" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" rel="noopener noreferrer">ISIS</a>&nbsp;in Syria started leaving a major base in the northeast on Monday and should complete their withdrawal from the country within a month, sources told AFP. The move comes after Kurdish forces, long backed by Washington in the fight against the ISIS group, ceded territory to Damascus and agreed to integrate into the state. American forces have already withdrawn from two other bases in the past two weeks, Al-Tanf in the southeast and Shadadi in the northeast. &quot;Within a month, they will have withdrawn from Syria and there will no longer be any military presence in the bases,&quot; a Syrian government official said, with a Kurdish source confirming the timeline. A third source, a diplomat, said the withdrawal should be completed within 20 days. The United States has about 1,000 troops still deployed in Syria. It began withdrawing on Monday from the Qasrak base in the northeast, which is still under the control of <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/kurdish-sdf-fighters-leave-north-syria-prison-under-govt-deal-report" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kurdish forces</a>, a Kurdish official who requested anonymity told AFP. An AFP team saw a convoy of dozens of trucks, loaded with armoured vehicles and prefabricated structures, on a road linking the Qasrak base in Hasakeh province to the border with Iraq. Syria&#39;s government recently extended its control into the country&#39;s northeast. Washington has drawn close to Syria&#39;s new authorities since the fall of <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/syria-selects-members-of-first-postassad-parliament-in-contested-process" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bashar al-Assad</a>&nbsp;in late 2024.

Men watch as a US military mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) armored fighting vehicle moves in a convoy along a highway outside Qamishli in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on February 23, 2026. (AFP)

Middle East

The move comes after Kurdish forces, long backed by Washington in the fight against ISIS group, ceded territory to Damascus and agreed to integrate into the state.

US forces to complete withdrawal from Syria within a month: sources

RAQA: Syria said early on Friday that government forces had begun transferring Kurdish fighters from a prison in the north where they had been holding Islamic State group detainees, as part of a weekend agreement. An AFP correspondent in Raqa saw buses and cars heading away from the Al-Aqtan prison on the city&#39;s outskirts overnight, escorted by government vehicles, after roads to the facility were cut on Thursday. Syrian state television reported that the transfer of SDF members has begun &quot;after five days of negotiations with the Syrian state.&quot; They will go to the Kurdish-held city of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobane, in Aleppo province on the northern border with Turkey &quot;according to the security arrangements agreed upon by both parties,&quot; it reported. Under military pressure from Damascus, which is seeking to extend its control across the country, the SDF has relinquished swathes of territory in recent days and withdrawn to parts of Syria&#39;s Hasakeh province in the far northeast. On Sunday, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced a deal with SDF chief Mazloum Abdi that had included a ceasefire and the integration of the Kurds&#39; administration into the state, which will take responsibility for IS prisoners. State news agency SANA quoted the army as saying the Al-Aqtan transfer was &quot;the first step in implementing the January 18 agreement under which the interior ministry will take over administration of the prison.&quot; A government source told the broadcaster that around 800 fighters would exit the facility under &quot;an internationally sponsored agreement aimed at de-escalation.&quot; IS detainees will be managed &quot;according to Syrian law,&quot; the source added.

Correspondent says he saw buses and cars heading away from the Al-Aqtan prison on the city's outskirts overnight, escorted by government vehicles, after roads to the facility were.

Kurdish SDF fighters leave north Syria prison under govt deal: report

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.

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

ALEPPO: Civilians were fleeing Kurdish neighborhoods of Aleppo on Wednesday after the Syrian army declared them &quot;closed military zones&quot;, amid ongoing fighting with Kurdish-led forces in the northern city. The deadly clashes, which started on Tuesday, are the worst between the two sides, who have so far failed to implement a March deal to merge the Kurds&#39; semi-autonomous administration and military into Syria&#39;s new government. In a statement, the army said that &quot;the Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods will be considered closed military zones after 3.00 pm today&quot;, adding that &quot;two safe humanitarian crossings&quot; would be put in place for civilians to leave. AFP correspondents in Aleppo saw large groups of families with children leaving the neighborhoods, carrying their belongings with them, some in tears. &quot;All Syrian Democratic Forces military positions within the Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods of Aleppo are legitimate military targets,&quot; the army said referring to the Kurdish-led force. Senior Kurdish official Ilham Ahmed accused Damascus of launching a &quot;genocidal war&quot; against the Kurds, calling on the Syrian government to &quot;pursue a path of reason to resolve problems through dialogue&quot;. Echoes of war The violence caused the suspension of flights to and from Aleppo&#39;s airport, with schools, universities and government offices in the city shut down. Tuesday&#39;s clashes killed nine people, mostly civilians, with both sides trading blame over who started the fighting. Joud Serjian, a 53-year-old housewife and resident of the Syriac Quarter, said the violence &quot;reminded us of the war.&quot; Living in the Syriac Quarter near Ashrafieh, Serjian said &quot;we have nowhere else to go, so we&#39;ll stay in our home.&quot; During the Syrian civil war, Aleppo was the scene of fierce fighting between rebels and forces of ousted President Bashar al-Assad before he regained control of the city in 2016.&nbsp;Assad was ousted in a lightning offensive in 2024. Abdul Karim Omar, representative of the Kurds&#39; autonomous administration in Damascus, told AFP Aleppo&#39;s Kurdish-majority neighborhoods were &ldquo;completely besieged.&rdquo;&nbsp;He denied that any shells had been fired from these areas, arguing that they are controlled by the Kurds&#39; Asayish domestic security forces &quot;who only have light weapons&quot;. Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite Kurdish fighters agreeing to withdraw from the areas in April. The SDF controls swathes of Syria&#39;s oil-rich north and northeast, with the backing of a US-led international coalition, was key to the territorial defeat of the ISIS in Syria in 2019. The March agreement on the Kurdish authority&#39;s integration into the state was supposed to be implemented by the end of 2025.&nbsp;The Kurds are pushing for decentralized rule, an idea which Syria&#39;s new authorities have rejected.

