Tensions are rising between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), days after they announced a ceasefire. Which is being rigorously tested through renewed fighting involving the withdrawal of the latter’s forces from the area west of the Euphrates River.
The latter returned to talks in Damascus between Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharra and SDF leader Majlum Hope, also known as Majlum Koban.
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The issue of ISIL (ISIS) prisoners who escaped from al-Shaddadi prison has been a hotbed of controversy and blame game amid fighting between the army and the SDF. Syria’s interior ministry said on Tuesday that 130 of the 200 ISIL fighters had been recaptured.
The ministry accused the SDF of releasing ISIL fighters from a prison in the northeastern city of al-Shaddadi as “political and security blackmail”. The military said it deliberately bypassed al-Shaddadi prison under an agreement that the SDF would later hand over control of the facility to authorities in Damascus.
The SDF has blamed the Syrian army for the prison break and said it had “lost control” of the prison after an attack by tribal fighters affiliated with the army.
SDF commander Fawja Youssef on Tuesday accused the Al-Shara government of failing to uphold the agreement.
“The government has no political will to implement a ceasefire,” he told Al Jazeera. “If the violations and attacks continue, the SDF cannot disarm.”
The The deal was signed on Sunday Raqqa between al-Shara and Abdi and Deir ez-Zor, part of which lies east of the Euphrates, stipulates the withdrawal of the SDF within a month.
A spokesman for Syria’s interior ministry claimed the SDF was “trying to shift blame” as it faced internal divisions.
“We prefer a peaceful solution, but all options are open,” the spokesman told Al Jazeera.
The agreement included the withdrawal of the SDF from the area around al-Aqtan prison. As it appeared to be collapsing, Al Jazeera correspondents said on Tuesday that the Syrian army had begun shelling the prison and the headquarters of the SDF’s 17th Division in Raqqa.
Local sources in Hasakah province, in the country’s northeast, said the troops reached the Panorama square at the city’s southern entrance.
The Ministry of Interior confirmed readiness to take over the management and security of ISIL prisons in Hasakah according to international standards.
Information Minister Hamza Mustafa said the army captured the town of Al-Shaddadi in the Hasakah countryside and took control of the prison there.
Taking control of ISIL prisons
The SDF, the United States-backed force that fought ISIL in Syria, controls dozens of prisons in the northeast, where some 9,000 ISIL members have been held without trial for years.
While al-Sharah’s government has pledged to reunify Syria after nearly 14 years of ravaged civil war, the SDF has highlighted al-Sharah’s past ties to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was formerly part of al-Qaeda.
In a statement on Monday, the SDF referred to the government as “ISIS sympathizers whose actions are directed and facilitated by the Turkish state” and vowed to respond in kind. Battle for Koba in 2014.
“Today we affirm that the will of the people is stronger than all forms of aggression and occupation,” the statement said.
The Syrian government responded to the statement by rejecting “any attempt to use the issue of terrorism as a tool for political or security blackmail”.
“The insistence on linking law enforcement and actions to restore state legitimacy with the threat of activation of terrorist cells is a brazen attempt to distort the facts and incite a struggle to maintain authority imposed by force of arms,” it said in a statement.
“The Syrian government warns the SDF leadership against taking any reckless steps that would facilitate the escape of ISIS captives or open prisons for them as a retaliatory measure or as a political pressure tactic.”
Abdila Al-Shar’a offer
Five hours of talks between al-Shara and Abdi on Monday aimed at salvaging a ceasefire agreement ended without an agreement, sources told Al Jazeera.
The president offered to appoint Abdi as deputy defense minister and to nominate him as governor of Hasakah in exchange for the deployment of Syrian internal security forces to the city.
The offer also included removing members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) from the region. Turkey views the SDF as the Syrian branch of the PKK, an organization that has been at war since 1984, and considers it a “terrorist” group.
Abdi asked for five days to consult, a request al-Shara refused. The president gave the SDF leader until the end of Tuesday to accept the offer, warning that failure to do so would lead to military action and the collapse of the ceasefire agreement.
Al-Shara held a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Monday, in which the two stressed the importance of preserving Syria’s regional unity and independence, and underlined the need to guarantee the rights and protection of the Kurdish people.