Syrian army clashes with SDF test ceasefire, ISIL fighters arrested

The Syrian army has announced a curfew in the city of al-Shaddadi in the country’s northeast after the escape of ISIL (ISIS) fighters from the city’s prison amid clashes with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), according to the state news agency, SANA.

The clashes on Monday came the day after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF leader Mazloum Abdi, also known as Mazloum Kobani, reached a ceasefire deal.

Despite uncertainty about the ceasefire, al-Sharaa and United States President Donald Trump on Monday spoke about the “need to guarantee the Kurdish people’s rights and protection within the framework of the Syrian state”, the Syrian presidency said in a statement.

The two leaders also “affirmed the importance of preserving the unity and independence of Syrian territory” and how to continue fighting ISIL, the statement added.

The Syrian army told Al Jazeera on Monday that it was now in complete control of al-Shaddadi city and the prison housing suspected ISIL detainees as its troops searched the city and its surrounding areas for escaped fighters.

Syria’s Interior Ministry said early on Tuesday that 81 of some 120 ISIL detainees who had escaped from the prison had been recaptured, the Reuters news agency reported, and efforts were ongoing to arrest the remaining fugitives.

The Syrian army’s operations authority also told SANA that control over the al-Aqtan prison and other security facilities in the city would now be assumed by the Ministry of Interior.

Syrian forces and the SDF have both blamed each other for the ISIL detainees’ prison break. The army has claimed that the SDF deliberately released the ISIL members, while the SDF said it had lost control of the prison after an attack by the army – a claim that the military has denied.

The SDF said in a statement that nine of its members were killed and 20 others wounded in fighting around al-Aqtan. The Kurdish-led force’s statement added that the US-led military coalition formed to fight ISIL had not intervened, despite repeated calls to a nearby base housing coalition forces.

After the truce between the Syrian government and the SDF was signed over the weekend, Damascus announced that the Kurdish-led force had agreed to withdraw from areas under its control, including Raqqa and Deir Az Zor, the location of Syria’s main oilfields and two Arab-majority provinces they had controlled for years. The province of Hasakah, where al-Shaddadi city is located, largely remains under SDF control.

ISIL was defeated in Iraq in 2017, and in Syria two years later, but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries.