(Al Jazeera Media Network) The United States has urged Syrian troops to halt their advance through Kurdish-held territory in Syria’s north, amid clashes with Kurdish-led forces over strategic posts and oilfields along the Euphrates River.
The rapid advance of Syrian troops on Saturday came after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed to retreat east of the river, following recent fighting in Aleppo and areas east of the city over stalled plans to merge the SDF into the Syrian state.
Brad Cooper, who heads the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), wrote on X that Syrian troops should “cease any offensive actions in areas” between the city of Aleppo and the town of Tabqa, approximately 160 km farther east in the Raqqa governorate.
On Saturday, the Syrian Army Operations Command told Al Jazeera Arabic that the military had entered Tabqa, a strategic town near a dam and a military airbase. The SDF denied the claim, saying its forces were “still in their positions” there.
The Syrian state-run news agency SANA lated reported that government forces had taken control of the town.
The SDF had said it would pull back from the key towns of Deir Hafer and Maksana, as well as some surrounding villages in the Aleppo governorate, whose residents are predominantly Arab.
Syria’s army took control of the area on Saturday and accused the SDF of violating a withdrawal agreement by targeting an army patrol near Maksana, “killing two soldiers”.
The SDF, meanwhile, accused Damascus of violating the agreement by entering the towns “before our fighters had fully withdrawn”.
Later, Syrian troops advanced further, with state news agency SANA reporting they had expanded into the Raqqa countryside, entering Kurdish-controlled towns and villages, including Hneida, Rajm al-Ghazal, Mansoura and Zur Shamar, and imposing a curfew in the Maadan area, as they raced closer to Tabqa.
The SDF accused Damascus of betrayal. “Heavy clashes continue between our forces and Damascus factions, who violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces during the implementation of the withdrawal provisions,” it said in a statement, adding that parts of Raqqa had been “subjected to artillery shelling and rocket fire”.
But the SDF said in a statement on Saturday that Tabqa was “outside the scope of the agreement” and that it would fight to keep the town, as well as an oilfield in its vicinity.
