The U.S. withdrawal from Syria and Iraq leaves Syrian Kurds exposed to attacks and the loss of autonomy. Photo courtesy of the Rojava Information Center.The United States is scheduled to withdraw its remaining forces from Iraq by September 30, 2026, under a 2024 agreement between Washington and Baghdad to end the coalition mission against the Islamic State. U.S. troops left bases across most of Iraq last year but maintained a presence in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region. From there, they provided air support, training, and weapons to Kurdish Peshmerga forces fighting ISIS. The Erbil air base served as the main center for intelligence support to the Peshmerga.U.S. and British air defenses also protected Erbil, the Kurdistan Region’s capital, from drones launched by Iran-backed militias. U.S. forces struck militia sites in response to attacks.The withdrawal also affects Syrian Kurds, who have relied on coalition operations based in Iraq for support against ISIS. Under a September 2024 joint statement, the coalition could continue its mission against ISIS in Syria from a platform in Iraq until September 2026. The Kurdistan Region hosts coalition sites used for training, logistics, and air operations against ISIS remnants.U.S. forces have already withdrawn from their remaining bases in Syria. They left al-Tanf Garrison on February 11. At the time, CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said U.S. forces “remain poised to respond to any ISIS threats that arise in the region.” The last convoy left Qasrak air base in Hasakah province on April 16.In Iraq, a U.S. military official told AP that most of the hundreds of troops still in the north would redeploy to Jordan and other countries in the region. Air defense systems would also be removed. According to the Atlantic Council, counter-ISIS cooperation after the withdrawal will rely on intelligence and assets based in Jordan and the Gulf. Damascus will have to take on more responsibility for preventing an ISIS resurgence.American personnel also work with Syria’s Interior Ministry in Damascus to track ISIS remnants. That cooperation raises questions because the government is led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, whom the State Department designated a terrorist in 2013 when he led al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, the al-Nusrah Front.His new army is built around fighters from his former group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. In December 2024, the Defense Ministry gave military ranks to foreign jihadists, including a U.S.-designated terrorist. In 2025, it absorbed about 3,500 foreign fighters from the Turkistan Islamic Party, which the State Department describes as a violent extremist group. The army also incorporated Turkish-backed factions that the U.S. Treasury sanctioned for crimes against Syrian Kurds.In November 2025, during al-Sharaa’s visit to Washington, Damascus formally joined the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS. On December 13, a gunman near Palmyra killed two U.S. soldiers and an American civilian interpreter and wounded three other soldiers. CENTCOM described the attacker as a lone ISIS gunman. A Syrian government official confirmed that he was a member of the government’s security forces.The shooting took place at the gate of a fortified command facility used by Syrian Internal Security Forces leaders, whose forces fall under the Interior Ministry.As Washington deepened its cooperation with Damascus, it moved away from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which had protected Rojava, the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northeastern Syria. In January 2026, U.S. Special Envoy Tom Barrack said the SDF’s role as the primary ground force against ISIS had largely expired. The House of Commons Library notes that the United States backed the SDF’s integration into the Syrian state.Unlike Iraq’s Kurds, whose autonomous region is recognized by Iraq’s constitution, Syrian Kurds have no constitutional guarantee of autonomy. Damascus rejected their demand for similar autonomy and initially insisted that SDF fighters join the Syrian army as individuals rather than as a unit.That shift came amid fighting between Damascus and the SDF. In January, government forces launched an offensive that began in two Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Aleppo. As many as 148,000 people were displaced before the fighting stopped. The SDF and Damascus then agreed to integrate Kurdish fighters into state forces in phases.Iraqi Kurdish leaders also advocated for Kurds across the border. In March, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan President Bafel Talabani met with Barrack and Abdi to discuss constitutional protections for Syria’s communities, even though the PUK has no governing role in Syria.On August 25, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi announced the group’s dissolution in a televised speech from the presidential palace in Damascus. He said his forces had been integrated into Syrian army brigades.Abdi now serves as an adviser to al-Sharaa. Questions about command and deployment remain unresolved, including the fate of the all-female Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), which fought ISIS in the northeast. According to AP, Syria’s current military authorities, most of whom came from Islamist insurgent groups, oppose women in combat.Without U.S. backing to deter the Syrian state, Kurdish institutions continue to be dismantled. Kurds who once managed their own security, schools, and local councils now answer to a central government with no sympathy for Kurdish identity.Kurdish discontent with integration grew in September. Anger rose after a Kurdish former SDF fighter who had joined the Syrian army under the integration agreement was abducted and killed by a group of Arab men in Hasakah.Fuel prices added to the tension. The SDF had heavily subsidized fuel, and those subsidies ended when the central government took control. After Damascus raised gasoline prices by about 30 percent and diesel by 40 percent, demonstrators blocked a highway near Tal Tamr, stranding hundreds of oil tankers. Experts speculate that the anger over fuel prices could become a real obstacle to integration.Turkey has a larger military role in Syria than the United States. In June 2025, Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler confirmed that more than 20,000 Turkish troops had no immediate plans to leave Syria. Turkey’s defense ministry began training the Syrian army that September under defense agreements with Damascus.Ankara has long claimed, contrary to Washington’s assessment, that the SDF was dominated by Kurds aligned with the PKK, which waged an insurgency against Turkey from 1984 to 2025. In August 2025, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visited Damascus to press the government to cancel its talks with the SDF. The Middle East Forum wrote that Ankara appears to set the parameters of al-Sharaa’s approach to the Kurdish question.Turkey has also attacked Kurdish-held areas directly. During Turkey’s 2019 invasion of northeastern Syria, Zau Seng, a Kachin medic with the U.S.-based Free Burma Rangers (FBR), was killed in a mortar strike near Tal Tamr. The group’s founder, David Eubank, blamed Turkish and Turkish-backed forces.In October 2023, Fidan declared that all PKK and YPG infrastructure and energy facilities in Syria were legitimate targets. Human Rights Watch reported that Turkish strikes on water and power stations in Kurdish-held areas cut off water and electricity for millions of people.Turkey backs the Syrian National Army (SNA), which fought Kurdish forces alongside Turkish troops. The U.S. Treasury found that one SNA faction, Ahrar al-Sharqiya, had committed crimes against civilians, particularly Kurds, and had integrated former ISIS members into its ranks. Human Rights Watch called a January 2025 drone strike by Turkish-backed forces on a Kurdish Red Crescent ambulance an apparent war crime.In March 2025, a drone attack by Turkey or Turkish-backed factions near Kobani killed ten members of one Kurdish family: seven children, their 18-year-old sister, and their parents.The September 30 withdrawal closes the U.S. military platform next to northeastern Syria. Syrian Kurds face the loss of that support without an independent army and amid threats from ISIS, Turkey, Turkish-backed militias, and their own government in Damascus.The post Syrian Kurds Face Uncertain Future as U.S. Military Presence Recedes and SDF Dissolves appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.