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Kurdish-led forces withdrew on Sunday from Syria’s largest oil field, a conflict monitor said, as government troops extended their grip over swathes of territory in the country’s north and east.The push came after President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree granting the Kurds official recognition in an apparent goodwill gesture, even as his Islamist government seeks to assert its authority across Syria after the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in 2024.The Kurds’ de facto autonomous administration, which controls large parts of the northeast, has said the announcement fell short, while the implementation of a deal to integrate Kurdish forces into the state has been stalled for months.Early Sunday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) suddenly withdrew “from all areas under its control in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside, including the Al-Omar and Tanak oil fields”, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.He said the SDF withdrawal in Deir Ezzor and Raqa provinces came as “fighters from local tribes, including Arab fighters who are part of the SDF, advanced in coordination with government troops”.The areas are now effectively controlled by government forces, the Observatory said.Al-Omar is the country’s largest oil field, and was home to the United States’ largest base in Syria. It had been controlled by Kurdish-led forces since 2017 after the Islamic State jihadist group was pushed out.The Kurds’ reported withdrawal from Al-Omar follows the government’s announcement that it had retaken two other oil fields, Safyan and Al-Tharwa, in Raqa province.- ‘Opening the door’ -The government’s push has so far captured Arab-majority areas that came under Kurdish control during the fight against IS, whose defeat in Syria was secured with the help of the US-backed SDF.Energy Minister Mohammad al-Bashir said the return of the area’s resources to state control “means opening the door wide for reconstruction, revitalising agriculture, energy and trade”. Government troops drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighbourhoods following clashes last week, and on Saturday captured an area east of the city, as well as Tabqa, in Raqa province, on the southwestern banks of the Euphrates.The army also announced its control of the Euphrates Dam, adjacent to Tabqa.The key water and energy facility includes one of Syria’s largest hydroelectric power stations.A security source on the ground in Tabqa told AFP that security forces and the army were combing neighbourhoods after the SDF pullout.An AFP correspondent saw armoured vehicles and tanks around the city, with security personnel patrolling the streets.Intermittent gunfire could be heard from what one security officer said were limited clashes with the SDF.Shops were closed, but some residents milled outside their homes, lighting fires to keep warm.One resident, Ahmad Hussein, told AFP that people were afraid.”We have suffered a lot, and I hope that the situation will improve with the arrival of the Syrian army,” he said.Near the dam, an AFP photographer saw residents destroying a statue honouring a woman who fought with Kurdish forces and who was killed by IS during the battle for Raqa city.The city was the jihadists’ main stronghold at the height of its reign across swathes of Syria from 2014 to 2019.- ‘Killing must stop’ -Syrian authorities accused the SDF of blowing up two key bridges across the Euphrates River in Raqa province.The Kurdish administration accused government forces of attacking their fighters “on multiple fronts” while the army said the SDF was not fulfilling a commitment to “fully withdraw” east of the river.The Deir Ezzor province said all public institutions were closed on Sunday and urged people to stay home.The Kurdish forces’ withdrawal came after US envoy Tom Barrack met Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi in Erbil on Saturday, and the US Central Command urged government forces “to cease any offensive actions” between Aleppo and Tabqa.The United States has long supported the Kurdish forces, but it has also backed Syria’s new Islamist authorities. Damascus ally Turkey has praised Syria’s operation, but imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, “sees this situation (in Syria) as an attempt to sabotage” the unfolding peace process between his group and the Turkish state, a delegation said after visiting him on Saturday.In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country’s northeast, hundreds of residents demonstrated on Sunday, an AFP correspondent said, chanting slogans including “we will defend our heroes”.Muhayeddine Hassan, 48, said that “we want a democracy that represents all Syrians”.If Sharaa “wants equality… the killing must stop”, he said.burs-lar/lg/jfx

