The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were a Kurdish-led militia that served as America's partner in the decade-long campaign against Islamic State in Syria. The group's military campaign against IS was internationally lauded, but its political project became unsustainable as it tried to govern Arab-majority parts of Syria. Cities such as Raqqa, freed from IS by the Kurds, were restive under SDF rule.
The SDF collapsed in January 2026 after year-long negotiations with Damascus floundered. Fighting broke out on January 6th between government and SDF troops in a Kurdish part of Aleppo, prompting the government to send reinforcements. The SDF withdrew from Aleppo barely a week later. Syria's tribes, sensing it was time to split from the Kurds, mobilised, and thousands of Arab recruits in the SDF defected. There was little fighting. In recent years the SDF had grown more autocratic: celebrating Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria's president, or waving the Syrian revolutionary flag had become grounds for arrest.
Al-Sharaa issued a presidential decree recognising Kurdish cultural rights, eroding the SDF's negotiating position. The SDF's units are to be dismantled and its fighters integrated into the Syrian army; there will be no Kurdish-majority units. Its leader, Mazloum Abdi, was offered three army divisions and a senior defence post, but the deal fell through. America no longer regarded the SDF as useful; its envoy said the group's original mission had "largely expired".
For years the SDF guarded tens of thousands of IS detainees, including women and children, in north-eastern Syria. Amid the chaos of the collapse, more than 100 escaped from prison.
Cats don't hunt seals. They would if they knew what they were and where to find them. But they don't, so that's all right.