DAMASCUS — Shivering in the snow, encircled by government forces and cut off from electricity, internet and stable water access, residents of Kurdish-majority Kobani (Ain al-Arab) say their city is under siege.
"We feel that we have been left alone in this situation and do not know where things are headed," Aras Hassou, 30, a Kurdish language teacher in the northeastern Aleppo city, told Syria Direct.
As of Friday afternoon local time, Syrian government forces were around 30 kilometers to the west and south of Kobani, where occasional gunfire could be heard in the distance, a source from a humanitarian organization operating in the city told Syria Direct, requesting anonymity.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—which control Kobani—suffered unprecedented losses over the past week after stalled talks to integrate with the central state broke down. Collapsing in the face of advancing Damascus forces and local uprisings by Arab tribes, the Kurdish-led forces withdrew to two increasingly isolated pockets of territory: northern Hasakah and Kobani. SDF commander Mazloum Abdi has declared defending these areas the group's "red line."
Inside Kobani, which is hemmed in by government forces to the east, west and south and by the Turkish-Syrian border to the north, sources said conditions have deteriorated in recent days. Civilians who fled to the city from nearby villages are staying with family members, sleeping in cars or sheltering in schools and tents as a snowstorm sweeps across northern Syria.
"It is a suffocating siege," Kobani resident Ednan Hesen, 36, told Syria Direct. Electricity has been out for days, due to damage to facilities at the Tishreen Dam during recent fighting. The power outage, in turn, has disrupted the water supply and impacted communications. All roads leading to Kobani are closed, and goods have not been able to enter the city of roughly 400,000, where sources said baby formula was in short supply.
Humanitarian organizations were waiting on Friday for Syrian government approval to establish a corridor or aid convoy to the city, the humanitarian source said. The Kurdish Red Crescent in Kobani called on the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to "intervene immediately" in a statement the same day.
On January 20, a four-day ceasefire agreement between the SDF and government forces went into effect to provide time to develop a detailed plan for integrating the SDF and affiliated institutions into the Syrian military and state. The Syrian presidency said, if a subsequent integration agreement is reached, government forces would not enter the cities of Hasakah or Qamishli pending future plans for their integration, while Kurdish towns and villages would be secured by "local security forces from the people of the area."
Violations of the ceasefire—which came after the collapse of negotiations over an earlier January 18 agreement between the SDF and Damascus—have proliferated in recent days, as the two sides trade accusations.
'Not an ordinary city'
With the success of a negotiated solution uncertain, some residents in Kobani and across other parts of northeastern Syria have taken up arms, preparing to defend their communities in response to calls from SDF officials for a general mobilization.
"What we fear most is a repeat of the 2014 scenario," Hassou said. "Kobani is not an ordinary city; it fought in front of the whole world. In 2014, Kurdish fighters defeated IS, and Kobani became a global symbol of freedom and resistance."
Outside Syria, Kobani is perhaps best known as the target of a months-long siege by the Islamic State (IS) that began in September 2014. Kurdish forces built their reputation during that fight, which caused extensive damage to the city, killed hundreds and sent more than 200,000 people fleeing into neighboring Turkey.
Kobani marked an inflection point in the larger fight against IS, as Kurdish-led forces—backed by the US-led international coalition—later swept across eastern Syria, leading to the group's territorial defeat in 2019.
The memory of assaults by IS and other groups—including Jabhat al-Nusra, the precursor to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), then led by Syria's President Ahmad al-Sharaa under his nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Jolani—in Kobani, nearby villages and other Kurdish communities have not faded with time.
Those Syria Direct spoke to in Kobani viewed Syria's new government with deep mistrust, seeing it as an extension of the kind of groups Kurdish forces fought off for years and, in some cases, equating it with IS.
"Kobani in particular is [at risk of] revenge since the area is Kurdish and IS was defeated here," Hesen said. Eight members of his family were killed by IS between 2014 and 2015, and his father was killed in a suicide truck bombing of the Kurdish Red Crescent headquarters in Kobani in November 2013.
Damascus, for its part, has stated that it considers Kurds an integral part of Syria while it rejects the prospect of an autonomous region in the north. This month, President al-Sharaa issued a decree formally recognizing Kurdish as a national language, banning discrimination and restoring citizenship to all Kurdish citizens.
