Syria's main Kurdish force SDF dissolves after merging into national army
The Syrian Democratic Forces declared their dissolution on Tuesday after completing integration into the Syrian army, ending the existence of the Kurdish-led force that had been Washington's key partner against the Islamic State group.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander Mazloum Abdi announced on Tuesday, in a televised address from the presidential palace in Damascus, that the force's mission had ended and that it was formally dissolving as an independent military entity. The announcement followed talks with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa.
The SDF was established in 2015 at the urging of the United States to combat the Islamic State (IS) group, built primarily around the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). At its height, the SDF administered a de facto autonomous zone across much of northeastern Syria, encompassing significant oil and farming regions. Turkey views the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and has carried out several military operations against it inside Syria.
The integration stems from an agreement reached on 29 January that set out a ceasefire and the gradual handover of SDF-run military and civilian institutions — including border crossings, oil and gas fields, prisons and camps holding IS detainees — to the Syrian state. Before signing that deal, the SDF had already lost most of its territory in a government offensive in January, having withdrawn from areas west of the Euphrates following clashes in Aleppo in December 2025.
On 16 January, al-Sharaa signed a decree guaranteeing Kurdish national rights, recognising Kurdish as a national language, making Nowruz an official holiday, and granting citizenship to Kurds previously denied legal status. Washington called the wider integration deal historic.
Abdi said the dissolution marked a shift from the battlefield to reconstruction and from an era of weapons to an era of peace, adding that political efforts would intensify to secure Kurdish rights within the Syrian constitution.
A further win for al-Sharaa
The move is a major achievement for al-Sharaa, who has worked since taking power after Bashar al-Assad's fall in December 2024 to consolidate state control across Syria and bring formerly autonomous or rival armed groups under the Defence Ministry. Following Abdi's statement, Syrian authorities announced a separate agreement with all remaining armed factions to dissolve and integrate them into the ministry as well.
Turkey, which borders Syria and has long opposed the creation of a Kurdish autonomous region on its southern frontier, has closely monitored the process. PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned on Imrali Island in Turkey since 1999, said the SDF-Damascus agreement would ease and speed up what he called the 'Turkey without terror' process, urging Ankara to take a constructive, dialogue-oriented role.
