Syrian Regime Forces Deploy Quality Weapons in SDF Areas

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) prepares to defend its areas (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) prepares to defend its areas (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Syrian Regime Forces Deploy Quality Weapons in SDF Areas

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) prepares to defend its areas (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) prepares to defend its areas (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Syrian regime forces reinforced their military units in the countryside of Raqqa and Aleppo governorates after coordinating with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and receiving a guarantee from the Russian forces deployed in the vicinity.

Syrian convoys moved under the protection of Russian warplanes and brought in heavy reinforcements, including tanks and armored vehicles. Hundreds of soldiers were stationed on the front lines.

The military movements came after the Turkish threats and the mobilization of Turkey-affiliated Syrian forces.

SDF spokesman Aram Hanna announced that the Syrian government agreed to send heavy weapons to boost the combat capabilities of the Syrian forces and SDF to confront any possible Turkish attack jointly.

In a press interview, Hanna explained that the Syrian regime approved sending the reinforcements given the need to enhance SDF's defensive capabilities with quality weapons, heavy artillery, tanks, and armored vehicles.

He pointed out that these reinforcements will support the Forces' position to deter the "Turkish occupation army and its Syrian terrorist mercenaries," stressing that the forces are committed to the agreements concluded in October 2019.

Hanna explained that the recent agreement and the defense plan signed with the Syrian government fall within the military framework, including preserving the integrity of the Syrian soil and confronting possible aggression that may be carried out by the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries.

Meanwhile, a military source in the Tal Abyad Military Council of the SDF said that Syrian forces deployed with their heavy weapons in Ain Issa, north of Raqqa, and were stationed in the 93rd Brigade which is controlled by the government forces.

Other reinforcements were sent to Kobani and Manbij, in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, and part of these weapons and soldiers will be deployed to al-Arima to support the government forces.

The Syrian forces withdrew from many areas after the outbreak of peaceful protests against the regime in the Spring of 2011.

However, in October 2019, the forces returned after the Turkish Peace Spring operation to areas under the SDF control after a bilateral agreement under the auspices of Russia.

They reinforced their positions after signing a joint defense plan on July 5, reaching 550 Syrian soldiers.

A board member of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), Aldar Khalil, said that the plan with the Syrian government failed to agree on the centralization of governance and the state's identity.

Khalil told Asharq Al-Awsat that the government fears that it will lead to losing power and authority, adding that the country is not for one component to determine identity.

The government must protect the country's sovereignty and borders, said Khalil, pointing out that they all agree there is a danger that threatens Syria's sovereignty as a state and identity as a country.

He also called on the Syrian government to translate its words into practical steps to deter the Turkish attack, reiterating that if authorities want to resolve the crisis, the essential thing is deterring the Turkish aggression and end its occupation of Syrian territory.



UN: More than 1.3 Million Return to Homes in Sudan

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
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UN: More than 1.3 Million Return to Homes in Sudan

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)

More than 1.3 million people who fled the fighting in Sudan have headed home, the United Nations said Friday, pleading for greater international aid to help returnees rebuild shattered lives.

Over a million internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned to their homes in recent months, UN agencies said.

A further 320,000 refugees have crossed back into Sudan this year, mainly from neighboring Egypt and South Sudan.

While fighting has subsided in the "pockets of relative safety" that people are beginning to return to, the situation remains highly precarious, the UN said.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting has killed tens of thousands.

The RSF lost control of the capital, Khartoum, in March and the regular army now controls Sudan's center, north and east.

In a joint statement, the UN's IOM migration agency, UNHCR refugee agency and UNDP development agency called for an urgent increase in financial support to pay for the recovery as people begin to return, with humanitarian operations "massively underfunded".

Sudan has 10 million IDPs, including 7.7 million forced from their homes by the current conflict, they said.

More than four million have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

- 'Living nightmare' -

Sudan is "the largest humanitarian catastrophe facing our world and also the least remembered", the IOM's regional director Othman Belbeisi, speaking from Port Sudan, told a media briefing in Geneva.

He said 71 percent of returns had been to Al-Jazira state, with eight percent to Khartoum.

Other returnees were mostly heading for Sennar state.

Both Al-Jazira and Sennar are located southeast of the capital.

"We expect 2.1 million to return to Khartoum by the end of this year but this will depend on many factors, especially the security situation and the ability to restore services," Belbeisi said.

With the RSF holding nearly all of the western Darfur region, Kordofan in the south has become the war's main battleground in recent weeks.

He said the "vicious, horrifying civil war continues to take lives with impunity", imploring the warring factions to put down their guns.

"The war has unleashed hell for millions and millions of ordinary people," he said.

"Sudan is a living nightmare. The violence needs to stop."

- 'Massive' UXO contamination -

After visiting Khartoum and the Egyptian border, Mamadou Dian Balde, the UNHCR's regional refugee coordinator for the Sudan crisis, said people were coming back to destroyed public infrastructure, making rebuilding their lives extremely challenging.

Those returning from Egypt were typically coming back "empty handed", he said, speaking from Nairobi.

Luca Renda, UNDP's resident representative in Sudan, warned of further cholera outbreaks in Khartoum if broken services were not restored.

"What we need is for the international community to support us," he said.

Renda said around 1,700 wells needed rehabilitating, while at least six Khartoum hospitals and at least 35 schools needed urgent repairs.

He also sounded the alarm on the "massive" amount of unexploded ordnance littering the city and the need for decontamination.

He said anti-personnel mines had also been found in at least five locations in Khartoum.

"It will take years to fully decontaminate the city," he said, speaking from Port Sudan.