Syrian army seizes Kurdish-held Tabqa and Raqqa areas as truce deal fails

Syria's army has seized control of swathes of northern Syria and threatened to bomb parts of Raqa province, after Kurdish forces pulled back from territory they had held for over a decade. The Government appeared to be seeking to extend its grip on parts of the country under Kurdish control a day after President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a "national language" and granting the minority official recognition. Photo / Omar Haj Kadour, AFP

Syria’s army has taken control of swathes of the country’s north, dislodging Kurdish forces from territory over which they held effective autonomy for more than a decade.

The Government appeared to be extending its grip on Kurdish-run areas after President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a “national language” and granting the minority group official recognition.

The Kurds have said the announcement fell short of their aspirations.

The army advanced after implementation of a March deal – intended to integrate Kurdish forces into the state – stalled.

Government troops drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighbourhoods last week and on Saturday (local time) took control of an area east of the city.

Today, the Government announced the capture of Tabqa city in the Raqa region.

“The Syrian army controls the strategic city of Tabqa in the Raqqa countryside, including the Euphrates Dam, which is the largest dam in Syria,” Information Minister Hamza Almustafa said, according to the official Sana news agency.

An AFP correspondent in Deir Hafer, some 50km 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.

Syria’s army said four soldiers had been killed, while Kurdish forces reported several fighters dead. Both sides traded blame for violating a withdrawal deal.

Kurdish authorities ordered a curfew in the Raqqa region after the army designated a swathe of territory southwest of the Euphrates River a “closed military zone”, warning it would target what it said were several military sites.

A Sana correspondent reported that the SDF blew up a bridge over the Euphrates in Raqqa city, which lies on the eastern bank of the river.

Raqqa city’s water supply was also reportedly cut off. The city’s media directorate accused the SDF of blowing up the main water pipes.

Deir Ezzor governor Ghassan Alsayed Ahmed said on social media that the SDF fired “rocket projectiles” at neighbourhoods in Government-controlled territories in the city centre of Deir Ezzor, Almayadeen, and other areas.

The SDF, for its part, said “factions affiliated with the Damascus Government attacked our forces’ positions in the towns of Gharanij, Abu Hammam, Alkishkiyah, Aldhiban and Altayyanah leading to fierce clashes between our forces and those factions, which are still ongoing”.

The towns are on the east bank of the Euphrates, opposite Al-Mayadin, and lie between Deir Ezzor and the Iraqi border.

‘Betrayed’

On Friday (local time), Syrian Kurdish leader and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi had committed to redeploying his forces from outside Aleppo to east of the Euphrates.

But the SDF said the next day that Damascus had “violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces”, with clashes erupting with troops south of Tabqa.

The army urged the SDF to “immediately fulfil its announced commitments and fully withdraw” east of the river.

The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil‑rich north and northeast, areas captured during the civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group over the past decade.

US envoy Tom Barrack met Abdi in Erbil on Saturday (local time), the presidency of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said.

While Washington has long supported Kurdish forces, it has also backed Syria’s new authorities.

US Central Command on Saturday urged Syrian Government forces “to cease any offensive actions in the areas between Aleppo and al‑Tabqa”.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Iraqi Kurdistan leader Nechirvan Barzani also called for de-escalation and a ceasefire.

Presidential decree

Sharaa’s announcement marked the first formal recognition of Kurdish rights since Syria’s independence in 1946.

The decree stated that Kurds are “an essential and integral part” of Syria, where they have suffered decades of marginalisation.

It made Kurdish a “national language” and granted nationality to all Kurds – about 20% of whom were stripped of it under a controversial 1962 Census.

The Kurdish Administration in Syria’s northeast said the decree was “a first step” but “does not satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people”.

In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country’s northeast, Shebal Ali, 35, told AFP that “we want constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people’s rights”

Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the decree “offers cultural concessions while consolidating military control”.

“It does not address the northeast’s calls for self-governance,” he said.

Also on Saturday (local time), the US military said a strike in northwest Syria had killed a militant linked to a deadly attack on three Americans last month.

– Agence France-Presse