Syria’s leader brokered a ceasefire with US-backed Kurdish forces after capturing most of Syria’s Kurdish-held north-east region in a rapid offensive. Videos showed Syrian soldiers riding in captured US Humvees on Sunday and toppling statues as they advanced across the Euphrates river,

Military takes control of Tabqa in Raqqa governorate, and President al-Sharaa signs a decree recognising Kurdish rights.

The Syrian army continued its push into Kurdish-held territory on Saturday, despite U.S. calls to halt its advance in towns in the area in Syria's north.

Syria’s army has seized swathes of the country’s north, dislodging Kurdish forces from territory over which they held effective autonomy for more than a decade. The government appeared to be extending its grip on Kurdish-run areas after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a “national language” and granting the minority group official recognition.

Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa said early on Sunday that government forces had secured Tabqa and the nearby Euphrates Dam, Syria’s largest, after expelling fighters linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), labelled a “terrorist” group by Turkiye, the European Union and the United States.

In his first speech to lawmakers after an attack that killed two Iowa Guard members last month, Maj. Gen. Stephen Osborn paid tribute to the fallen soldiers and highlighted the Guard's new facilities under construction around the state.

Syrian government forces entered two northern towns Saturday morning after the command of Kurdish-led fighters said it would evacuate the area in an apparent move to avoid conflict.