Rebuilding Syria’s northeast: Damascus’ toughest test yet

Rebuilding Syria’s northeast: Damascus’ toughest test yet Submitted by Danny Makki on Wed, 03/18/2026 - 14:54 After 15 years of Kurdish self-rule, control shifts to government, with security, integration, economic challenges ahead Since the beginning of the year, the Syrian government has reclaimed major oil fields, factories and power plants from the SDF in northeast Syria (Danny Makki/MEE) Off A few weeks can be a long time in Syria , and nowhere has that been clearer than in the country’s turbulent northeast. More than a year after Bashar al-Assad fled and his brutal government collapsed, Syria’s northeast has entered a delicate new phase in which the old security order evaporated, essentially overnight, to be replaced by new state control, fragile understandings, and competing visions of what the post-Assad governance system should look like. Damascus has moved further and faster than many expected in reasserting itself across territory once held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), after a sweeping military push backed by tribal fighters forced a dramatic retreat.