Individuals welcome Syrian authorities forces as they enter the city of Deir Hafer, Syria, Jan. 17. AP-Yonhap
DEIR HAFER, Syria — Syrian authorities forces entered two northern cities Saturday morning after the command of Kurdish-led fighters mentioned it will evacuate the world in an obvious transfer to keep away from battle.
Two troopers have been killed and others wounded within the newest conflict, state media reported. The city of Deir Hafer modified fingers after lethal combating erupted earlier this month between authorities troops and the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Aleppo, Syria’s largest metropolis. It ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters from three neighborhoods taken over by authorities forces.
An Related Press reporter Saturday noticed authorities tanks, armored personnel carriers and different autos, together with pickup vehicles with heavy machine weapons mounted on prime, coming into Deir Hafer after bulldozers eliminated obstacles. There was no SDF presence on the sting of the city.
The Syrian army mentioned its forces have been in full management of Deir Hafer, captured the Jarrah air base to the east, and have been within the strategy of clearing mines and explosives. It added that troops would transfer towards the close by city of Maskana, the place an AP reporter noticed a army convoy rolling in hours later.
The SDF mentioned in an announcement that in accordance with an settlement, Syrian forces have been purported to enter Deir Hafer and Maskana after the Kurdish-led drive ended their withdrawal. “Damascus violated the phrases of the settlement and entered the cities earlier than our fighters had totally withdrawn, making a extremely harmful state of affairs with doubtlessly severe repercussions,” the SDF mentioned.
The state information company SANA reported that SDF fighters “violated the settlement” by focusing on a military patrol close to Maskana, leaving two troopers lifeless and others wounded. SANA added that authorities forces saved shifting east, reaching two villages within the northern province of Raqqa.
Over the previous two days, greater than 11,000 folks have fled Deir Hafer and Maskana utilizing aspect roads to achieve government-controlled areas, after the federal government introduced an offensive to take the cities.
On Friday night time, after authorities forces began pounding SDF positions in Deir Hafer, the Kurdish-led fighters’ prime commander Mazloum Abdi posted on X that his group would withdraw from contested areas in northern Syria. Abdi mentioned SDF fighters would relocate east of the Euphrates River beginning 7 a.m. (native time) Saturday.
The easing of rigidity got here after U.S. army officers visited Deir Hafer, Friday, and held talks with SDF officers within the space. The USA has good relations with each side and has urged calm.
Abdi was scheduled to carry talks with U.S. particular particular envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, within the northern Iraqi metropolis of Irbil, Saturday.
The SDF’s resolution to withdraw from Deir Hafer was made after Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa issued a decree Friday boosting the rights of the nation’s Kurds, who made up about 10% of Syria’s inhabitants of 23 million earlier than the battle started in 2011. Over the previous a long time, Syria’s Kurds had been marginalized and disadvantaged of their cultural rights underneath the rule of the Baath Celebration that ran Syria for six a long time till Bashar Assad’s fall in December 2024.
Al-Sharaa’s decree acknowledged Kurdish as a nationwide language, together with Arabic, and adopted the Newroz Competition, a standard celebration of spring and renewal marked by Kurds across the area, as an official vacation.
The Kurdish-led authority in northeast Syria mentioned Saturday that the rights of Kurds shouldn’t be protected by “short-term decrees” however by mentioning them within the nation’s structure. It added {that a} decree “doesn’t kind an actual assure for rights of Syria’s ethnic teams.”
