Mohammad Sio
16 January 2026•Update: 16 January 2026
- 6 SDF members defected on Deir Hafir front following army’s call to leave group
ISTANBUL
Syrian authorities said Friday they arrested an intelligence operative affiliated with the terrorist organization YPG/SDF in the eastern Aleppo province while he was attempting to flee alongside civilians, accusing him of planning “terrorist attacks.”
Military security personnel detained the suspect in the Deir Hafir area as he tried to leave the zone “with the aim of carrying out terrorist operations,” the Defense Ministry’s media and communications directorate told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
The ministry also reported that six SDF members who defected on the Deir Hafir front were immediately secured by Syrian troops. It added that additional defection requests had been received within the designated area and were being processed.
This comes shortly after the Syrian Army publicly called on SDF members to defect and report to the nearest military post.
In a statement carried by SANA, the army’s Operations Command called on “Syrian individuals within the SDF, Kurdish and Arab,” to leave the group, saying the state’s dispute is with “PKK terrorist militias and remnants of the former regime.”
“The homeland welcomes you at any time and place,” the statement said, calling on members to return to their state and families.
In a related development, a military source told SANA that Syrian forces shot down a drone on the Deir Hafir axis as it attempted to target army positions.
Meanwhile, SANA reported that for a second consecutive day, SDF has blocked residents from leaving Deir Hafir through the designated humanitarian corridor in the village of Humaima, forcing civilians to use dangerous secondary and agricultural routes to reach areas under Syrian government control.
This came despite an extension granted by the army’s operations command for civilians to leave Deir Hafir in the east of Syria's Aleppo and surrounding areas.
In March 2025, the Syrian presidency announced an agreement for the terrorist organization YPG/SDF integration into state institutions, reaffirming the country’s territorial unity and rejecting any attempts at division.
In April 2025, Syrian authorities signed a separate agreement concerning the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods, stipulating that both districts remain administrative parts of Aleppo city while respecting their local particularities.
The agreement included provisions banning armed manifestations, restricting weapons to internal security forces, and requiring the withdrawal of SDF military forces to areas east of the Euphrates in northeastern Syria.
However, authorities said the SDF has failed to comply with the terms of those agreements.
The Syrian government has intensified efforts to restore security nationwide since the ouster of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024, after 24 years in power.
