ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday said that their forces had been attacked in parts of northern Syria by factions affiliated with the Syrian government, despite a ceasefire agreement between the two sides taking effect a day earlier.

“Despite the declared ceasefire agreement and the official statements issued in this regard, factions affiliated with the Damascus government continue their attacks on our forces in Ain Issa, al-Shaddadi, and Raqqa," the Kurdish led force said in a statement.

The offensive comes a day after both sides agreed to a 14-point agreement, that included an immediate ceasefire on “all fronts.”

“At this time, violent clashes are taking place between our forces and those factions in the vicinity of al-Aqtan Prison in Raqqa, which houses detainees of the ISIS [Islamic State] terrorist organization, representing an extremely dangerous development," the SDF statement further clarified. 

The Syrian Arab Army on the other hand blamed attacks by “some terrorist groups from the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] organization and the remnants of the defunct regime,” for the escalation, claiming that they had tried to “disrupt the implementation of the agreement” by targeting the military.

The army told Syrian state media that they had lost three soldiers in the altercation. 

The SDF has for years been in charge of many camps and prisons holding ISIS affiliates and family members in northeast Syria (Rojava), which Kurdish authorities have repeatedly called a ticking time bomb, urging countries to repatriate their nationals. 

The Kurdish-led Rojava administration on Saturday warned of “the imminent danger to the prison holding ISIS terrorist detainees in the city of Raqqa. Due to the continuation of military attacks around the area, the security situation of the prison may become unstable and become a real danger of reactivating the scenes of the terrorist organization.”

Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's former rebel faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), spearheaded an offensive in December 2024 to oust former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 

Sharaa's former faction subscribed to an extremist Islamic ideology and was the successor to the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.

The group was a designated terrorist organization by the UN Security Council, with Sharaa personally being the target of a US bounty worth $10 million, leading analysts to raise concerns about the Syrian army being in charge of the cells holding ISIS members.

Sunday’s ceasefire came after weeks of violence between Kurdish-led forces and Damascus-affiliated factions across areas west of the Euphrates, including Aleppo and Raqqa, with both sides trading blame over instigating the clashes.