Syrian Democratic Forces commander announces dissolution, integration into Syrian army

Mazlum Abdi, commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), announced at an evening press conference that the group has been formally dissolved and that its forces will be integrated into Syrian state institutions. Abdi said SDF fighters had liberated towns and cities from both the Assad regime and ISIS, suffering thousands of martyrs in the process. Abdi said circumstances had changed and Syria had entered a phase of peace and reconstruction of a new Syria. He reported that under an agreement reached with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the integration of SDF forces into Syrian army brigades has been completed and the mission of the SDF as an independent military force has ended. Abdi said Kurdish-language education rights, demanded by the Kurdish people for decades, would be preserved and would be implemented within the current year. On January 29, the Syrian government and the SDF announced a ceasefire as part of a broader agreement that included the withdrawal of both sides' military forces from contact points, the deployment of security forces affiliated with the Interior Ministry in the centers of Hasakah and Qamishli, and the establishment within the SDF of a three-brigade military brigade and an Ayn Issa brigade under Aleppo.