DEIR HAFER, Syria, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Syrian troops swept through towns in the country’s north on Saturday after an agreed withdrawal by Kurdish fighters there, but clashes erupted when the army kept up its advance deeper into Kurdish-held territory.
For days, Syrian troops had amassed around a cluster of villages that lie just west of the winding Euphrates River and had called on the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces stationed there to redeploy their forces on the opposite bank of the river.
Overnight, SDF head Mazloum Abdi said his forces would withdraw early on Saturday morning as a gesture of goodwill, leaving the river as a frontline between Syrian government troops to its west and Kurdish forces to its east.
But clashes broke out in some towns and oil fields on Saturday as the SDF and Syria’s army accused each other of violating the agreement, with Kurdish authorities saying Syrian troops were pushing into towns not included in the withdrawal deal.
ARAB RESIDENTS REJOICE AT TROOPS’ ARRIVAL
Syrian troops moved relatively smoothly into the main town of Deir Hafer and surrounding villages whose residents are predominantly Arab, according to statements from the military.
Some residents had left in recent days through a humanitarian corridor set up by Syria’s army but those who stayed celebrated the army’s arrival.
“It happened with the least amount of losses. There’s been enough blood in this country, Syria. We have sacrificed and lost enough – people are tired of it,” Hussein al-Khalaf, a resident of Deir Hafer, told Reuters.
SDF forces had withdrawn east, some on foot, towards the flashpoint town of Tabqa — downstream but still on the western side of the river, according to a Reuters reporter in the area.
But when Syria’s army announced it was aiming to capture Tabqa next, the SDF said it wasn’t part of the original deal and that it would fight to keep the town, as well as oil fields in its vicinity.
Syria’s army said four of its troops had been killed in attacks by Kurdish militants, and the SDF said some of its own fighters had been killed, but did not give a number.
U.S.-led coalition planes flew over the flashpoint towns, releasing warning flares, according to a Syrian security source.
In a bid to end the fighting, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack traveled to Erbil in northern Iraq on Saturday to meet with both Abdi and Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, according to two Kurdish sources. There was no immediate comment from Barrack’s spokesperson.
DEEPENING DIVIDES
Weeks of tensions between Syrian troops and the SDF have deepened the faultline between the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has vowed to reunify the fractured country after 14 years of war, and local Kurdish authorities wary of his Islamist-led administration.
The two sides engaged in months of talks last year to integrate Kurdish-run military and civilian bodies into Syrian state institutions by the end of 2025, insisting repeatedly that they wanted to resolve disputes diplomatically.
But after the deadline passed with little progress, clashes broke out earlier this month in the northern city of Aleppo and ended with a withdrawal of Kurdish fighters.
Syrian troops then amassed around towns in the north and east to pressure Kurdish authorities into making concessions in the deadlocked talks with Damascus.
Kurdish authorities still hold key Arab-majority areas in the country’s east, including some of Syria’s largest oil and gas fields. Arab tribal leaders in SDF-held territory have told Reuters they are ready to take up arms against the Kurdish force if Syria’s army issues orders to do so.
Kurdish fears have been deepened by bouts of sectarian violence last year, when nearly 1,500 Alawites were killed by government-aligned forces in western Syria and hundreds of Druze were killed in southern Syria, some in execution-style killings.
(Reporting by Mahmoud Hasano in Deir Hafer, Orhan Qereman in Tabqa, Khalil Ashawi in Damascus; Additional reporting by Muayad Hameed Suadi in Baghdad and Huseyin Hayatsever in Ankara; Writing by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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