Syrian forces deploy at key dam following deal with Kurds

News Desk :: Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces captured the dam from Daesh in late 2015. Photo: Reuters
Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces captured the dam from Daesh in late 2015. Photo: Reuters

Security forces from the new government in Damascus deployed on Saturday around a strategic dam in northern Syria, under a deal with the autonomous Kurdish administration, state media reported, reports AFP.

Under the agreement, Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces will pull back from the dam, which they captured from Daesh in late 2015.

The Tishrin dam near Manbij in Aleppo province is one of several on the Euphrates and its tributaries in the Syrian Arab Republic.

It plays a key role in the nation’s economy by providing water for irrigation and hydro-electric power.
On Thursday, a Kurdish source said the Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria had reached an agreement with the central government on running the dam.

A separate Kurdish source said on Saturday that the deal, supervised by the US-led anti-terror coalition, stipulates that the dam remain under Kurdish civilian administration.

Syria’s state news agency SANA reported “the entry of Syrian Arab Army forces and security forces into the Tishrin Dam … to impose security in the region, under the agreement reached with the SDF.”

The accord also calls for a joint military force to protect the dam and for the withdrawal of factions “that seek to disrupt this agreement,” SANA said.

It is part of a broader agreement reached in mid-March between Syria’s President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, aiming to integrate the institutions of the Kurdish autonomous administration into the national government.

The dam was a key battleground in Syria’s civil war that broke out in 2011, falling to Daesh before being captured by the SDF.

Days after Al-Sharaa’s coalition overthrew Syrian leader Bashar Assad in December, Turkish drone strikes targeted the dam, killing dozens of civilians and Kurdish officials, as Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.