Kurdish-led forces withdrew on Sunday from Syria’s largest oil field, a conflict monitor said, as government troops extended their grip over swathes of territory in the country’s north and east.The push came after President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree granting the Kurds official recognition in an apparent goodwill gesture, even as his Islamist government seeks to assert its authority over all of Syria after the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in 2024.The Kurds’ de facto autonomous administration, which controls large parts of the northeast, has said the announcement fell short, and the implementation of a deal to integrate Kurdish forces into the state has been stalled for months.Government troops drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighbourhoods following clashes last week, and on Saturday announced they had captured an area east of the city, as well as Tabqa, in Raqa province, on the southwestern banks of the Euphrates.At dawn on Sunday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) withdrew “from all areas under its control in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside, including the Al-Omar and Tanak oil fields”, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.Al-Omar is the country’s largest oil field, and was home to the United States’ largest base in Syria. The Kurds’ reported withdrawal there follows the government’s announcement that it had retaken two other oil fields, Safyan and Al-Tharwa, in Raqa province.An AFP correspondent in Tabqa saw government armoured vehicles and tanks around the city, with security personnel patrolling the streets.Intermittent gunfire could be heard from what one security officer said were limited clashes with the SDF.Shops in the city were closed, but some residents milled around outside their homes, lighting fires to keep warm.One resident, Ahmad Hussein, told AFP that “people are afraid, but we hope that things will improve over the coming few days”. “We have suffered a lot, and I hope that the situation will improve with the arrival of the Syrian army,” he added.- ‘Betrayal’ -The government’s push has so far captured Arab-majority areas that had come under Kurdish control during the fight against the Islamic State group, whose defeat in Syria was secured with the help of the US-backed SDF.Both the government and the Kurdish forces have reported several casualties in clashes that broke out after an agreement for the Kurds to pull back from areas near Aleppo to the east of the Euphrates collapsed.Both sides traded blame for violating the deal.The Kurdish administration on Sunday accused government forces of attacking their fighters “on multiple fronts” while the army said the SDF was not fulfilling a commitment to “fully withdraw” east of the river.Kurdish authorities ordered a curfew in the Raqa region after the army designated a swathe of territory southwest of the Euphrates a “closed military zone”.Deir Ezzor governor Ghassan Alsayed Ahmed said on Saturday that the SDF fired rockets at neighbourhoods in government-controlled territory, while the SDF said pro-government forces attacked its positions in several towns on the east bank of the Euphrates.The Deir Ezzor governorate announced on Sunday that “all public institutions and official departments are closed today”, and urged “people to stay at home”.- Calls for de-escalation -The United States has long supported the Kurdish forces, but it has also backed Syria’s new Islamist authorities. US envoy Tom Barrack met Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi in Erbil on Saturday, the presidency of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said, and the US Central Command urged government forces “to cease any offensive actions” between Aleppo and Tabqa.France’s President Emmanuel Macron and the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, called for de-escalation and a ceasefire.Turkey, which is close to the new Syrian authorities and views Kurdish fighters in Syria as a security threat affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has praised Syria’s operation.But imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has led the unfolding peace process between his group and the Turkish state, “sees this situation (in Syria) as an attempt to sabotage” that process, a delegation said after visiting him in jail on Saturday.Kurdish authorities called for demonstrations on Sunday in several places including Qamishli, their main city in the northeast. burs-lar/smw/jfx

Syria’s army has seized swathes of the country’s north, dislodging Kurdish forces from territory over which they held effective autonomy for more than a decade.The government appeared to be extending its grip on Kurdish-run areas after President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a “national language” and granting the minority group official recognition.The Kurds have said Friday’s announcement fell short of their aspirations, while the implementation of a March deal — intended to see Kurdish forces integrated into the state — has stalled.Government troops drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighbourhoods last week and on Saturday took control of an area east of the city.On Sunday, the government announced the capture of Tabqa, about 55 kilometres (34 miles) west of Raqa.”The Syrian army controls the strategic city of Tabqa in the Raqqa countryside, including the Euphrates Dam, which is the largest dam in Syria,” said Information Minister Hamza Almustafa, according to the official SANA news agency.The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), however, said they had “taken the necessary measures to restore security and stability” in Tabqa.In Deir Hafer, some 50 kilometres east of Aleppo city, an AFP correspondent saw several SDF fighters leaving the town and residents returning under heavy army presence.Syria’s army said four soldiers had been killed, while Kurdish forces reported several fighters dead. Both sides traded blame for violating a withdrawal deal.Kurdish authorities ordered a curfew in the Raqa region after the army designated a swathe of territory southwest of the Euphrates River a “closed military zone”, warning it would target what it said were several military sites.The SANA news agency reported Sunday that the SDF destroyed two bridges over the Euphrates in Raqa city, which lies on the eastern bank of the river.Raqa’s media directorate separately accused the SDF of cutting off Raqa city’s water supply by blowing up the main water pipes.Deir Ezzor governor Ghassan Alsayed Ahmed said on social media that the SDF fired “rocket projectiles” at neighbourhoods in government-controlled territories in the city centre of Deir Ezzor, Al-Mayadin, and other areas.The SDF said “factions affiliated with the Damascus government attacked our forces’ positions” and caused clashes in several towns on the east bank of the Euphrates, opposite Al-Mayadin and which lie between Deir Ezzor and the Iraqi border.