Syria extends ceasefire with SDF by 15 days

Raqqa: Hours after the expiration of a four-day truce between the Syrian government and Kurdish-led fighters Saturday, Syria’s defence ministry announced the ceasefire had been extended by another 15 days.

The defence ministry said in a statement that the extension was in support of an operation by US forces to transfer accused Islamic State militants who had been held in prisons in northeastern Syria to detention centres in Iraq. There was no immediate statement from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Over the past three weeks, there have been intense clashes between government forces and the SDF, in which the SDF lost large parts of the area they once controlled.agencies