ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Preparations are underway to release nearly 400 members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Saturday after a previously scheduled exchange was delayed, a Syrian official said.
“Preparations are underway to release 397 detainees next Saturday who were formerly affiliated with SDF,” a spokesperson for the Syrian presidential team for implementing a January 29 agreement with the Kurdish-led forces, Ahmed al-Hilali said, as cited by the state-run al-Ikhbariya TV.
This comes after a Syria-SDF prisoner exchange set for Thursday was delayed due to “technical problems,” Hawar news agency (ANHA), which is affiliated with the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) reported on Wednesday.
This follows a January 29 “comprehensive agreement” signed between the SDF and Syria’s transitional government, allowing government forces to enter the Kurdish-majority cities of Hasaka and Qamishli in Rojava.
In mid-March, the Syrian government and the SDF exchanged 600 prisoners - 300 detainees from Damascus and an equal number from the SDF - marking the third phase of such swaps. In the two previous exchanges, 100 and seven prisoners were released.
Hilali on Thursday also said that the SDF will release “the last batch of its detainees” during “the next phase” to hand over all prisons under its control to the Damascus authorities.