The Japan Times - Syria accuses Kurdish force of truce breach as army enters IS-linked camp

The government announced a new truce with the Kurds on Tuesday after taking swathes of north and east Syria that had long been under the control of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The United States, which heads an international coalition that has backed the Kurds against IS, said the purpose of its alliance with the SDF had largely ended years after they defeated the jihadists.

Washington now backs Syria's new Islamist authorities who are seeking to extend their control across the country after years of civil war.

The defence ministry said an SDF drone strike targeted an arms factory that its forces found in Hasakeh province, causing a blast that killed seven soldiers.

The army condemned the incident as "a dangerous escalation and clear violation of the ceasefire".

The SDF denied it attacked the factory and instead accused the government of carrying out "a series of attacks" since the ceasefire, adding it was committed to the truce.

In a deal reached Sunday that included a ceasefire and the integration of the Kurds' administration into the state, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi agreed that the government would take over responsibility for IS prisoners.

Syria's army entered the vast Al-Hol camp that houses relatives of suspected Islamic State jihadists on Wednesday after Kurdish forces withdrew, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

- Waiting for news -

Thousands of former jihadists, including many Westerners, are held in seven Kurdish-run prisons in northeast Syria, while tens of thousands of their suspected family members live in the Al-Hol and Roj camps.

At Al-Hol, the AFP correspondent saw soldiers open the camp's metal gate and enter while others stood guard, as women and children milled among the site's tents.

The camp in a desert region of Hasakeh province is the largest such facility established by Kurdish forces after they took control of swathes of Syria while ousting IS with coalition backing.

It holds around 24,000 people, including some 6,200 women and children from around 40 nationalities.

The jihadists were territorially defeated in Syria in 2019.

Roj is still under Kurdish control in eastern Hasakeh province.

In Raqa province, state media said Tuesday that security forces had deployed around the Al-Aqtan prison.

A security official on the ground told AFP that Kurdish forces were still inside the facility on Wednesday.

An AFP correspondent saw hundreds of people waiting for new of family members held in the jail.

Hilal al-Sheikh, from a village in the province, said he had been waiting for days for news of his 20-year-old son, jailed for 10 months.

"The SDF terrorist gangs arrested my son" in the middle of the night, Sheikh said.

"They accused him of terrorism... before sentencing him to five years in prison," he said.

- Kobane -

Authorities on Wednesday accused the SDF of targeting an army vehicle near the town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, which Kurdish forces said the army had tried to storm.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said people displaced from military operations nearby had converged on the town on the border with Turkey, the only part of Aleppo province still under Kurdish control.

On Tuesday, the interior ministry said 120 IS members escaped from the Shadadi prison in Hasakeh province, later saying it had arrested "81 of the fugitives".

The army had accused the SDF of releasing IS detainees from the facility, while the Kurds said they lost control of the facility after an attack by Damascus.

US President Donald Trump told the New York Post Tuesday he had helped stop a prison break of European jihadists in Syria, referring to the Shadadi incident.

He also told a press conference that "I like the Kurds, but... the Kurds were paid tremendous amounts of money, were given oil and other things, so they were doing it for themselves more so than they were doing it for us".

"We got along with the Kurds and we are trying to protect the Kurds," he added.

Syria's presidency on Tuesday announced an "understanding" with the Kurds over the fate of Kurdish-majority areas of Hasakeh province, and gave them "four days for consultations to develop a detailed plan" for the area's integration.

If finalised, government forces "will not enter the city centres of Hasakeh and Qamishli... and Kurdish villages", it added.

Under the agreement, Abdi would nominate candidates for the posts of Hasakeh governor and deputy defence minister, as well as lawmakers for the transitional parliament.

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M.Yamazaki--JT