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The Syrian army is preparing to launch an offensive against PKK/YPG in northern and eastern regions, sources familiar with the matter said Friday, to pressure the terrorists into making progress in deadlocked talks with the Damascus government.
The threat of military actions highlights the deepening fault lines between the government of President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who has vowed to reunify the fractured country under one leadership after 14 years of civil war, and the PKK/YPG terrorists pushing for autonomy in northern Syria.
Washington, which has backed the PKK/YPG for over a decade under the pretext of fighting Daesh terrorist group, has urged the sides to avoid a “showdown” and return to talks, according to a Syrian official and a Syrian source familiar with diplomatic channels.
The two sides engaged in months of talks last year to integrate the PKK/YPG into Syrian state institutions by the end of 2025, insisting repeatedly that they wanted to resolve disputes diplomatically.
But after the deadline passed with little progress from the YPG, clashes broke out last week in the northern city of Aleppo and ended with a withdrawal of YPG terrorists.
Civilians fled PKK/YPG-controlled regions on Friday before a deadline set by the army was to expire at 5:00 pm by local time.
“The YPG stopped us from leaving, that’s why we used an agricultural back road and then crossed the bridge,” said 60-year-old Abu Mohammad, who was accompanied by relatives.
He said they were heading to a reception centre set up in Aleppo. The Syrian authorities had accused the YPG of preventing civilians from leaving, a claim the group dismissed on Thursday as “unfounded”.
The terrorist group was also accused of using civilians as human shields in the towns of Deir Hafer and Maskanah in eastern Aleppo.
“Türkiye is closely monitoring with concern reports that the YPG are using civilians as human shields,” Türkiye’s ambassador to Damascus, Nuh Yılmaz, said on Thursday.
His remarks came after the Aleppo Media Directorate reported on Thursday that the YPG deliberately obstructed civilians attempting to leave Deir Hafer and Maskanah toward state-controlled areas.
According to the directorate, the terrorist group prevented civilians from crossing through the Humaymah humanitarian corridor, which had been announced by the Syrian military.
Now, a broader confrontation looms, according to the sources, who include three Syrian officials, two YPG figures and three foreign diplomats.
As many as five Syrian army divisions could take part in the offensive targeting YPG-controlled towns in the northern province of Aleppo and the vast eastern desert province of Deir el-Zour, a senior military official involved in the planning told Reuters.
If the tactic fails to bring the parties back to the negotiating table, Syria’s army is considering a full-scale campaign that could see the YPG lose the so-called “Rojava autonomous administration” they have created more than a decade ago, the official said.
Failure to mend Syria’s deepest remaining fracture risks an armed clash that could derail its emergence from 14 years of war, and potentially draw in neighboring Türkiye, which has warned of an operation against the YPG terrorists entrenched near its borders. Ankara considers the YPG an extension of the PKK, which has waged a decadeslong terror campaign that killed at least 40,000 people in Türkiye, Iraq and Syria.
The YPG took control of much of northeast Syria, where most of the nation’s oil and wheat production is, after driving out Daesh terrorists in 2019. It said it was fighting for the rights of the Kurdish minority, but resentment against its rule has grown among the region’s population, including against the forced conscription of young Arab men.
Türkiye has repeatedly urged the PKK/YPG to comply with the integration agreement, saying it did not want to resort to military means but warning that patience with the group is “running out.”
