American soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group stand guard during a meeting with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
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BADERKHAN AHMAD
Syrian troops are poised to attack towns in the north and east held by Kurdish fighters, sources familiar with the matter said, to pressure autonomy-minded Kurds into making concessions in deadlocked talks with the Damascus government.
The threat of renewed military action highlights the deepening fault lines between the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has vowed to reunify the fractured country under one leadership after 14 years of civil war, and regional Kurdish authorities wary of his Islamist-led administration.
Syrian Democratic Forces head Mazloum Abdi said on X on Friday (January 16, 2026) that the group will withdraw their forces from current contact lines east of Aleppo at 7 a.m. local time (4 a.m. GMT) on Saturday and redeploy them to areas east of the Euphrates, citing calls from friendly countries and mediators.
Syria’s Defence Ministry welcomed the SDF’s decision to withdraw, saying it would closely monitor full implementation, including the removal of fighters and equipment, ahead of the Syrian military’s deployment to the vacated areas to enforce state sovereignty.
Earlier, the Syrian military said its shelling had started against military bases belonging to a militia affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and against remnants of the former regime allied with SDF in Aleppo’s Deir Hafer city.
The United States, which seeks to anchor peace in Syria to shore up wider Middle East stability and help prevent any resurgence of Islamic State militants, has urged both sides to avoid a showdown and return to talks, according to a Syrian official and a Syrian source familiar with diplomatic channels.
The two sides engaged in months of talks last year to integrate Kurdish-run military and civilian bodies into Syrian state institutions by the end of 2025, insisting repeatedly that they wanted to resolve disputes diplomatically.
But after the deadline passed with little progress, clashes broke out last week in the northern city of Aleppo and ended with a withdrawal of Kurdish fighters.
Now, a broader confrontation looms, according to the sources, who include three Syrian officials, two Kurdish figures and three foreign diplomats.
As many as five Syrian army divisions could take part in the offensive targeting Kurdish-held towns in the northern province of Aleppo and the vast eastern desert province of Deir el-Zor, a senior military official involved in the planning told Reuters.
If the tactic fails to bring the parties back to the negotiating table, Syria’s army is considering a full-scale campaign that could see the Kurds lose the semi-autonomous zone they have managed for more than a decade, the official said.
Escalation brings ‘grave risks’
Syrian Army units deployed on Wednesday (January 14, 2026) and Thursday (January 15, 2026) to the town of Deir Hafer and surrounding villages just west of the Euphrates River held by the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish fighting force and a years-long recipient of U.S. support as it battled the Islamic State militant group.
Syria’s military has ordered SDF fighters to withdraw east of the river and opened a humanitarian corridor for civilians to flee to government-held territory.
Some residents who made it out told Reuters they had to flee through farmland on foot as the main road had been shut. The SDF denied that it had blocked civilians from leaving.
Other Syrian troops were quietly sent to another front line in remote Deir el-Zor province, where the Kurds run key oil fields that Damascus says should be under central state control, according to two Syrian army commanders.
The SDF has condemned the build-up. “We clearly state that we are against any military confrontation, given its grave risks,” Abdel Karim Omar, the Damascus-based representative of the Kurdish-led administration, told Reuters.
He said efforts were underway with the help of foreign mediators to revive the negotiations.
Washington had not explicitly opposed a limited operation by Syrian troops, three diplomats and an SDF official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. But the SDF official said the U.S. was not doing enough to prevent a clash.
U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said on Friday (January 16, 2026) Washington was in “close contact with all parties in Syria, working around the clock to lower the temperature, prevent escalation, and return to integration talks between the Syrian government and the SDF”.
A State Department spokesperson said both sides should avoid “pushing the country back into a cycle of violence”.
The messaging underscores Washington’s effort to recalibrate its Syria policy by balancing years of backing for the SDF against its new support for Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted Russian-backed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in late 2024.
Sharaa accused the SDF of obstructing U.S. policy to nurture a reintegrated Syria and taking orders from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a separatist group that waged a long insurgency in Turkey before entering into a peace process with Ankara.
Sharaa, speaking on state TV, said the SDF had taken “no practical steps forward” to implement last year’s integration pact, but hoped it could still be carried out “calmly”.
Published – January 17, 2026 06:44 am IST
