Syria’s government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have extended their truce by 15 days to support a U.S.-led effort to transfer Islamic State group detainees from northeastern Syria to Iraq, both sides said Saturday.
“The extension of the cease-fire comes in support of the American operation to transfer Islamic State detainees from SDF prisons to Iraq,” the Syrian defense ministry said in a statement. The SDF confirmed the extension, saying it was reached through international mediation and that dialogue with Damascus is continuing.
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The two sides initially agreed to a four-day cease-fire on Tuesday after the SDF relinquished swathes of territory to government troops. Syrian forces also sent reinforcements to a Kurdish stronghold in the northeast as lines stabilized and channels opened for talks, according to officials familiar with the arrangement.
The truce is intended to facilitate a complex detainee operation. The United States has said it will transfer up to 7,000 Islamic State detainees out of SDF-run facilities in Syria to prisons in Iraq. Europeans were among roughly 150 senior detainees who were the first to be moved on Wednesday, and two Iraqi officials said a second batch of up to 1,000 detainees was being sent on Saturday. The transfer is expected to take several days.
Islamic State, which swept across swaths of Syria and Iraq in 2014 and carried out atrocities across the region, was territorially defeated by the SDF and a U.S.-led coalition. The fate of thousands of suspected IS fighters in makeshift prisons has remained a flashpoint, particularly as shifting front lines and security gaps have raised the risk of unrest or escapes.
The pause in fighting is part of a broader, evolving understanding over Kurdish-majority areas in Hasakeh province and an effort to integrate the Kurds’ civil administration into state structures. A Kurdish source said the SDF has submitted a proposal to authorities in Damascus through U.S. envoy Tom Barrack that would put border crossings under central government management — a core demand from Damascus — while allocating a share of economic resources, including revenue from crossings and oil, to Kurdish-majority districts.
Earlier this month, the Syrian army recaptured oil fields — including the country’s largest — as it advanced against Kurdish forces, sharpening the leverage Damascus holds over revenue streams and supply lines in the northeast.
Extending the cease-fire creates space for the detainee transfers while testing whether security cooperation can be paired with political steps. If the truce holds and the prisoner operation proceeds without major incident, it could set the parameters for a more durable arrangement in Hasakeh and neighboring areas where governance, security and revenue-sharing remain contested.
For now, the immediate priority is moving high-risk detainees out of overcrowded SDF facilities and into more secure detention inside Iraq. Officials involved in the process said additional convoys are expected in the coming days as U.S. and Iraqi counterparts coordinate intake and screening. The SDF, which has long warned it lacks resources to detain thousands of suspected IS fighters indefinitely, has sought international backing to reduce that burden.
Whether the 15-day extension becomes a bridge to deeper political accord will hinge on progress in talks over border control, oil revenues and the status of local security forces. Both Damascus and the SDF have signaled willingness to keep talking, but the pace — and the balance of concessions — is likely to track developments on the ground and the pressure of international mediators.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