The deadly clashes are the worst between the two sides, who have so far failed to implement a March deal to merge the Kurds' semi-autonomous administration and military into Syria's new government.

Syrians flee Aleppo's Kurdish areas as army declares them 'military zones'

DAMASCUS: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi has announced to AFP that he had reached a &quot;preliminary agreement&quot; with Damascus on the integration of his troops into Syria&#39;s military and security forces. Abdi, who heads the powerful Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), had met Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus last week, along with US envoy Tom Barrack and US commander Brad Cooper. While the Kurdish forces -- who control large swathes of Syria&#39;s oil-rich northeast -- had signed an agreement with the new Syrian authorities in March to merge their civil and military institutions, the deal&#39;s terms were not implemented. &quot;What is new in our recent talks in Damascus is the shared determination and strong will to accelerate the implementation of the terms&quot; of the agreement, Abdi told AFP in an interview at a military base in the northeastern city of Hasakeh on Sunday. &quot;The most important point is having reached a preliminary agreement regarding the mechanism for integrating the SDF and the (Kurdish) Internal Security Forces within the framework of defence and interior ministries,&quot; he added. The Washington-backed SDF and Kurdish security forces consist of around 100,000 male and female members, according to them. The SDF played a vital role in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, which ultimately led to the jihadist organisation&#39;s territorial defeat in the country in 2019. Abdi said that military and security delegations from his forces are currently in Damascus to discuss the mechanism for their integration. Disagreements After the fall of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in December, Sharaa announced the dissolution of all armed groups, to be absorbed by state institutions.&nbsp;Abdi explained that &quot;the SDF will be restructured through its integration into the defence ministry&quot;, as part of several formations. However, some disagreements remain. &quot;We demand a decentralised system in Syria... we have not agreed on it,&quot; he added, as they are &quot;still discussing finding a common formula acceptable to all&quot;. He stressed that they &quot;agree on the territorial integrity of Syria, the unity of national symbols, the independence of political decision-making in the country, and the fight against terrorism&quot;. &quot;We all agree that Syria should not return to the era of war, and that there should be stability and security. I believe these factors are sufficient for us to reach a permanent agreement.&quot; During the last meeting with Sharaa, Abdi said he had called for &quot;modifying or adding some clauses to the existing constitutional declaration&quot; announced in March, particularly those related to &quot;guaranteeing the rights of the Kurdish people in the constitution&quot;. &quot;There was a positive response to this matter, and we hope this will happen soon,&quot; he added. Abdi also expressed his gratitude to the United States and France for facilitating negotiations with Damascus. Asked about Damascus&#39;s main backer Turkey, which has always been hostile to the SDF, Abdi said &quot;any success of the negotiations will certainly depend on Turkey&#39;s role&quot;, expressing hope that it will play a &quot;supportive and contributing role in the ongoing negotiation process&quot;. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the SDF on Wednesday to &quot;keep their word&quot; and &quot;complete their integration with Syria&quot;. When questioned on the region&#39;s fossil fuel reserves, Abdi noted they &quot;have not yet discussed the oil issue, but it will certainly be addressed in upcoming meetings&quot;.&nbsp; &quot;Oil and other underground resources in northeastern Syria to belong to all Syrians, and their revenues and revenues must be distributed fairly across all Syrian provinces&quot;.

Syrian men attend their noon prayer, left, as others play racket ball at a public beach on the Mediterranean sea, in the coastal city of Latakia, Syria. (AP)

While the Kurdish forces -- who control large swathes of Syria's oil-rich northeast -- had signed an agreement with the new Syrian authorities in March to merge their civil and military institutions, the deal's terms were not implemented.

Articles tagged with "Syrian Kurds"

US forces to complete withdrawal from Syria within a month: sources

Kurdish SDF fighters leave north Syria prison under govt deal: report

Syria government agrees new truce with Kurdish forces

Syrians flee Aleppo's Kurdish areas as army declares them 'military zones'

Syrian Kurdish leader says reached first deal on merging forces with regular army