WATCH: Could events in Syria have a wider impact for Kurds?

The Syrian army has taken territory long held by Kurdish-led forces before declaring a ceasefire.The lightning offensive changes the balance of power in the country. Are there wider implications for Kurds in the region beyond Syria?

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Interior Ministry says 130 of 200 ISIL escapees from al-Shaddadi prison recaptured

Syria’s Interior Ministry has accused the SDF of releasing ISIL fighters from the prison in the city of al-Shaddadi in the northeast as a form of “political and security blackmail”. The ministry told Al Jazeera that government forces recaptured 130 of the 200 escaped ISIL inmates. The army said it deliberately bypassed al‑Shaddadi prison in line with an agreement that the SDF would later hand control of the facility to Damascus authorities. The army leadership contacted mediators and SDF commanders to transfer the prison to internal security forces, but the SDF refused, the ministry said. It accused the SDF of releasing the ISIL prisoners and issuing a statement about the situation “to mislead international opinion”. The SDF continues to refuse to hand over sensitive prisons in violation of the agreement. It has blamed the army for the prison break, saying it “lost control” of the jail after an attack by tribal fighters affiliated with the army.

Syrian government forces deploy after crossing the Euphrates River in Deir Az Zor [AFP]

SDF and Syrian government appear to slide away from truce

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi met al-Sharaa in the presidential palace in Damascus last night. We’ve waited for a statement, but we haven’t got one. What we do know is the meeting has ended, and Abdi has returned to the northeast of Syria. We still don’t know how that meeting went. But on Telegram, the SDF released a statement calling on Kurds across Turkiye, Syria, Iraq, Iran and even Europe to rally and push back. The ceasefire deal was supposed to resolve this crisis, but there are many ambiguities that the meeting failed to clarify, and we might be moving too far away from a diplomatic solution, leading to broader conflict between the two sides in northeast Syria.

Here are the latest developments

• A manhunt is on for about 70 ISIL (ISIS) inmates who escaped from prison during clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the army in the northeast.
• Syria’s army and allied tribal fighters are moving towards the SDF-held city of Hasakah as questions remain whether the fragile, two-day-old ceasefire will hold.
• After new outbreaks of fighting on Monday, the Kurdish-led SDF issued a statement calling for “all of our youth” to “join the ranks of the resistance”.
• The SDF says at least nine of its members have been killed and 20 others wounded in fighting around al-Aqtan prison near the northern city of Raqqa.
• President Ahmed al-Sharaa spoke overnight with US President Donald Trump on the need for unity in war-torn Syria.