Syrian army, Kurdish-led SDF accuse each other of ceasefire violations 

A ceasefire between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) appears to be largely holding, even as the two sides have accused each other of violating its terms.

The army on Sunday said the SDF launched multiple drone attacks in the Aleppo countryside, while the United States-trained Kurdish forces on Monday accused the army of targeting a Kurdish-majority city near the Turkish border.

Government troops have seized swaths of northern and eastern territory in the last two weeks from the SDF in a rapid turn of events that has consolidated President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s rule.

An initial four-day ceasefire between the Syrian army and the SDF was extended by 15 days soon after it expired on Saturday night.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the SDF launched more than 25 explosive drones on the army positions in the Aleppo countryside on Sunday, breaching the newly extended ceasefire.

The army’s operations command said in a statement the SDF attacked Syrian army deployment sites around Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobane, using more than 25 FPV (first-person view) type explosive drones. The attacks reportedly destroyed four army vehicles.

The SDF also targeted the M4 highway, which connects Aleppo with the coastal city of Latakia and nearby villages, wounding many civilians, the statement added.

The Defence Ministry’s media and communications department said the SDF suicide drones also targeted civilian homes and roads in Sarrin town, south of Ain al-Arab, according to SANA. The attacks caused multiple civilian injuries, it said.

The ministry added that the Syrian army managed to shoot down several of the drones before they could hit roads and homes in residential areas east of Aleppo.

SDF’s claims

Meanwhile, the SDF claimed that the Syrian army conducted attacks on areas southeast of the city of Ain al-Arab since the first hours of Monday, “coinciding with heavy artillery shelling that targeted residential neighbourhoods”.

“As a result of these attacks, violent clashes erupted between our forces and the attacking factions,” a statement on X at 11:16am (09:16 GMT) said, adding that clashes were ongoing.

The statement also claimed that the Syrian government’s deployment of additional military reinforcements, including tanks and armoured vehicles, was backed by “intensive overflights by Turkish unmanned aerial vehicles in the airspace of the area”.

The extension of the ceasefire is intended to support a US operation to evacuate detainees with alleged links to the ISIL (ISIS) armed group currently held in prisons run by the SDF and transfer them to Iraq, according to the Defence Ministry.

Stagnant government-SDF talks

On January 21, the US military’s Central Command announced that it had launched a mission to transfer the detainees from northeastern Syria to Iraq to ensure “terrorists” remain in secure detention facilities.

The mission began with US forces transporting dozens of ISIL fighters from a detention facility in northeastern Hasakah province to a secure location in Iraq, with plans for up to hundreds of detainees to eventually be transferred to Iraqi-controlled facilities.

Al-Sharaa, whose forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in a lightning offensive in late 2024, has promised to bring all of Syria under state control, including the SDF-held areas in the northeast.

But Kurdish authorities, who have run autonomous civilian and military institutions there for the past decade, have resisted joining with state and military institutions.

After a yearend deadline for the merger passed with little progress, Syrian troops launched their offensive this month.