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The commander-in-chief of the SDF, Mazloum Abdi, announced on Tuesday that the group has been dissolved, declaring that its mission had been fully accomplished.
Abdi's announcement marks the formal end of the SDF as a standalone force in Syria, following months of negotiations with Damascus over the integration of its military, security and administrative structures into national state institutions.
The move comes just days after Abdi said the process of folding the SDF's military, security and administrative bodies into Syrian state structures had been completed. Speaking at an event in Qamishli in northeastern earlier in the week, he had said the group was entering a "new phase" focused on securing constitutional rights for Kurds in Syria.
Several brigades had already been formed within the Syrian army for SDF members who joined its ranks, with former senior figures from the group placed in command. Damascus had also appointed a former SDF official as deputy defense minister for the eastern region.
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The dissolution follows a Jan. 29 agreement between the SDF and Damascus to integrate the civilian, security and military institutions under SDF control into Syrian state structures. The deal, signed by Abdi and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, came after weeks of clashes in which the group lost territory it had held in Syria's oil-rich north and northeast.
Amid that violence, al-Sharaa signed a decree on Jan. 16 enshrining Kurdish national rights and recognizing Kurdish as a national language in Syria.
Abdi had also said members who traveled to northeastern Syria from Iraq, Iran and Türkiye to join the group had since left the country, describing their earlier arrival as a response to a call for help and their departure as part of a coordinated withdrawal plan.
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