Syrian Government, Kurdish Officials Discuss Merging Their Armed Forces

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi signing an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi signing an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
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Syrian Government, Kurdish Officials Discuss Merging Their Armed Forces

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi signing an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi signing an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)

Government officials met Wednesday in the northeastern province of Hasakeh with the commander of the main Kurdish-led group in the country, the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is backed by the US.

The new Syrian government wants to bring Syria’s breakaway Kurdish militias back under government control, but the details of their recent breakthrough agreement are still being worked out and negotiators will have overcome a decade of civil war.

Wednesday’s meeting comes a week after Syria’s interim government signed a deal with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast, including a ceasefire and the merging of the SDF into the Syrian army.

The deal should be implemented by the end of the year. It would bring northeast Syria’s borders and lucrative oil fields under the central government’s control.



Israeli Strike Hits Vehicle at Beirut Southern Entrance, State Media Reports

Lebanese soldiers and rescue workers gather near the wreckage of a car struck by an Israeli drone south of Beirut, Lebanon, 03 July 2025. (EPA)
Lebanese soldiers and rescue workers gather near the wreckage of a car struck by an Israeli drone south of Beirut, Lebanon, 03 July 2025. (EPA)
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Israeli Strike Hits Vehicle at Beirut Southern Entrance, State Media Reports

Lebanese soldiers and rescue workers gather near the wreckage of a car struck by an Israeli drone south of Beirut, Lebanon, 03 July 2025. (EPA)
Lebanese soldiers and rescue workers gather near the wreckage of a car struck by an Israeli drone south of Beirut, Lebanon, 03 July 2025. (EPA)

An Israeli drone strike hit a car on a highway in the town of Khaldeh just south of Beirut, killing one person and injuring three others, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Thursday. 

The Israeli army said in a statement that it had targeted “a saboteur who was involved in arms smuggling and advancing terrorist plots against Israeli citizens and the Israeli army on behalf of Iran’s Quds Force.” 

It was not immediately clear if the target of the strike was the person killed. 

A US-brokered ceasefire deal nominally ended the latest war between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah in November, but Israel has continued to launch near-daily airstrikes in Lebanon since then against what it says are officials and facilities of Hezbollah and other armed groups. Hezbollah has claimed one strike fired across the border since the ceasefire. 

Most of the Israeli strikes have been in southern Lebanon, but Israel has also struck a handful of times in Beirut's southern suburbs since the ceasefire. Thursday's strike was in a congested area close to Lebanon's only commercial airport. 

Nearly 250 people were killed and 609 wounded in Israeli attacks in Lebanon between Nov. 28 — the day after the ceasefire took effect — and the end of June, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. 

Also Thursday, Hezbollah members and supporters held a funeral in Beirut's southern suburbs for the former bodyguard and head of security of Hassan Nasrallah, the group's longtime leader. Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut last year, while his former bodyguard was killed in Iran during last month's Israel-Iran war, along with his son.