Syrian Kurds announce completion of civil, military integration with Damascus

The integration of the Kurdish administration within Syria's state institutions is now complete, Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said on Thursday, marking the end of the Kurds' long-held dream of autonomy.

The announcement follows months of negotiations between the two sides after a January agreement that called for the full integration of Kurdish civil and military institutions into the state -- a move Washington deemed "historic". Amid the violence, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa signed on January 16 a decree enshrining the Kurds' national rights and recognising Kurdish as a national language, an unprecedented step since Syria's independence in 1946. US troops also transferred more than 5,700 Islamic State group detainees in previously Kurdish-controlled camps to neighbouring Iraq.