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Syrian forces extend control

Govt troops enter more Kurdish towns

AFP February 04, 2026 Less than a minute read

Syrian security forces walk together along a street, after clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida early on Wednesday, collapsing a ceasefire announced just hours earlier that aimed to put an end to days of deadly sectarian bloodshed, in Sweida, Syria July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri/File Photo

QAMISHLI, SYRIA:

Syrian government forces entered the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli on Tuesday as part of a deal agreed last week to gradually integrate the Kurds' forces and institutions into the state, days after entering the mixed Kurdish-Arab city of Hasakeh and the countryside around the town of Kobane.

Kurdish forces have ceded swathes of territory to advancing government troops in recent weeks following months of tension and sporadic clashes as Syria's new authorities have sought to impose their authority across the country.

"A convoy of internal security forces began entering the city of Qamishli," the official SANA news agency said. An AFP correspondent saw a convoy of vehicles, including armoured personnel, carriers enter the city, which has been the main stronghold of the Kurds' de facto autonomous administration.

As forces set up checkpoints at its entrances, another correspondent reported, few people on the streets inside the city amid a curfew in place until Wednesday morning, with Kurdish security forces also lightly deployed and Kurdish flags and banners raised.