SDF, Damascus reach preliminary deal on prisoner exchange, security

Rudaw Net

01-04-2025

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SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the new leadership in Damascus have struck an agreement to exchange 'all prisoners' and keep the SDF-affiliated internal security forces (Asayish) in Aleppo's predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods, an advisor to the Kurdish-led administration said on Tuesday.
'The Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood councils reached an agreement with the relevant committee from the Syrian authorities, marking an important step toward promoting stability and coexistence,' Bedran Ciya Kurd, advisor to the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), said on X.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, also reported earlier on Tuesday that the Asayish in the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods north of Aleppo city 'will be transformed into public security forces' and will be placed 'under the administration of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.'
'This will be done in coordination with the relevant service and security institutions in Aleppo, and special mechanisms will be established to achieve this,' said Kurd, also a former co-president of the Kurdish-led administration's foreign affairs department.
'The Syrian authorities in Aleppo bear responsibility for any threats the two neighborhoods may face, while ensuring joint efforts to mitigate these risks,' he emphasized.
The Observatory added that the deal entails 'the release of 170 SDF prisoners and a number of bodies of martyrs,' in addition to 'around 400 detainees and bodies of members of the government's security forces and [allied] factions.'
The deal will be implemented 'with the knowledge' of Washington, the Observatory added.
Following a swift offensive, a coalition of opposition groups led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa, in early December toppled the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In late January, Sharaa was appointed as Syria's interim president.
The HTS then marched on Aleppo, prompting the Kurdish-led SDF to take control of strategic locations in eastern Aleppo and form a corridor to the city from the Euphrates River.
The SDF later tactically withdrew from many of the sites while maintaining hold over Aleppo's Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh, both long-held by the People's Protection Units (YPG) - the SDF's backbone.
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi signed a landmark agreement on March 10 to integrate the SDF into the Syrian state apparatus. The agreement recognizes the Kurds as an integral part of Syria, includes a countrywide ceasefire, and stipulates the return of displaced Syrians to their hometowns.
Kurd called the agreement 'the first phase of a more comprehensive plan' to ensure the 'safe return of Afrin's residents.'
In March, Ahmed Hassan, the head of the local council for the Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC) - the main opposition party in northeast Syria (Rojava) - told Rudaw that the number of Kurds returning to Afrin had significantly increased following the SDF-Damascus deal.
In 2018, Turkey and its allied Syrian militias seized control of Afrin, a Kurdish enclave in northwest Syria. Thousands of Kurds fled, many moving to the nearby Shahba region, and families displaced from elsewhere in Syria moved into Afrin.