SPECIAL -- Reviewing a dramatic expansion of Syria-SDF conflict

Including a timeline of key events

After several days of heightening tensions and mutual military build-up between Syria’s government and the SDF in eastern Aleppo’s countryside, U.S. forces deployed to the frontline town of Deir Hafer on Friday January 16. In a meeting at the al-Raed Hospital that lasted more than 3hrs, the U.S. conveyed to the SDF that in order to avoid a far greater conflict, SDF forces should vacate territory east of Aleppo city that had been taken from Assad’s regime during its dramatic collapse in December 2024. While early reports from the scene indicated the SDF had rejected the American ultimatum, SDF leader Mazloum Abdi announced at 11.40pm local time that “in demonstration of our good faith,” his forces would withdraw from “contact lines east of Aleppo… and redeploy to areas east of the Euphrates.”

Mazloum’s consequential announcement came just two hours after transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced a decree providing unprecedented reforms empowering Syria’s Kurdish community. Sharaa’s decree and Mazloum’s announcement triggered celebrations across the country, including Kurdish-dominated regions. Ultimately however, the test would come the following morning, when SDF forces were to conduct their withdrawal by 7am – as declared by Mazloum. In the hostilities that occurred in Aleppo city a week earlier, SDF-linked forces abrogated three US-mediated ceasefire and withdrawal deals in a row, so it remained an open question whether Mazloum’s fighters would abide by the order to pull out.

Overnight January 16-17, several military and intelligence sources in Syria’s government told me they were monitoring the SDF withdrawing their heavy weapons from the frontline towns of Deir Hafer and Maskanah – a promising early sign.