Syrian Kurdish-led SDF announces dissolution after integration into national army

The commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, announced on Tuesday during a televised address from the presidential palace in Damascus that the group would dissolve as an independent military force. He said the decision followed the completion of integrating SDF units into the brigades of the Syrian army.

For years, the SDF was Syria's most highly trained and organized paramilitary force, backed by Washington as its key partner in the fight against the Islamic State group. However, after the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, the United States shifted its support toward the new, US-friendly authorities in Damascus, leaving the SDF sidelined.

In his address, Abdi recalled that since its founding in 2015, the SDF had carried heavy responsibility during one of the most difficult periods in Syria's history, liberating towns and cities first from the Baathist regime and later from IS militants. He said circumstances had changed and that the country had entered a new phase defined by peace and participation.

At its peak, the SDF numbered around 100,000 fighters, both Kurdish and Arab, and controlled large, oil-rich areas of northern and northeastern Syria. But after clashes in January in which Kurdish forces lost significant territory to government troops, the two sides reached an agreement to integrate Kurdish military and civilian institutions into the state. During that period of violence, President Ahmed al-Sharaa signed a decree affirming Kurdish national rights and recognizing Kurdish as a national language — an unprecedented step since Syria's independence in 1946.

After al-Sharaa's forces took control of two previously Kurdish-held provinces, Raqa and Deir Ezzor, Arab fighters within SDF ranks defected en masse, leaving the force at roughly half its former strength. The Kurdish forces had also endured repeated Turkish incursions between 2016 and 2019, as Ankara considers the SDF linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Under the January agreement, the SDF committed to expelling all non-Syrian PKK leaders and members from the country.

The SDF's integration marks a significant victory for al-Sharaa, who has sought to consolidate control over all of Syria since Assad's fall, while effectively closing the door on the Kurds' long-standing aspiration for autonomy.