DEIR HAFER: Syria&#39;s army took control of swathes of the country&#39;s north on Saturday, dislodging Kurdish forces from territory over which they held effective autonomy for over a decade.&nbsp;The government appeared to be seeking to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/nine-dead-in-clashes-between-syrian-govt-kurdish-forces-in-aleppo" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">extend</a>&nbsp;its grip on parts of the country under Kurdish control a day after President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a &quot;national language&quot; and granting the minority official recognition.&nbsp;The Kurds have said the move fell short of their aspirations.&nbsp;The army drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighborhoods last week and took control of an area east of the city on Saturday, after implementation stalled on a March deal that was supposed to see Kurdish forces integrated into the state.&nbsp;Later on, Saturday, the Syrian army said it had &quot;begun entering the city of Tabqa via various axes, in parallel with encircling the PKK terrorist militias inside Tabqa military airport&quot;, according to the official SANA news agency.&nbsp;Authorities had earlier announced they had seized two oil fields near the city of Tabqa in Raqa province.&nbsp;An AFP correspondent in Deir Hafer, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Aleppo city, saw several fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) leaving the town and residents returning under heavy army presence.&nbsp;Syria&#39;s army said four soldiers had been killed, while Kurdish forces reported several fighter&rsquo;s dead, as both sides traded blame for violating the withdrawal deal.&nbsp;Kurdish authorities ordered a curfew in the Raqa region after the army designated a swathe of territory southwest of the Euphrates River a &quot;closed military zone&quot; and warned it would target what it said were several military sites.&nbsp;BetrayedSDF chief Mazloum Abdi on Friday had committed to redeploying his forces from outside Aleppo to east of the Euphrates.&nbsp;But the SDF said Saturday that Damascus &quot;violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces during the implementation of the withdrawal provisions&quot;.&nbsp;It said Kurdish forces were clashing with troops in an area south of Tabqa, &quot;which was outside the scope of the agreement&quot;.&nbsp;The army meanwhile urged the SDF leadership to &quot;immediately fulfil its announced commitments and fully withdraw to the east of the Euphrates River&quot;.&nbsp;The SDF controls swathes of Syria&#39;s oil-rich north and northeast, much of which it captured during the country&#39;s civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group over the past decade.&nbsp;US envoy Tom Barrack met Syrian Kurdish leader Abdi in Erbil on Saturday, the presidency of Iraq&#39;s autonomous Kurdistan region said in a statement.&nbsp;The United States for years has supported the Kurds but also backs Syria&#39;s new authorities.&nbsp;The US Central Command on Saturday urged &quot;Syrian government forces to cease any offensive actions in the areas between Aleppo and al-Tabqa&quot;, in a post on X.&nbsp;France&#39;s President Emmanuel Macron and the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, called for deescalation and a ceasefire, the French presidency said.&nbsp;Presidential decreeSharaa&#39;s announcement on Friday was the first formal recognition of Kurdish rights since Syria&#39;s independence in 1946.&nbsp;The decree stated that Kurds are &quot;an essential and integral part&quot; of Syria, where they have suffered decades of marginalization and oppression under former rulers.&nbsp;It made Kurdish a &quot;national language&quot; and granted nationality to all Kurds, 20 percent of whom had been stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.&nbsp;The Kurdish administration in Syria&#39;s northeast said the decree was &quot;a first step&quot; but &quot;does not satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;Rights are not protected by temporary decrees, but... through permanent constitutions that express the will of the people and all components&quot; of society, it said in a statement.&nbsp;In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country&#39;s northeast, Shebal Ali, 35, told AFP that &quot;we want constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people&#39;s rights&quot;.&nbsp;Yara, 42, a Kurdish artist in Damascus who declined to provide her full name, said the government needed to &quot;provide guarantees to earn the Kurds&#39; confidence&quot;.&nbsp;Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, told AFP that the decree &quot;offers cultural concessions while consolidating military control&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;It does not address the northeast&#39;s calls for self-governance,&quot; he told AFP, adding that &quot;Sharaa is comfortable granting cultural rights, but draws the line at power-sharing&quot;.&nbsp;He said Damascus appeared to be seeking &quot;to drive a wedge between Kurdish civilians and the armed forces that have governed them for a decade&quot;.

Middle East

Syria’s army expanded control over northern areas, clashing with Kurdish forces despite a decree recognizing Kurdish rights. Kurds decry betrayal, demand constitutional guarantees, while international actors call for de-escalation and ceasefire.

Articles tagged with "extend"

Syria army extends control over north as Kurds report clashes