In two days, the Syrian army, supported by tribal militias, drove Kurdish forces from large swathes of northern Syria they had occupied for more than a decade.
Among the towns and cities reported to have fallen is Raqqa, once the infamous capital of the Islamic State group’s so-called caliphate.
Geolocated videos showed tribal militias in the city center on Sunday, as well as military presence in other areas.
Much of Syria’s oil resources are also under government control for the first time in more than a decade.
Here’s what we know about the rapid changes on the ground.
The sudden incursion into Kurdish-held territory comes after clashes broke out in the city of Aleppo and surrounding countryside earlier this month, and is the latest episode in a tense standoff between the central government and the Self-Defense Forces.
The SDF is a U.S.-backed group that is not part of the rebel alliance that toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2024.
On Friday, the SDF agreed to withdraw from the Aleppo region to the east bank of the Euphrates River, its first territorial concession to the new government.
However, since Saturday, the Syrian army has advanced into areas not covered by the agreement, and the Kurdish forces appear to have retreated in confusion.
The advance of the Syrian army into several areas has usurped the SDF’s control over both mineral resources and rich agricultural land.
The army and its tribe allies have taken control of large parts of Aleppo, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor provinces that border Iraq, while Arab militias have also invaded Kurdish-held Hasakah province.
In the process, the army captured two hydroelectric dams on the Euphrates River, according to the Syrian Energy Ministry. The larger facility provides much of the nation’s drinking water and, if renovated, could provide about 900 megawatts of electricity.
The Syrian army also took control of oil and gas fields in Deir Ezzor province, including the largest oil field called al-Omar, al-Tanak oil field and Conoco oil field, officials said.
The SDF has long controlled many areas inhabited primarily by Arab tribes, many of whom are now joining the fight. When ISIS controlled much of northeastern Syria, the SDF expanded its territory as it worked with the U.S.-led coalition in the fight against ISIS.
When Assad was overthrown, the government of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa rejected the concept of a federal Syria and called for the Damascus writ to apply throughout the country.
A number of negotiations took place between the government and SDF leader Mazloum Abdi. And for a time, it appeared that an agreement might be reached to integrate Kurdish fighters into the Syrian security forces and extend the Damascus government’s political control over territory in northern and eastern Syria.
Last March, al-Sharah and Abdi signed an agreement, which the Syrian president said aimed to “ensure the rights of all Syrians, regardless of their religious or ethnic background, in representation and participation in the political process and in all state institutions, based on their merits.”
However, the Kurds were reluctant to give up areas under their control, and there was no agreement on integrating Kurdish forces into the national army.
Damascus promised the Kurds wide cultural autonomy, including the use of the Kurdish language in schools. Indeed, on Friday, al-Sharaa signed a decree promising Kurdish cultural and language rights and granting Syrian citizenship to thousands who have been deprived of it for decades.
SDF leadership said the concessions were not enough.
At the same time, many Arabs living in Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria were losing patience.
In the town of al-Tabqa, which was captured by government forces on Saturday, residents were waiting for the army to arrive to “eliminate this (Kurdish) gang that all the people are complaining about and fed up with,” resident Mohamed Kalousi told Reuters, according to multiple videos and eyewitness accounts.
Local activists said Sunday’s clashes occurred in the nearby city of Raqqa, which was occupied by ISIS for years before being expelled from the area in 2017. The city witnessed some of the terrorist group’s worst atrocities.
Geolocated videos showed explosions and snipers on rooftops in the city, and tribal militias celebrating in the streets.
A predominantly Kurdish regime has run the city since it was liberated from ISIS.
Mullah Ahmad al-Hajji, a resident of Raqqa, told CNN on Sunday that he had taken part in fighting with the SDF.
“Currently, the clashes are occurring in the city’s neighborhoods. The Self-Defense Forces have snipers in many buildings and are concentrated in the north of the city, but we are dealing with them,” he told CNN in a phone conversation.
“The Syrian army is in the south of the city. Liberating Raqqa is a matter of hours, not days,” he claimed.
“Anyone who opposes[SDF’s]self-governance will be put in jail,” Mulla insisted. “They shouldn’t have been here in the first place.”
Syrian state television reported that residents of Raqqa were “rising against the SDF amid mass dispersal of the city’s population” and said the group’s fighters had been driven out of the city.
“Raqqa’s local residents will take full control of the city and hand it over to the Syrian government in order to protect its institutions, security and stability,” the newspaper said.
The United States had expressed concern that the disruption would negatively impact coalition efforts against ISIS remnants in rural Syria.
On Saturday, Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, called on the Syrian government to “cease all acts of aggression between Aleppo and Altabqa” to ensure a common front against ISIS.
The Syrian army appears to have ignored the appeal.
Centcom announced Saturday that its latest attack against militants in Syria killed an al-Qaeda operative with direct ties to the ISIS attackers who killed three Americans in early December.
It is unclear whether Kurdish security forces still guard the largest camp for relatives of ISIS fighters in al-Hol, near the Iraqi border. But geolocated video shows Arab militias have taken control of the town of Shadadi, about 50 kilometers to the south.
