Syrian government seizes strategic town and oil fields from Kurdish forces in ongoing push eastward

TABQA, Syria (AP) — Government forces seized a strategic town and oil fields Sunday in northeastern Syria, part of an ongoing push against Kurdish-led forces east of the Euphrates River.

This came after tensions between Damascus and the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, flared earlier this month, leading to deadly clashes and the government taking control of three Aleppo neighborhoods from Kurdish fighters.

Sunday's military push into Tabqa in the province of Raqqa is viewed as critical because of a dam that controls the southward flow deeper into areas under the SDF. The town is also home to a military air base.

An Associated Press reporter saw residents coming out of their homes to welcome the Syrian troops while waving the national flag. Another AP journalist saw Syrian government forces in control of oil fields in Raqqa province that had previously been under the control of the SDF.

Since leading an insurgency to oust longtime President Bashar Assad in December 2024, Syria's new leader, President Ahmad al-Sharaa, has struggled to assert full control across the country and appeal to minorities skeptical of Syria’s Islamist-led rule. The government and the SDF have traded accusations of violating an agreement in March that would reintegrate northeastern Syria and Kurdish-led forces with the government.

The SDF has controlled large swaths of northeastern Syria for years, including its oil fields, and has been Washington's key ally in combating the extremist Islamic State group. Since Assad's ouster, however, the United States has developed strong ties with Damascus and tried to ease tensions between the two sides.

The U.S. had urged calm after this month's Aleppo clashes left at least 23 dead and tens of thousands displaced. After the fighting halted, SDF leader Mazloum Abdi said Friday that the group would withdraw its forces from the area to the east of the Euphrates following al-Sharaa's announcement on measures adopted to strengthen Kurdish rights in Syria.

Last week, Syria’s Defense Ministry closed off a contested area in eastern Aleppo as a military zone, which includes part of a tense front line that divides the areas under government and SDF control. And now, it seems that government troops are heading deeper toward the city of Raqqa, one of the most significant in the country's northeast under SDF control.

Tabqa is the latest of the mostly Arab majority areas that government forces have captured in Raqqa province. It remains unclear how deep into the Kurdish heartland the Syrian military will go.

Syrian state media SANA reported Sunday that Kurdish forces detonated a bridge in the city, in an apparent bid to slow down Damascus' advances into the city.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government, in a statement, accused SDF forces of executing prisoners in Tabqa before withdrawing from the area. The SDF denied the allegations, saying they had transferred the detainees out of the prison, and accused government forces of firing at the facility. It shared a video showing armed men in civilian clothing in the prison seizing munitions left there, with the person filming yelling: “We liberated Tabqa prison!" No bodies were seen in the short video.

An AP journalist visited two prisons in Tabqa and found them empty of prisoners. There were no bodies inside. However, he saw three bodies of people in civilian clothes who appeared to have been killed at a school near one of the prisons.

The SDF took Tabqa from IS back in 2017 as part of its military campaign to take down the group’s so-called Caliphate, which at its peak stretched across large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Elsewhere, the governor of the Deir el-Zour province, further east, asked residents to stay home after reports of clashes with the SDF.

Relations between the SDF and Arab tribes in the eastern province near a strategic border crossing with Iraq have been strained. Deir el-Zour is also home to the Al-Omar oil and Conoco gas fields, near where U.S. troops are based in the area. There have been unconfirmed reports that local armed tribes opposed to the Kurdish-led administration have taken control of the fields.

Britain-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that government forces have taken control of more than a dozen villages and towns in the eastern Deir el-Zour countryside after SDF forces withdrew.

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