Kurdish, Syrian government forces declare truce in Qamishli area: statement
The witness and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group tracking the five-year-old war in Syria, said it did not appear that Asayish forces had withdrawn since the start of the truce from any recently-gained territory.
During the fighting, Asayish forces seized control of a number of government-controlled positions in the city of Qamishli, in Hasaka province, as well as its main prison.
A Syrian Kurdish official has said this was the second biggest outbreak of fighting between President Bashar al-Assad`s government and regional Kurdish forces since Syria`s civil war began in 2011.
Qamishli, near the Turkish border, is mostly controlled by Kurdish security forces, though pro-Assad forces still hold a few areas in the city center, and its airport.
Syrian Kurdish forces now dominate wide areas of northern Syria and set up their own government there. Syria has become a patchwork of areas controlled by the government, an array of rebel groups, Islamic State militants, and Kurdish militia.
Mediators have struggled to get Syria`s combatants to honor a Feb. 27 cessation of hostilities deal to enable peace talks to proceed. On Friday, the U.N. special envoy for Syria vowed to take the talks into next week despite a walkout by the main armed opposition with both sides gearing up to escalate the war.