NEW YORK, United States - Attacks on civilians and infrastructure have eased in northeast Syria (Rojava) following a series of agreements between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syria’s interim government, a United Nations official said on Monday. This comes as efforts to restore essential services and facilitate the return of displaced Kurds gain momentum. “What I sense is that certainly the attacks affecting civilians and infrastructure, as in the northeast, have receded, and movement restrictions have eased in parts of Aleppo city,” David Carden, Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, told Rudaw during an online press briefing. The SDF, de facto army of Rojava, reached an agreement with Syria’s interim leadership earlier this month. The deal included a prisoner swap and laid the foundation for joint security oversight in Aleppo city, covering the northern Kurdish-majority neighborhoods previously held by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF. This agreement builds on a landmark March deal between Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi to integrate the SDF into Syria’s state institutions. “The good news is that the repairs… to Tishreen Dam, the repairs are happening and ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] and UNICEF are a part of that, and this is absolutely critical because it will enable the restoration of water and electricity to more than 400,000 people in east and Aleppo,” Carden said. Tishreen Dam, located on the Euphrates River, has been a strategic target of Turkish military campaigns since November. Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian militias have sought to seize control of the dam to gain access to other SDF-held areas. At least 20 civilians have been killed by Turkish drone strikes in the surrounding region. In a bid to halt further attacks, the SDF and the new Syrian leadership in Damascus are in talks to transfer control of the dam to government-affiliated forces. The attacks have ceased for weeks amid these negotiations. In an interview with Al-Monitor this week, Abdi said that under the proposed framework, the dam will remain under the management of its current technical staff. Meanwhile, SDF forces will withdraw and station themselves eight kilometers away, while Damascus-aligned troops act as a buffer zone between the SDF and Turkish-backed groups. “Thousands of people displaced in the northeast are preparing to return to Afrin,” Carden added. In early April, Azad Osman, a member of Afrin’s local council, told Rudaw that Damascus-affiliated security forces had started assuming control of the Kurdish city of Afrin in northwest Syria, as militia groups and settlers began to withdraw. Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch in March 2018, capturing Afrin from the YPG and placing it under the control of Turkish-backed armed groups. Since then, these groups have ruled with broad impunity. Kurds displaced by the 2018 invasion have increasingly returned to Afrin following the weakening of Turkish-backed forces and the entry of Damascus-affiliated security forces. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, told Rudaw on Monday that Guterres’ message “is about creating new structures in Syria that are representative of the mosaic that is the Syrian people, to ensure that there is accountability, to ensure that voices are heard.” In early April, Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa appointed a 23-member cabinet that included four members from minority groups. However, the cabinet appointments sparked criticism from some ethnic and religious communities, who said they were not consulted in the process. Several cabinet members have also been blacklisted by the UN and the United States for alleged ties to extremist armed groups. The new leadership came under further scrutiny in early March after violence in the Alawite-majority coastal areas of western Syria left around 1,500 people dead - mostly Alawite civilians - according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). The deaths were largely attributed to the government or affiliated forces. In late March, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told Rudaw that Berlin’s support for the interim government in Damascus depends on its commitment to a democratic and inclusive political process, a stance echoed by other Western powers.
