A Kurdish force that helped defeat the Islamic State is collapsing as the Trump administration turns to back the new Syrian government.

Syria's government said a drone strike by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces killed seven of its soldiers on Wednesday, though the SDF denied this, in an incident that threatens to derail a ceasefire after days of fighting in the northeast.

The US thanked Iraq for its cooperation to transfer up to 7,000 prisoners out of Syria, after the Kurdish-led SDF lost control over the territory where the prisoner camps were held.

Since the footage emerged, a new ceasefire has been declared between the SDF and Syrian government.

The rapid collapse of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast of the country this week triggered uncertainty over the security of around a dozen prisons and detention camps that they had been guarding,

DAMASCUS, Syria Jan 21 (Reuters) - The Syrian government's rapid takeover of territory long held by the ‌Kurdish-led ​Syrian Democratic Forces took shape in a string of high-stakes meetings in Damascus, ‌Paris and Iraq earlier this month, nine sources briefed on the closed-door summits told Reuters.

Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the former commander of the paramilitary “Defence Companies” (Saraya al-Difa), has died in the United Arab Emirates at the age of 89.

Turkey views the Syrian Democratic Forces as a terrorist organisation linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party militant group.