Shafaq News- Damascus

Kurdish Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) fighters were told during a meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus last week that there was “no place for them in the army,” the group’s commander Nowruz Ahmad said on Wednesday.

Ahmad told Reuters that the YPJ had sought to join the army because its fighters have military experience and could serve within an organized force capable of protecting itself.

The YPJ has more than 1,500 fighters and has asked whether they could join the Interior Ministry as a single unit, she said, adding that the group expects an official response in the coming days.

Ahmad said on Tuesday that the Syrian government had given preliminary approval for the YPJ to join the Interior Ministry as a “special operations unit,” but said no final decision had been made.

On August 25, SDF Commander Mazloum Abdi said the SDF and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) had been dissolved, with their military and civilian institutions transferred to Syrian state authority.

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