On August 25, 2026, the Syrian Democratic Forces announced their official dissolution during a press conference in Damascus’ Presidential Palace. The announcement followed more than seven months of integration progress between the new Syrian government and the now formerly SDF-controlled areas of northern Aleppo and northeast Syria.
For more than a year after the fall of the Assad regime, the two sides were locked in a tense, sometimes violent stand-off. Two rapid government military operations in January 2026 ended this deadlock, with leaders and technical committees from both parties engaged in constructive integration talks ever since. Integration has moved along several files and in several regions. Initial focus was on integrating the security sector - particularly police forces - and the service sector. Along with this, IDP returns have been a central priority for both Damascus and the SDF.
These integration steps have played out differently across Kurdish areas. The Aleppo neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh were the first to come under Syrian government control, followed by the Arab and Kurdish communities in northeast Syria, including Kobani. The integration deal also paved the way for real progress on normalizing the situation in Afrin, the Kurdish region northwest of Aleppo city that had been seized by Turkey and its Syrian proxies, the Syrian National Army (SNA) in 2018.
I recently visited all three of these areas, meeting with Kurdish activists, local government officials, and ex-SDF leaders to better understand how the integration process of these three regions has evolved, and what challenges lay ahead. The current status of the integration varies across each region, often as a result of their particular histories and needs. Sheikh Maqsoud appears to have had the smoothest and most complete transition, while significant hurdles remain in Kobani. Nevertheless, the SDF integration process is well past its most fragile stages.