The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have begun dismantling security checkpoints while halting search operations in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah, as part of an integration deal reached with the Syrian government, the New Arab’s affiliate Syria TV reported on Monday.
The SDF have also handed over the administration of Al-Hasakah’s Ghuwayran Prison and Qamishli’s Alaya Prison to the Syrian government, while a government delegation headed by Attorney General Hassan Al-Turba arrived in Al-Hasakah to discuss reopening the Palace of Justice in the city and reactivating the judiciary.
According to a source close to the SDF who spoke to Syria TV, the SDF-affiliated Asayish security forces have started removing checkpoints at the entrances of the cities of al-Hasakah and Qamishli and along the main M4 highway in northeastern Syria.
They have also stopped checking names of people at checkpoints in the province.
The source said that the SDF was planning to remove unnecessary checkpoints and facilitate movement, while integrating Asayish security force into the Syrian government’s internal security forces.
Last January, fighting broke out between the SDF and Syrian government forces following the breakdown of an integration agreement signed in March 2025. Syrian government forces managed to capture most of the territory once held by the SDF in northern and northeastern Syria.
SDF forces still control the cities of Qamishli and Hasakeh and areas around them in northeastern Syria, as well as the city of Kobane in northern Syria.
A new ceasefire agreement reached in late January once again stipulates that their forces must integrate into the Syrian government.
Asayish security forces have been issued with instructions to stop detaining civilians at checkpoints on political grounds, and to end mobile phone inspections.
Under new arrangements, they are now only allowed to detain people suspected of criminal activity or links to terrorism.
Coinciding with the Syrian government’s takeover of SDF prisons, dozens of people from eastern and northeastern Syria protested in front of the Foreign Ministry building in Damascus on Monday, demanding information about the fate of their relatives detained by the SDF.
Some of those protesting said that certain detainees had been transferred to prisons inside Iraq, where information about them and their wellbeing was difficult to obtain.
Familes are calling for urgent intervention to determine their relatives’ fate, secure their return, or clarify the charges and legal procedures against them, amid ongoing suffering that has lasted for years.
