Syrian Government Security Forces Enter Key Northeastern City Under Landmark Deal with Kurdish-Led SDF
AL-HASSAKEH, Syria — A contingent of Syrian interior ministry security personnel entered the northeastern city of al-Hassakeh on Monday, marking a tentative implementation of a landmark deal struck between the Damascus government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls the region.
The agreement, announced by the SDF on Friday, seeks to stabilize a ceasefire that halted weeks of sporadic clashes between the two sides. Analysts view the pact as one of the most concrete steps in years toward integrating the SDF's autonomous administration in northeast Syria—a long-standing goal of the central government—into the state's formal security and bureaucratic structures.
Under the terms, regular Syrian army units will not deploy into predominantly Kurdish urban centers. Instead, limited numbers of interior ministry forces are to be stationed in al-Hassakeh and Qamishli. Their stated mandate is to secure and reactivate key state institutions, including civil registry offices, passport departments, and the airport, which have been under SDF administration since Syrian government forces withdrew from much of the area nearly a decade ago.
The deal represents a delicate compromise. For Damascus, it reasserts symbolic sovereignty over critical infrastructure. For the SDF, which led the U.S.-backed campaign against the Islamic State, it offers a potential pathway for its fighters to gain formal status and for its civil institutions to receive official recognition, all while avoiding a large-scale military confrontation with pro-government forces.
Regional Context: The development coincides with heightened judicial activity in neighboring Iraq. A Baghdad court announced Monday that it has begun investigative procedures against 1,387 accused Islamic State (IS) militants recently transferred from U.S.-guarded prisons in Syria. This transfer is part of a larger plan to try approximately 7,000 detainees in Iraq. The security of these prisons, many holding IS suspects, remains a volatile issue in SDF-controlled areas, underscored by a prison break during last month's fighting that saw dozens escape before most were recaptured.
Expert & Public Reaction:
"This is a necessary, if fraught, step toward ending the legal and administrative limbo in the northeast," said Dr. Leila Hassan, a political analyst based in Beirut. "It's a confidence-building measure, but its success hinges on whether both sides see more benefit in cooperation than in conflict."
Marko Jovanovic, a security researcher, offered a more cautious take: "The devil is in the implementation. We've seen deals fragment before over the interpretation of 'integration.' This could simply be a tactical pause for the SDF, which faces Turkish threats from the north, and for Damascus, which is overstretched economically."
A sharper critique came from Rami Farah, an activist from Aleppo: "This is a betrayal of the Kurdish cause disguised as pragmatism. It legitimizes a regime that has oppressed all Syrians. Handing over civil institutions is the first step toward dismantling hard-won autonomy. What guarantees do people have that this won't end in arrests and repression?"
Meanwhile, Anahit Boghosian, a teacher in Qamishli, expressed weary hope: "We just want stability. If this means my children can get a Syrian passport without traveling for days and that salaries might be paid regularly, we will take it. But we have lived through too many promises to celebrate just yet."
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Reporting contributed from Baghdad.