ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s Defense Ministry on Saturday announced a 15-day ceasefire extension between the Syrian Arab Army and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) amid deteriorating security and humanitarian conditions in the northeast.
The ministry said the ceasefire would come into effect at 11 pm local time, three hours after the original ceasefire expired.
The news came amid reports that the Syrian Arab Army and SDF were mobilizing troops and engaging in tense standoffs in northeast Syria on Saturday. The Defense Ministry said the extension would support the US military to “evacuate ISIS detainees from SDF prisons to Iraq.”
The SDF in a statement confirmed the agreement which was reached “through international mediation,” saying that “dialogue with Damascus continues.” The Kurdish-led force affirmed its “commitment to the agreement.”
The SDF and the Syrian government have engaged in intensive US-mediated negotiations to integrate the autonomously-run SDF and Kurdish-majority areas into the central government during the four-day ceasefire, which Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced Tuesday.
Since mid-January, the SDF have clashed with Syrian government forces and allied armed groups as they seized SDF-held areas, including former ISIS strongholds such as Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour, and advanced on the Kurdish stronghold of Hasaka.