Syria extends nationwide cease-fire for 15 days after Kurdish truce expired

Syria’s defense ministry said on Saturday it would extend a cease-fire across all military operations for 15 days, hours after a weeklong truce with a Kurdish-led militia in the country’s northeast expired. The ministry said the extension was in support of a U.S.-led operation to transfer Islamic State detainees from Syria to Iraq.

In recent weeks Syrian government troops have taken control of large areas once held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, including oil fields and dams, after intense clashes. Last Sunday the government and the S.D.F. agreed to an immediate cease-fire that called for the full integration of Kurdish troops into the national army and the handing over of administrative control of much of the northeast; the S.D.F.

later said an agreement had been reached through international mediation. State news agency SANA reported the government had given the S.D.F. four days to submit a detailed plan for the integration of Hasakah Province, though it was unclear whether a plan had been submitted and a spokesman for the group did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Analysts widely viewed the truce as a capitulation by the S.D.F., and the group accused the government on social media of deploying troops in breach of the agreement. The cease-fire remained fragile: fighting broke out around two prisons holding Islamic State members as U.S. forces began relocating detainees, with U.S.

Key Topics

World, Syria, Syrian Democratic Forces, Ahmed Al-sharaa, Islamic State, Hasakah Province