Syria:
Kurds Besieged

Feb 16, 2026

This article is translated from the February 13 issue, #3002 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in France.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s troops signed a ceasefire agreement with the predominantly Kurdish Democratic Forces (SDF) on January 30. But tensions remain high in northeastern Syria (Rojava) where the siege of Kurdish cities Kobane and Hassakeh continues.

The SDF was created in October 2015 to formalize the alliance between Kurdish militias in Syria linked to Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and some local Arab tribes. The SDF made up the bulk of the ground troops supported by the U.S. and the Western coalition to fight the Islamic State (ISIS), which had covered a vast territory straddling Syria and Iraq. SDF fighters suffered the heaviest losses in the fight to recapture this territory. ISIS had barely been defeated in 2019 and its once capital Raqqa retaken when the U.S. abruptly abandoned the SDF. This let the Turkish army seize a large swath of territory along the Turkish border, at the cost of thousands of lives, after relentlessly pursuing Kurdish and particularly PKK fighters.

The SDF was only able to maintain power in Rojava thanks to an agreement with Syrian then-President and dictator Bashar al-Assad and Arab tribes living on the banks of the Euphrates River, with U.S. approval. This allowed SDF leaders to control border crossings and gas and oil fields in the region—meaning revenue, trafficking, and corruption.

The SDF’s governance of Rojava let the Kurds live in relative security despite being deprived of national rights and repressed in neighboring countries where they form significant minorities. Unlike other military apparatuses and warlords that have established themselves over the years amidst the chaos left by numerous American military interventions in the Middle East, the SDF presents itself as secular and progressive. Notably, the SDF has female combat troops. But in exchange for this very precarious position, the SDF had to perform the most thankless tasks on behalf of imperialism.

Until recently, the SDF administered huge camps for former jihadist prisoners and their families. Tens of thousands of people are still being held in about 10 camps—former fighters, but also women and children of Syrian, Iraqi, French, German, and British nationality. Roj and al-Hol camps alone hold more than 28,000 civilians, including 8,500 foreigners, in appalling conditions. Children are born and raised in these camps. Most European countries refuse to repatriate their citizens, even minors, who joined ISIS whether willingly or by force. These families still languish in Rojava.

Supported by Turkey and the U.S., the recapture of Rojava by recently defrocked jihadist al-Sharaa’s troops raises the question of the prisoners’ future. The U.S. plans to transfer to Iraq 7,000 of those it considers the most dangerous, without regard for the fate of other prisoners or the consequences in an Iraq devastated by decades of American wars.

As for Syria’s Kurdish population, they are once again victims of the boundless cynicism of imperialist leaders who trample on the rights of peoples while manipulating them when it suits their purposes. But the Kurds also suffer the consequences of the policies of their own leaders, who are willing to offer their services to anyone who helps them control territory.