Syria government, Kurds agree truce in Hasakeh

Published August 24, 2016
Kurdish fighters belonging to the police force -- the Asayesh -- and the People's Protection Units (YPG) stand outside the central prison in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh. -AFP
Kurdish fighters belonging to the police force -- the Asayesh -- and the People's Protection Units (YPG) stand outside the central prison in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh. -AFP

HASAKEH: Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters agreed on Tuesday to a truce in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh after a week of clashes, a Kurdish official and Syrian state media said.

The agreement included “a ceasefire and the withdrawal of all armed forces from the city,” according to a statement distributed to journalists by a Kurdish official.

It said the Kurds and regime would also exchange any detainees or wounded, and reopen roads blocked off during fighting.

The official told AFP that the powerful Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and Syrian forces would withdraw from Hasakeh, while the police forces of both the Kurds and the government would remain.

He added that the deal was brokered “under the auspices of Russian military officials.” Syrian state television confirmed the truce agreement.

A journalist working for AFP in Hasakeh said the city was quiet on Tuesday afternoon, with several stores reopening in the centre.

Kurdish, regime, and Russian officials met on Monday in the coastal Hmeimim air base to thrash out an agreement to put an end to the violence in Hasakeh.

Steadfast regime ally Russia has strengthened its relationship with Syria's Kurds, and a Kurdish representative office recently opened in Moscow.

Clashes erupted on Wednesday between the Kurdish police force known as the Asayesh and the pro-government National Defence Forces militia (NDF).

Fighting escalated the next day when regime warplanes bombarded Kurdish-held positions in the city for the first time.

That prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft, with Washington warning the Syrian government against strikes that might endanger its military advisers with the Kurds on the ground.

Kurdish fighters belonging to the police force known as the Asayesh drive on the back of an armed vehicle in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh. -AFP
Kurdish fighters belonging to the police force known as the Asayesh drive on the back of an armed vehicle in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh. -AFP

Hasakeh, capital of the northeastern province of the same name, was already mostly controlled by Kurdish forces although the majority of its residents are Arabs.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that Kurdish fighters controlled 90 percent of the city after seizing the central prison.

“It (the truce) is a defeat for the regime and a victory for the Kurds because technically now they control the province of Hasakeh with a symbolic regime presence,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Washington-based analyst Mutlu Civiroglu agreed that the deal appeared favourable to the Kurds.

“As of now, the agreement shows that the Kurds got what they wanted with minimal casualties,” Civiroglu said.

Syria's Kurds have run autonomous institutions across swathes of the country's north -- with independent schools and police forces -- since government forces withdrew from the area in 2012.

Opinion

Editorial

Unquiet Lebanon
Updated 21 Jun, 2026

Unquiet Lebanon

Either Israel must silence its guns and withdraw from all of Lebanon, or face isolation and boycott from the international community.
Mothers at risk
21 Jun, 2026

Mothers at risk

FOR years, efforts to reduce maternal deaths have focused heavily on postpartum haemorrhage — the severe bleeding...
Political budget
21 Jun, 2026

Political budget

THE KP budget does not read like a document of a province getting its fiscal house in order. Revenue is projected at...
Pakistan’s moment
Updated 20 Jun, 2026

Pakistan’s moment

Pakistan’s diplomats are second to none, and if these states seek to engage this country constructively, a new modus vivendi for the subcontinent can be reached.
Menacing water plans
20 Jun, 2026

Menacing water plans

IN April last year, India suspended the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty, which contains no provision allowing it to...
World Refugee Day
20 Jun, 2026

World Refugee Day

WORLD Refugee Day, observed today around the globe, marks 75 years since the adoption of the 1951 convention ...