Recent clashes in Syria are raising alarms as escalation between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) appears to be boiling over. For many people, the complexity of what is happening will make it difficult to understand. The place names and the rapid changes on the ground, and what it all means requires a quick introduction.
For some commentators, the current conflict in Syria boils down to the new Syrian government attacking Kurdish forces. While this is correct in some ways, it is also very simplistic. Let’s take a deeper look at the groups involved and what is happening.
Syria is currently divided.
The SDF controls eastern Syria. Up until January 17, 2026, they controlled around a third of Syria, east of the Euphrates River.
It is a Kurdish-led force, but not all of its members are Kurdish. The group includes Arab fighters as well as Christians and others. It was founded in 2015 with US support.
The SDF’s Kurdish leadership is mostly drawn from a Kurdish fighting force known as the People’s Protection Units or YPG, and its women’s arm called the Women’s Protection Units or YPJ. The YPG and YPJ were founded around 2011 and began to defend Kurdish areas in Syria as the Assad regime’s forces weakened during the Syrian civil war.
The YPG and YPJ have close ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK. The PKK was originally a Kurdish far-left group founded in 1978 that led an insurgency against Turkey for decades. Because of this, the Turkish government views the SDF as a “terrorist” group. The US and others disagree and view the SDF as an independent Syrian group.
When the US began working with the SDF in 2015, it had seen how effective the YPG had been in fighting ISIS. The YPG had helped save Yazidis from ISIS genocide in 2014 in Iraq when YPG forces crossed the border into northern Iraq’s Sinjar to help save the group. The YPG was able to push ISIS out of areas in eastern Syria.
The SDF was formed to help extend the appeal of the fighting force outside of a narrow Kurdish constituency. Over time, the SDF liberated Raqqa, the ISIS capital in Syria, and then pushed ISIS back to the Euphrates River and largely defeated the group in 2019.
After 2019, the US backed the SDF in eastern Syria, but the SDF received only military support from US Central Command and no real political support from the West.
In 2018, Turkey attacked the YPG in Afrin in northwest Syria and invaded an area called Serekeniye in eastern Syria in 2019. Since then, the SDF has been very wary of a conflict with Turkey, which is a member of NATO and a US ally.
When the Assad regime fell, the SDF made some gains on the western side of the Euphrates. In March, SDF leader Mazlum Abdi met the new Syrian leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and agreed to integrate the SDF into the new Syrian army. However, integration never happened, and instead, clashes have resulted between the SDF and the new Syrian government’s forces.
Eastern Syria run by heavily Kurdish DAANES
Eastern Syria’s civilian affairs are run by the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), which is basically a civilian arm of the SDF, and it is heavily Kurdish and run by groups such as the PYD, who are left-leaning and linked to the YPG. As such, it is primarily a one-party state, although there has been talk of opening up its political system to other groups such as the Kurdish KNC or ENKS.
The new Syrian government is often called the STG or Syrian Transitional Government. Its origins lie in the offensive by the Ahmed Sharaa Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group in late November 2024. HTS was formed in 2017. It has its origins in a Syrian group called Nusra Front that once had ties to al-Qaeda. Sharaa had been imprisoned in Iraq for many years, having gone there to back the Iraqi insurgency against the US.
HE WAS RELEASED when the Syrian rebellion broke out, and he returned to Syria. Sharaa rebranded his group as HTS, and after 2017, he also did outreach to the US and Turkey. He wanted Western support, but he didn’t want to become a Turkish proxy.
HTS ran Idlib province in northwest Syria. Turkey, meanwhile, had turned various other Syrian rebel groups into proxies under the banner of the Syrian National Army. Turkey used these groups to fight the SDF, and most of them became involved in criminality. HTS, in contrast, was trained and prepared for war with the Assad regime. When Israel weakened Hezbollah in November 2024, HTS saw an opportunity and attacked Aleppo. Days later, it took Damascus on December 8, 2024.
After taking Damascus, HTS chose to rebrand itself again and help form a new transitional government. Many top jobs, such as the ministries of defense, interior, and intelligence, went to HTS members, while some portfolios went to independent politicians. Sharaa and his officers set about recreating a Syrian army, building new divisions and incorporating some of the other rebel units into them. The new Syrian forces clash with Alawites in Lattakia and Druze in Sweida, and also Kurds in Aleppo. As such, many groups feel the government has not done a good job working with minorities.
As of today, the SDF continues to control a swath of eastern Syria, and the STG controls Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo, the major cities of central and western Syria. They also control tribal areas and Deir Ezzor. They have widespread support among Sunni Arabs and other Sunnis, such as Turkmen. They also have close ties to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Sharaa has met US President Donald Trump several times.
Turkey continues to control a small part of northern Syria. In addition, the Druze control Suwayda, running a kind of small autonomous region in southern Syria. Druze leadership is concentrated in the hands of Hikmat al-Hijri, a Druze leader in Syria’s southern Suwayda province. It does not appear that any other Druze factions are allowed a role. Israel also controls a small area in Syria near the Golan border.
This is the basic breakdown of who controls Syria today. The major change taking place is that many Arab tribes along the Euphrates River valley east of the river appear to be trying to join the Syrian government and help it take areas near Raqqa, Shaddadi, and Hasakah.
These are areas with many Arabs, although there are also some areas with Christians and Kurds. The Middle Euphrates River Valley has been a volatile area in Syria near the Iraqi border for years, where insurgents and ISIS, as well as Iranian-backed militias, had a role in the past. Therefore, the current uncertainty could affect the wider region.