00:00This soldier of the Syrian army removes the flag of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in
00:05the early hours of Saturday morning. Syrian residents celebrate as Damascus takes control
00:11of Deir Hafer and surrounding towns east of Aleppo after Kurdish forces agreed to withdraw
00:16from the area. But the two sides are accusing the other of violating the ceasefire and a 48-hour
00:21deadline for the SDF to withdraw from the towns, with both sides reporting deaths of soldiers.
00:26The renewed clashes have been escalating for days. More than 11,000 residents have fled
00:32Deir Hafer and Mascana in the past 48 hours to reach government-held areas.
00:38We went to the humanitarian corridor and the SDF prevented us from going through,
00:41so we used smuggling routes. I left Mascana and will go to Mambij,
00:46where my children live. I am afraid of the shelling and the fighting.
00:50Since the removal of Bashar al-Assad in 2024, Interim President Ahmed al-Sharah has been
00:58working to reunify the war-torn country. His biggest challenge? Bridging the divide with the
01:03Kurds, who still control vast areas of northern Syria and are reluctant to succumb to an Islamist
01:08government. The two sides have engaged in months of negotiations to integrate Kurds into Syrian state
01:14institutions, albeit with little progress. On Friday, al-Sharah issued a decree granting
01:20Kurdish-Syrians national rights, including declaring Kurdish a national language.
01:25The Kurdish-led authority, however, says their rights should be enshrined in the country's constitution.