- ‘Betrayed’ -On Friday, Syrian Kurdish leader and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi had committed to redeploying his forces from outside Aleppo to east of the Euphrates. But the SDF said Saturday that Damascus had “violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces”, with clashes erupting with troops south of Tabqa. The army urged the SDF to “immediately fulfil its announced commitments and fully withdraw” east of the river.The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil‑rich north and northeast, areas captured during the civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group over the past decade. US envoy Tom Barrack met Abdi in Erbil on Saturday, the presidency of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said.While Washington has long supported Kurdish forces, it has also backed Syria’s new authorities. US Central Command on Saturday urged Syrian government forces “to cease any offensive actions in the areas between Aleppo and al‑Tabqa”.France’s President Emmanuel Macron and the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, also called for de-escalation and a ceasefire.- Presidential decree -Sharaa’s announcement on Friday marked the first formal recognition of Kurdish rights since Syria’s independence in 1946.The decree stated that Kurds are “an essential and integral part” of Syria, where they have suffered decades of marginalisation. It made Kurdish a “national language” and granted nationality to all Kurds — around 20 percent of whom were stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.The Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast said the decree was “a first step” but “does not satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people.In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country’s northeast, Shebal Ali, 35, told AFP that “we want constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people’s rights”. Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the decree “offers cultural concessions while consolidating military control”. “It does not address the northeast’s calls for self-governance,” he said. Also Saturday, the US military said a strike in northwest Syria had killed a militant linked to a deadly attack on three Americans last month.burs-jj/acb/abs/jfx

Iran’s supreme leader said Saturday that authorities “must break the back of the seditionists”, whom he accused of killing thousands during the wave of protests that were brutally repressed in the country.The demonstrations were sparked by anger over economic hardship that exploded into the biggest protests against the Islamic republic in more than three years.But demonstrations have subsided after the crackdown that rights groups say left thousands of people dead under an internet blackout that has lasted more than a week.Schools were set to resume Sunday, the ISNA news agency said, following a one-week closure, with postponed university exams set to be held in a week.Authorities have said demonstrations they condemn as “riots” had been controlled and calm returned, with state-aligned media reporting thousands of arrests.”By God’s grace, the Iranian nation must break the back of the seditionists just as it broke the back of the sedition,” supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told supporters during a televised address.”We do not intend to lead the country to war, but we will not spare domestic criminals,” he added, saying “international criminals” were “worse”. He added that “agents… murdered a few thousand people. They murdered some with the utmost inhumanity, meaning pure savagery” — seemingly his first admission that thousands had died.Iranian authorities have blamed the latest wave of demonstrations on arch-foes the United States and Israel, saying they fuelled a “terrorist operation” that hijacked peaceful protests over the economy. Trump, who backed and joined Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, had repeatedly threatened new military action against Tehran if protesters were killed. – ‘American conspiracy’ -Khamenei on Saturday lashed out at Trump, accusing him of being “guilty for the casualties, damages and accusations he has levelled against the Iranian nation”.”This was an American conspiracy,” he said, adding that “America’s goal is to swallow Iran… the goal is to put Iran back under military, political and economic domination”. While Washington has appeared to have stepped back, the US president has said he has not ruled out military options and made clear he was keeping a close eye on whether any protesters were executed. Trump wrote on Friday on his Truth Social platform that Iran had called off the executions of hundreds of protesters and said to the clerical state: “Thank you!”Asked on state TV about Trump’s comment, Tehran prosecutor Ali Salehi said the US president “always talks a lot of nonsense” and that the government’s response had been “firm, dissuasive and swift” with