1. Home
2. Middle East
3. Kurdish SDF Fighters Leave North Syria Prison Under Govt Deal: State Media

Syria said early Friday that government forces had begun transferring Kurdish fighters from a prison in the north where they had been holding Islamic State group detainees, as part of a weekend agreement.

An AFP correspondent in Raqa saw buses and cars heading away from the Al-Aqtan prison on the city's outskirts overnight, escorted by government vehicles, after roads to the facility were cut on Thursday.

Syrian state television reported that the transfer of SDF members has begun "after five days of negotiations with the Syrian state".

They will go to the Kurdish-held city of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobane, in Aleppo province on the northern border with Turkey "according to the security arrangements agreed upon by both parties", it reported.

Under military pressure from Damascus, which is seeking to extend its control across the country, the SDF has relinquished swathes of territory in recent days and withdrawn to parts of Syria's Hasakeh province in the far northeast.

On Sunday, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced a deal with SDF chief Mazloum Abdi that had included a ceasefire and the integration of the Kurds' administration into the state, which will take responsibility for IS prisoners.

State news agency SANA quoted the army as saying the Al-Aqtan transfer was "the first step in implementing the January 18 agreement under which the interior ministry will take over administration of the prison".

A government source told the broadcaster that around 800 fighters would exit the facility under "an internationally sponsored agreement aimed at de-escalation".

IS detainees will be managed "according to Syrian law", the source added.

Thousands of suspected jihadists and their families, including foreigners, have been held in Kurdish-run prisons and camps in Syria since IS's defeat in 2019 at the hands of the SDF, backed by a US-led coalition.

The source said the step came "in response to international mediation aimed at preventing a military escalation... and ensuring a peaceful transfer" of authority at key sites.

On Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported clashes between government forces and SDF fighters at Al-Aqtan.

On Wednesday, the United States said it had launched an operation that could see 7,000 IS jihadist detainees moved from Syria to Iraq, with 150 transferred so far.

AFP