Syrian army announces full control of Deir Hafer after SDF withdrawal

The Syrian army is moving to take control of areas previously held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the governorate of Aleppo.

The forces on Saturday entered Deir Hafer, located some 50km (30 miles) east of the city of Aleppo, after the SDF announced it would start withdrawing from their strongholds in the city in the early hours of the day.

The army later said its forces had taken full control of the city and were working to clear it of mines and other war remnants, according to state media. It added that it had begun moving towards Maskana town.

The announcement came after the army on Friday launched an operation against the SDF in Deir Hafer, saying it would focus on areas that the group’s forces were using “as a launching point for their terrorist operations towards the city of Aleppo and its eastern countryside”.

SDF leader Mazloum Abdi, also known as Mazloum Kobani, said in response that his forces would withdraw to the east of the Euphrates River.

In a post on X, Abdi said that “based on calls from friendly countries and mediators … we have decided to withdraw our forces tomorrow morning at 7am [04:00 GMT]” east of Aleppo “towards redeployment in areas east of the Euphrates”.

Abdi said he was withdrawing fighters “in demonstration of … our commitment to implementing the provisions of the March 10th agreement”, referring to stalled plans to integrate the Kurdish de facto autonomous administration into the Syrian state.

The army said it would not target SDF fighters as they pull out.

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Zaalanah, just east of Aleppo on the way to Deir Hafer, said the Syrian forces, who were building up around Deir Hafer for days, have started entering the town with the first hours of the morning.

“And what we are likely to see in the next hours and days are the clearing operations,” he said.

“In many ways, this is really a best-case scenario – a short, sharp military operation overnight and then in daylight hours securing that agreement for a withdrawal from the SDF and then now moving in to try to clear the area,” Basravi added.

Reintegration deal

Delays with implementation of last year’s deal, which was supposed to see the Kurdish-led SDF integrating with the Syrian Ministry of Defence by the end of 2025, led to fierce clashes in Aleppo this month that left at least 23 people dead, according to Syria’s Ministry of Health.

As Syrian forces advanced, more than 150,000 fled two pockets of the city that the SDF, which controls swaths of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, had held since the early days of Syria’s war, which erupted in 2011.

By Sunday, Syrian troops had taken full control of Aleppo.

Friday’s attack came despite a meeting between a delegation of the United States-led coalition and SDF forces seeking to ease tensions.

At least 4,000 people left the Deir Hafer area on Friday after the army issued a deadline to flee, according to Syrian authorities.

Goodwill gesture

The Syrian government has been seeking to extend its authority nationwide following the removal of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

In an apparent gesture of goodwill following the fighting in Aleppo, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree on Friday declaring Kurdish a “national language”.

The decree, the first formal recognition of Kurdish rights since independence in 1946, declares the minority “an essential and integral part” of Syria, where they have suffered decades of marginalisation and oppression.

Al-Sharaa also made Nowruz, the Kurdish new year falling on March 21, an official holiday and granted nationality to Kurds, as 20 percent had been stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.

In a televised address announcing the decree, al-Sharaa urged Kurds to “actively participate in building this nation”, promising to “guarantee” their rights.