many cases leading to indictments and sent to court. Rights groups have estimated up to 20,000 people have been arrested. Security officials cited by the Tasnim news agency on Friday said around 3,000 people were arrested. Iranian authorities said on Saturday that “a 32-member network of the Bahai espionage cult who were active in the riots and acts of vandalism were identified and 12 main agents were arrested and 13 were summoned,” according to Tasnim.Alarm has mounted over the reported death toll during the crackdown, as verifying cases remains difficult under severe internet restrictions. Eyewitnesses who left Iran after the protests told AFP of coming under fire and hearing numerous gunshots during protests. Kiarash, who gave only his first name for security reasons, was fired on during protests on January 10 and said he saw thousands of bodies at a mortuary in Tehran. “I saw the blood… Thousands of people and thousands of dead bodies” of people “asking for their rights”, he told AFP from Germany. – Pahlavi calls for protests -Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR) says 3,428 protesters have been verified to have been killed by security forces, but warns the actual toll could be several times higher.Other estimates place the death toll at more than 5,000 — and possibly as high as 20,000, IHR said.The opposition Iran International channel based outside the country has said at least 12,000 people were killed during the protests, citing senior government and security sources. Monitor Netblocks said on Saturday “internet connectivity continues to flatline in Iran despite a minor short-lived bump in access earlier today, when new reports of atrocities emerged”. People in Iran were reportedly again able to send text messages within the country and to outside numbers but were still often unable to receive texts from those abroad. Rights groups say there have been no verifiable reports of protests in recent days and videos circulating on social media have shown a heavy security presence in some areas. But Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of the shah ousted in the 1979 Islamic revolution, took to social media on Friday to call for Iranians to protest again on Saturday and Sunday evening. 

Syria’s army took control of swathes of the country’s north on Saturday, dislodging Kurdish forces from territory over which they held effective autonomy for over a decade.The government appeared to be seeking to extend its grip on parts of the country under Kurdish control a day after President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a “national language” and granting the minority official recognition.The Kurds have said the move fell short of their aspirations.The army drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighbourhoods last week and took control of an area east of the city on Saturday, after implementation stalled on a March deal that was supposed to see Kurdish forces integrated into the state.Later on Saturday, the Syrian army said it had “begun entering the city of Tabqa via various axes, in parallel with encircling the PKK terrorist militias inside Tabqa military airport”, according to the official SANA news agency. Authorities had earlier announced they had seized two oil fields near the city of Tabqa in Raqa province.An AFP correspondent in Deir Hafer, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Aleppo city, saw several fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) leaving the town and residents returning under heavy army presence.Syria’s army said four soldiers had been killed, while Kurdish forces reported several fighters dead, as both sides traded blame for violating the withdrawal deal. Kurdish authorities ordered a curfew in the Raqa region after the army designated a swathe of territory southwest of the Euphrates River a “closed military zone” and warned it would target what it said were several military sites.- ‘Betrayed’ -SDF chief Mazloum Abdi on Friday had committed to redeploying his forces from outside Aleppo to east of the Euphrates. But the SDF said Saturday that Damascus “violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces during the implementation of the withdrawal provisions”.It said Kurdish forces were clashing with troops in an area south of Tabqa, “which was outside the scope of the agreement”.The army meanwhile urged the SDF leadership to “immediately fulfil its announced commitments and fully withdraw to the east of the Euphrates River”.The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, much of which it captured during the country’s civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group over the past decade.US envoy Tom Barrack met Syrian Kurdish leader Abdi in Erbil on Saturday, the presidency of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said in a statement.The United States for years has supported the Kurds but also backs Syria’s new authorities.The US Central Command on Saturday urged “Syrian government forces to cease any offensive actions in the areas between Aleppo and al-Tabqa”, in a post on X.France’s President Emmanuel Macron and the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, called for deescalation and a ceasefire, the French presidency said.