"As civilians in this city, we have been living under constant threat for more than 10 years, between attacks by IS and Turkish assaults. Therefore, I can say that the situation is extremely unstable and dangerous," Hassou added. "We are surrounded by rings of fire on all sides, and there is no safe passage out."
'Re-traumatizing'
Amarees, 30, a journalist born and raised in Kobani who asked to be identified only by her first name, is among the city's residents who consider government forces to be a threat on par with IS. "We fear that there will be a major massacre in Kobani," she said. "As a mother, I am not afraid for myself, but I am very afraid for my daughter."
"As well as the very real threats to the safety of civilians in the city, the current encirclement of Kobani is also highly symbolic. The present events are clearly re-traumatizing based on this historic experience for the local inhabitants," said Thomas McGee, a fellow at European University and specialist in Kurdish affairs.
"We fear the Syrian government's gangs, which we see as an extension of IS ideology, because we have witnessed the massacres they have committed against innocent civilians," Hassou said, referring to extrajudicial killings in Alawite communities on the Syrian coast and in Druze-majority Suwayda province last year.
"There are very serious concerns around heightened and intense cases of violence against Kurds in Kobani given the circulation of anti-Kurdish hate speech over recent days," McGee added.
Over the past week, videos of apparent abuses have circulated on social media. Verify-Sy, a Syrian fact-checking platform, has highlighted five videos that appear to be recent and show the mutilation of corpses and summary executions of members of Kurdish forces. Verify-Sy told Syria Direct it has not been able to verify any recent videos of violations against Kurdish civilians.
Another set of videos has emerged showing the mass killing of 21 people wearing civilian clothing by armed men who speak Kurdish and state that the act was in retaliation for Kobani, adding that any attack on the city would be met with a similar response. The SDF acknowledged on Friday that the man speaking in the video was a member of its forces, adding he had been dismissed and referred to a military court.
On Thursday, the Syrian Ministry of Defense issued a statement saying it had begun to take legal action against military personnel who "violated conduct regulations" during its operations in northeastern Syria.
'Insufficient' guarantees?
On January 17, al-Sharaa issued a historic decree granting sweeping Kurdish cultural and linguistic rights in the aftermath of clashes between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), leading to the latter's withdrawal from Aleppo city and surrounding areas west of the Euphrates River.
The presidential decree stipulated that Kurds are a "foundational and authentic part of the Syrian people, and their cultural and linguistic identity is considered an indivisible part of the pluralistic and unified Syrian national identity."
Abdulbaset Sieda, an academic and former president of the Syrian National Council called the decree an "important and bold step, unprecedented in the history of the modern Syrian state," speaking to Syria Direct from his residence in Sweden.
For Amarees and Hassou in Kobani, however, the overture has not built trust. Amarees dismissed it as "insufficient." Hassou called it "completely inadequate, as it is limited to linguistic and cultural aspects only—we are not demanding formal rights, but rather legal and political independence." The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), the political wing of the SDF, has made repeated calls for decentralization and federalism.
"They are trying to deceive us with sweet words, but we have not forgotten that 14 years have passed, during which we have sacrificed thousands of martyrs for this cause, in order to live a free life," Hassou said.
Still, as the end of the four-day ceasefire approaches and a tense, encircled Kobani wonders what is next, what both Amarees and Hassou hope for is a way forward that does not confirm their worst fears.
"Despite all this, the people want to stop this war—whatever the agreement and the extent of the concessions, the people only want to save the lives of their children," Amarees said.
"My family and I—including my daughter Sia, who will turn three next month—long for a peaceful and stable life away from the ravages of war," Hassou echoed. "We are not only calling on the Syrian government, but also appealing to the entire world and all international institutions and organizations to stand united against this war."
There must be "sustained humanitarian access to the area—this should serve as a basis for building longer-term arrangements of power-sharing," researcher McGee said. "The international community also urgently needs to make sure that the two sides…are establishing a viable timeframe for the next stage of implementation of the transition and integration plan."
"What happens [in Kobani] in the coming days is likely to shape perceptions about the Syrian government, and the international community," he added.
This report was also updated after publication to include SDF confirmation of the involvement of a member of its forces in the killing of 21 people in the Kobani area.
*Correction 1/24/2026: The initial version of this report mistakenly identified Abdulbaset Sieda as the former president of the Kurdish National Council. He is the former president of the Syrian National Council. Syria Direct regrets the error.
