For the first time: Kurdish-led AANES raises new Syrian flag

Shafaq News – Damascus

On Sunday, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) raised the new Syrian flag at the Semalka border crossing with the Kurdistan Region, marking a first for the Kurdish-led authority.

AANES, which has governed much of Syria’s northeast since government forces withdrew during the civil war, oversees a region home to millions and rich in oil and farmland.

According to Shafaq News correspondent, the flag was hoisted alongside the administration’s emblem.

The administration had pledged after Bashar al-Assad’s fall to display the banner across its institutions, portraying it as a symbol of “freedom, dignity, and national unity.” The tricolor—first adopted by anti-Assad protesters in 2011—features three red stars representing Damascus, Aleppo, and Deir al-Zor.

On September 27, Damascus began enforcing fines and jail terms for failing to display the new flag, while Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani raised the banner earlier above Syria’s embassy in Washington for the first time in over a decade.