U.S. soldiers and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces patrol on foot through a village in northeastern Syria. Photo by Army Staff Sgt. Emma Scearce. Tensions between Arab and Kurdish residents escalated in the northeast Syrian city of Hasaka on Thursday, October 8. Authorities raised a large Syrian flag at the city’s Peace Roundabout, also known as Freedom Roundabout, in a ceremony the governor described as a goodwill gesture marking progress toward integrating the former Kurdish administration into the Syrian state.Hours later, pro-government protesters, mainly from the Arab Ghweiran neighborhood, gathered at the roundabout. They chanted pro-Damascus slogans, demanded full state control over the province, desecrated Kurdish symbols, and removed the roundabout’s multilingual sign. Security forces dispersed them, then forcibly dispersed a Kurdish counter-protest that evening.Footage shared by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) showed security forces firing into the air. Reports that they used live ammunition could not be independently verified.The unrest comes as Kurds lose the military protection they previously relied on. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controlled Hasaka for years with U.S. backing, announced its dissolution on August 25 after merging into the Syrian army and has begun handing over its heavy weapons to the Defense Ministry. U.S. forces have withdrawn from Syria and, as of September 30, neighboring Iraq. Kurds in Hasaka now rely on Damascus for their security.On Friday, October 9, thousands of demonstrators from across the province gathered in the city’s central square under the slogan “No flag but the flag of the Syrian Arab Republic.” Syrian state news agency SANA reported that they called for the activation of all government institutions across the province. Solidarity demonstrations were also held in Raqqa.Security forces restricted movement between neighborhoods to prevent crowds from Ghweiran from reaching majority-Kurdish areas. According to SOHR, protesters assaulted security personnel and attacked the city’s bar association, removing its sign written in Kurdish, Arabic, and Syriac. Kurdistan24 reported attacks on Kurdish residents, damage to vehicles, and anti-Kurdish chants.That day, armed men shot and beat three Kurdish brothers as they drove home through Hasaka’s Sinaa roundabout in a car displaying the Kurdistan flag. Nazir Mohammed Siraj Sheikho, 20, was shot in the neck. His brother Diyar, 16, underwent pelvic surgery after being shot, and three bullets remain lodged in his back. Mohammed, 19, was beaten on the back and face.Protesters also tore down and stomped on a billboard depicting a braid and bearing the words “The braid of the Kurdish woman is strong.” The braid became a symbol of Kurdish women’s resistance in January 2026 after a Damascus-affiliated militant circulated a video displaying what he claimed was the severed braid of a dead Kurdish female fighter. He later claimed the hair was synthetic. Ruksen Mohamed, a spokesperson for the Kurdish Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), called the billboard’s removal an attack on women’s existence and rights.Some demonstrators raised a portrait of Saddam Hussein. His regime carried out the 1988 Anfal campaign, widely recognized as genocide against the Kurds, and the chemical attack on Halabja on March 16, 1988, which killed thousands of Kurdish civilians. Several Arab tribes in the Middle Euphrates River Valley near Hasaka have longstanding ties to Iraqi tribes and historically supported Saddam.The October protests followed months of tribal mobilization against Kurdish authority. On July 22, protesters in Ras al-Ain stoned the governor’s convoy and demanded that he leave the city. The next day, Arab tribal leaders and fighters set up “war tents” in Hasaka and threatened violence unless their demands were met, including improved services and the full handover of the province to Damascus. Under the slogan “Restoring Dignity,” Sheikh Ahmad al-Assad set an August 1 deadline for the SDF to lay down its arms.On October 2, protesters marched from the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Mosque in Ghweiran after Friday prayers, demanding an end to the overlapping Kurdish and government institutions. One participant complained that Hasaka still had two municipalities, two police branches, two armies, two transport departments, and separate Kurdish and government license plates and driving licenses.The organizing group, the “Free People of Hasakah Gathering,” claims to want fairness but is an Arab-led group seeking to disadvantage Kurds and other minorities. Its call for appointments based on competence rather than quotas targets arrangements that give Kurdish officials positions under the integration agreement. Protesters have also demanded the release of detainees held by the former Kurdish administration and information about individuals reportedly transferred to Iraq along with ISIS prisoners earlier this year.According to the Middle East Forum, most protesters come from Ghweiran, an Arab neighborhood of Hasaka with a history of supporting the Assad regime and later ISIS. The Forum also reported that some interim Syrian government officials support their demands.Hasaka Governor Nour al-Din Ahmed, a Kurd known as Abu Omar Khanika, served on the SDF General Command. The SDF nominated him, and Damascus approved his appointment under the integration agreement. Arab critics have objected, citing his former role as director of Alaya prison in Qamishli.Ahmed blamed figures and parties opposed to the integration agreement for creating tensions to prevent its implementation and said vandalism and confrontations diverted attention from legitimate demands.On October 7, eight Kurdish political parties urged calm, criticized protesters’ treatment of Kurdish national symbols, and warned that demonstrations drawn mainly from the Arab community could deepen divisions. Former SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, speaking in Hasaka province on October 9, vowed to continue integration: “We will not take a step backward.”A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Rudaw that Washington is “closely monitoring and concerned by reports of unrest in Hasakah.” The spokesperson urged all parties to reject violence and incitement and called on the Syrian government, which includes Kurdish leaders, to uphold its commitments and rebuild trust. Syrian state media has largely ignored the clashes. On Sunday, the government announced a workshop with the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria to develop a national policy on hate speech.Along with the effective dissolution of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the Damascus government has refused to integrate fighters from the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) into the male-only army, and talks on placing them in the Interior Ministry have produced no agreement.Kurds have also protested changes to education. On August 27, Education Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Turko issued a decision providing for three Kurdish-language classes a week and one activities class, with grades counting toward students’ final averages. Damascus presents this as an expansion of Kurdish-language teaching. Kurds, however, view it as a reduction because, under the Autonomous Administration, Kurdish was the primary language of instruction for core subjects.The decision implements Presidential Decree No. 13 of 2026. According to the Syrian Foreign Ministry, the decree recognizes Syrian Kurds’ cultural and linguistic rights. It also granted citizenship to Kurds left off the civil registry and repealed measures stemming from the 1962 Hasaka census, which stripped about 120,000 Kurds of citizenship.When the 2026–2027 school year began, hundreds of Kurdish students in Hasaka and Kobane refused to enter their classrooms, demanding education in their mother tongue and constitutional recognition of Kurdish.The post Unrest in Syria as Security Situation Worsens for Kurds appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.