The head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), once at the forefront of the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, has announced the dissolution of the force as part of an agreement reached with the new authorities in Damascus.
“Today, we announce the end of the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces and, with full responsibility, declare the dissolution of this independent military force,” commander Mazloum Abdi said in a televised address at the presidential palace on Tuesday evening.
The force had controlled a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. Speaking at a press conference in Damascus, Mr. Abdi said the SDF had completed its merger into the Syrian army and would no longer operate as an independent force.
The Kurdish-led force had lost most of its territory in northeastern Syria after a Damascus campaign in January and subsequently signed an agreement to merge into the government army.
The SDF was Washington’s primary partner in Syria in the fight against the Islamic State group. However, after the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad in December 2024, the United States established close ties with the new administration in Damascus, led by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former leader of an Islamist insurgent group.
“Today, we stand before a historic moment as we turn an important page in the history of Syria and begin to open a new chapter named peace, stability, and reconstruction,” Mr. Abdi said, according to Syria’s Sana news agency.
“We want this day to be the beginning of a genuine transition from the battlefield to the field of construction, and from the era of weapons to the era of peace,” he added.
On cultural matters, Mr. Abdi said the president had recognized “our right to education in Kurdish” and that they would seek to implement “teaching in Kurdish this year.”
“We want to build a new Syria for all its people—Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and Assyrians—a unified and stable Syria that protects the future of our children and ensures a dignified life for the younger generation,” he said, as quoted by Sana.
The United States also removed Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, a decades-long designation carrying severe economic restrictions, marking another step in the tightening of ties between the two countries following Mr. Assad’s ouster in 2024.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa welcomed the move, saying: “Syria shakes off a dark stain and tears out a painful chapter of the past to step onto the path of development, reconstruction, and rebuilding.”
