Syria army, Kurdish forces clash days before planned unification

Sherif Tarek and Firat Kozok, Bloomberg News on Dec 23, 2025

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Clashes erupted between Syria’s army and a U.S.-backed Kurdish group on Monday in the country’s north, an escalation that undermines their planned unification by the end of the year.

The government in Damascus and Kurdish-led armed group Syrian Democratic Forces accused each other of instigating the fighting in the Aleppo province. At least two civilians were killed and 15 people including members of the Syrian security forces were wounded, state news agency Sana reported.

Syria’s central government said later it stopped firing on the Kurdish group known as SDF, but clashes highlight how difficult it has been to integrate the U.S.-backed militia into Syria’s national army under an accord signed in March. Members of the Turkish government, which supported the unification deal, arrived in Syria’s capital Damascus hours before the fighting began. Ankara is trying to disarm Kurdish rebel forces on its own territory.

Turkey has been a key supporter of Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who led the ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad a year ago, following a civil war that lasted more than a decade and left millions of Syrians displaced.

In March, Sharaa reached an agreement with SDF’s chief Mazloum Abdi to integrate the Kurdish group into the central government by the end of this year. But progress has been scarce with recurrent clashes between the two. The government has accused the SDF of reneging on the deal.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who led the visiting delegation on Monday, also accused the SDF of acting in bad faith and cooperating with Israel, which has struck Syria multiple times since Assad’s downfall.

Sharaa once led an affiliate of al-Qaeda and was designated a terrorist by the U.S. in 2013. He renounced his allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2016. Since taking power, he has tried to distance himself from extremist groups in a quest for unity. His longer-term goal is to dissolve armed factions and seize all weapons in the country to eventually take full control of the territory