Kurdish militias, Assad regime forces agree to Russia-brokered deal after clashes in eastern Syria

August 14, 2024 

Syrian fighters group load a pickup-mounted rocket launcher before firing at Syrian government forces’ positions in the northwest of Aleppo province on January 1, 2024 [OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images]

Kurdish militias and Syrian regime forces have agreed to a Russia-brokered deal to end a week of clashes and hostilities in eastern Syria, amid ever-increasing breakdowns in relations between Damascus and the militias.

Last week, Arab tribal forces in the eastern Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor that are allied to the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad and Iran launched a surprise offensive on areas held by Kurdish-led militias under the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), capturing two towns in the province that are located near an oilfield held by American forces.

In retaliation during the clashes, Kurdish forces surrounded and besieged Syrian regime forces in the centres of the two major cities of Qamishli and Hasakah in the north-east, and also detained several Syrian army officers on their way to a security compound in Hasakah from their base outside the city.

It represented a severe breakdown in relations between the regime and the Kurdish-led authorities, collapsing a long-standing agreement which has seen the two often join forces, boost collaboration and mutually tolerate each other’s military presence in those provinces.

According to the Emirati newspaper, The National, which cited two unnamed Kurdish militants sources who spoke to it, Russian military officials set themselves on a mission to patch up the relations over the past few days following the events, with Russian officers reportedly going back and forth between a Syrian regime compound and Kurdish militia commanders in an effort to resolve the fallout.

Those efforts finally resulted in a deal brokered by the Russians on Monday, which stipulates that the Arab tribal forces allied with Assad and Iran would halt their attacks, and that regime officers and personnel would be released in exchange for 15 Kurdish militants captured over the last week.

“The pressure we have been applying on the regime helped” to achieve the deal, one of the Kurdish militia sources was quoted as saying.