(4 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aleppo, Syria – 4 April, 2025
1. Various of U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in vehicles, carrying flags and leaving Aleppo
2. People celebrating
3. Various of Kurdish fighters in vehicles leaving Aleppo
4. Various of Syrian government forces watching departure
5. Various of vehicles
6. Various of Kurdish fighters in vehicles
7. Vehicles leaving and passing under road sign
8. Security personnel standing with vehicles leaving in background
STORYLINE:
Scores of U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters left two neighbourhoods in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo Friday as part of a deal with the central government in Damascus that is expanding its authority in the war-torn country.
The fighters left the predominantly Kurdish northern neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh that had been under the control of Kurdish fighters in Aleppo over the past decade.
The deal is a boost to an agreement reached last month between Syria’s interim government and the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast.
The deal could eventually lead to the merger of the main U.S.-backed force in Syria into the Syrian army.
The withdrawal of fighters from the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces came a day after dozens of prisoners from both sides were freed in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.
Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that government forces were deployed along the road that SDF fighters will use to move between Aleppo and areas east of the Euphrates river where the Kurdish-led forces control nearly a quarter of Syria.
Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh had been under SDF control since 2015 and remained so even when forces of ousted President Bashar Assad captured Aleppo in late 2016.
The two neighbourhoods remained under SDF control when forces loyal to current interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa captured the city in November and days later captured the capital Damascus removing Assad from power.
After being marginalized for decades under the rule of the Assad family, the deal signed last month promises Syria’s Kurds “constitutional rights” including using and teaching their language, which were banned for decades.
Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, who were displaced during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, will return to their homes.
Thousands of Kurds living in Syria who have been deprived of nationality for decades under Assad will be given the right of citizenship, according to the agreement.
Kurds made up 10% of the country’s prewar population of 23 million.
Kurdish leaders say they don’t want full autonomy with their own government and parliament; they want decentralization, room to run their day-to day-affairs.
AP video by Ghaith Alsayed
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