Kurdish-led SDF capture eastern Syria's Deir al-Zour, border crossings with Iraq

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have taken control of the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, according to three Syrian sources who spoke to Reuters on Friday.

It is the third major Syrian city to fall out of President Bashar al-Assad's control in a week.

Two security sources based in eastern Syria said the SDF had taken full control of Deir al-Zour by Friday afternoon.

Omar Abu Layla, an activist from the media platform Deir Ezzor 24 with contacts in the city, told Reuters that Syrian government forces and Iran-backed Iraqi fighters had pulled out of Deir el-Zour before the SDF swept in.

An Iraqi security source said the SDF were also advancing in the direction of the Syrian town of Albukamal, which sits on the border with Iraq.

Reuters Iraq bureau chief Timour Azhari said on X on Thursday afternoon that SDF fighters had seized control of Abu border crossings 

The SDF advance came as Syrian rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, bore down on the central Syrian city of Homs on Friday.

The SDF has previously clashed with anti-Assad rebels, some of whom are affiliated with Turkey, which considers Kurdish factions in the group to be "terrorist" organisations.

It has largely avoided fighting against regime forces during the Syrian conflict, focusing instead on the Islamic State militant group and receiving support from the US.

Saleh Muslim, the head of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), considered the strongest political force in SDF-held territory, struck a conciliatory note towards HTS in a Thursday interview with the Al-Arabiya news channel.

He said that he "hoped for the best" regarding the rebel advances and said that HTS were "Syrians before anything else" but added that they must "agree to live with" Syrians of different views, religions, and ethnicities, pointing out Syria's multi-confessional and multi-ethnic character. 

The rebels had already taken the northern city of Aleppo last week and the city of Hama earlier this week, dealing the biggest blows to Assad in years.

(Reuters and The New Arab Staff)