- Presidential decree -Sharaa’s announcement on Friday was the first formal recognition of Kurdish rights since Syria’s independence in 1946.The decree stated that Kurds are “an essential and integral part” of Syria, where they have suffered decades of marginalisation and oppression under former rulers.It made Kurdish a “national language” and granted nationality to all Kurds, 20 percent of whom had been stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.The Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast said the decree was “a first step” but “does not satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people”.”Rights are not protected by temporary decrees, but… through permanent constitutions that express the will of the people and all components” of society, it said in a statement.In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country’s northeast, Shebal Ali, 35, told AFP that “we want constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people’s rights”.Yara, 42, a Kurdish artist in Damascus who declined to provide her full name, said the government needed to “provide guarantees to earn the Kurds’ confidence”.Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, told AFP that the decree “offers cultural concessions while consolidating military control”.”It does not address the northeast’s calls for self-governance,” he told AFP, adding that “Sharaa is comfortable granting cultural rights, but draws the line at power-sharing”.He said Damascus appeared to be seeking “to drive a wedge between Kurdish civilians and the armed forces that have governed them for a decade”.strs-lg/jsa/amj

Israel said on Saturday it objected to the line-up of a Gaza panel that will operate under US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which oversees post-war governance in the Palestinian territory.The panel, known as the Gaza executive board, notably includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and a Qatari official and was announced by the White House on Friday.The Board of Peace began to take shape on Saturday as the leaders of Egypt, Turkey, Argentina and Canada were asked to join. Trump had already declared himself the chair of the body, as he promotes a controversial vision of economic development in the Palestinian territory, much of which was reduced to rubble during two years of relentless Israeli bombardment.The US president also named to the Board of Peace his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former British prime minister Tony Blair, and senior negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff — most of whom are also on the Gaza executive board. On Saturday, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “The announcement regarding the composition of the Gaza Executive Board, which is subordinate to the Board of Peace, was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy.””The Prime Minister has instructed the Foreign Affairs Minister to contact the US Secretary of State on this matter.”The moves came after the Palestinian committee of technocrats tasked with governing Gaza under the oversight of the Board of Peace began held its first meeting in Cairo, attended by Kushner.- Worldwide invites – In Canada, a senior aide to Prime Minister Mark Carney said he intended to accept Trump’s invitation, while in Turkey, a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had been asked to become a “founding member” of the board.Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said Cairo was “studying” a request for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to join.Sharing an image of the invitation letter, Argentine President Javier Milei wrote on X that it would be “an honor” to participate in the initiative.In a statement sent to AFP, Blair said: “I thank President Trump for his leadership in establishing the Board of Peace and am honored to be appointed to its Executive Board.”Blair is a controversial figure in the Middle East because of his role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Trump himself said last year that he wanted to make sure Blair was an “acceptable choice to everybody”.Blair spent years focused on the Israeli-Palestinian issue as representative of the “Middle East Quartet” — the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia — after leaving Downing Street in 2007.The White House said the Board of Peace will take on issues such as “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding and capital mobilization”.The other members of the board so far are World Bank President Ajay Banga, an Indian-born American businessman; billionaire US financier Marc Rowan; and Robert Gabriel, a loyal Trump aide who serves on the US National Security Council.On Saturday, the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad criticised the composition of the Board of Peace, saying it served Israel’s interests.The board “came in accordance with Israeli criteria and to serve the interests of the occupation”, the group said in a statement.- Israeli strikes -Washington has said the Gaza plan had gone on to a second phase — from implementing the ceasefire to disarming Hamas, whose October 2023 attack on Israel prompted the massive Israeli offensive.On Friday, Trump named US Major General Jasper Jeffers to head the International Stabilization Force, which will be tasked with providing security in Gaza and training a new police force to succeed Hamas.Jeffers, from special operations in US Central Command, in late 2024 was put in charge of monitoring a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, which has continued periodic strikes aimed at Hezbollah militants.Gaza native and former Palestinian Authority deputy minister Ali Shaath was earlier tapped to head the governing committee.Trump, a real estate developer, has previously mused about turning devastated Gaza into a Riviera-style area of resorts, although he has backed away from calls to forcibly displace the population.burs-mib/amj/jsa