Damascus Gives Syrian Armed Groups 10 Days to Join State Security Apparatus

Since the fall of the Assad regime last December, Syria’s new Islamist rulers have sought to bring the country’s disparate factions under state control.

Members of Syrian Kurdish security forces patrol a street in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria on Feb. 26, 2025. Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images

Syria’s post-Assad regime has given independent armed factions 10 days to merge with the state-run security apparatus or face punitive measures, according to Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra.

In a statement released on the evening of May 17, Abu Qasra said Syrian “military units” had been successfully merged into a “unified institutional framework” subject to government control.