Security forces from the new Islamist government in Damascus deployed Saturday around a strategic dam in northern Syria, under a deal with the autonomous Kurdish administration, state media reported.
Under the agreement, Kurdish-led fighters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will pull back from the dam, which they captured from the Islamic State group in late 2015.
The Tishrin Dam near Manbij in Aleppo province is one of several on the Euphrates and its tributaries in Syria that play a key role in the nation's economy by providing it with water for irrigation and hydroelectric power.
On Thursday, a Kurdish source said the Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria had reached an agreement with the central government on running the dam.
A separate Kurdish source told AFP on Saturday that the deal, supervised by the US-led anti-jihadist coalition, stipulates that the dam remain under Kurdish civilian administration.
Syria's state news agency SANA reported "the entry of Syrian Arab Army forces and security forces into the Tishrin Dam ... to impose security in the region, under the agreement reached with the SDF."
The accord also calls for a joint military force to protect the dam and for the withdrawal of Turkey-backed factions "that seek to disrupt this agreement," SANA said.
It is part of a broader agreement reached in mid-March between Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, aiming to integrate the institutions of the Kurdish autonomous administration into the national government.
The dam was a key battleground in Syria's civil war that broke out in 2011, falling first to rebels and then to IS before being captured by the SDF.
Days after Sharaa's Islamist-led coalition overthrew Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December, Turkish drone strikes targeted the dam, killing dozens of civilians, Kurdish officials and Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
With AFP
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