The Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates River in Syria has become a key point of conflict in the country’s post-Assad era. Since the fall of dictator Bashar al Assad’s regime on December 8, the dam has been contested by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian National Army (SNA). The SDF is backed by the United States as part of the war on Islamic State (IS), and Turkey backs the SNA.
Over the past week, clashes have continued at the dam. Protesters from SDF-controlled areas of eastern Syria have arrived at the site, and media outlets sympathetic to the SDF have reported that some of them have been killed. The ANHA Hawar news agency claimed on January 26 that a bombing “resulted in the death of a citizen and the injury of a number of others.” The same day, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that “12 people were severely injured in an attack by a Turkish drone on a civilian convoy of protesters at Teshrin Dam.”
The clashes illustrate that the dam is at the crossroads of several key challenges in post-Assad Syria. Completed in 1999, Tishrin Dam is strategically located on the Euphrates River, 30 miles south of the Turkish border. Because of the reservoir created by the dam, there are very few crossing points on the Euphrates in this area. One crossing point is the M4 highway from Manbij, 20 miles upriver, and the other is Tabqa, more than 40 miles downriver.
Control of this area among Turkish-backed forces, US-backed forces, and the new government in Damascus potentially hinges on controlling the dam. The new government in Damascus, led by Hayat Tahrir al Sham’s Ahmed Sharaa, wants to unify the country and all armed groups, including the SDF and SNA.
The SDF has controlled Tishrin Dam since it conquered it from the Islamic State in December 2015. US forces, which back the SDF, operated in the area between 2015 and 2019. In 2019, the Russians temporarily moved to a location near the site. With the collapse of the Syrian regime, the dam has come back into focus as competing groups around it vie for control.
Clashes between the SNA and the SDF are not new, nor are fights between Turkey and the SDF. Ankara launched several operations in Syria over the last decade, including Operations Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019), all aimed at fighting the SDF or the People’s Defense Units (YPG), the major faction within the SDF. Before the fall of the Assad regime, which began with an HTS offensive near Aleppo in late November, the frontlines in Syria between the SDF and SNA had remained static for several years. However, the collapse of the regime led to rapid changes.
On December 13, Turkey’s Anadolu state media stated that “the opposition Syrian National Army (SNA) has liberated Tishrin Dam, which provides a large part of the water and electricity supply of the provinces in eastern Syria, from terrorist group PKK/YPG occupation, according to local sources.” Ankara’s media reflects Turkey’s view that terrorist groups run the dam and the rest of eastern Syria. For this reason, Ankara backs the SNA’s attacks designed to take the area. Despite Turkish reports, the SDF continued to hold the dam. The December clashes briefly brought Tishrin into the spotlight, resulting in several statements by the UN, aid groups, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The SNA was unable to dislodge the SDF from the dam in December and the first weeks of January 2025. The battle has stagnated, and casualties have mounted. Fighting increasingly shifted to the dam after the US helped back a December ceasefire between the SDF and SNA in a different sector, near Manbij, north of the dam. The SNA sensed that the dam was still in play and its forces might cross it to outflank SDF forces further south.
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), the civilian authority that runs eastern Syria and backs the SDF, organized civilian protest convoys to the dam site in early January, hoping the presence of civilians would deter attacks and airstrikes. Since these protests began, a number of civilians have been harmed in shelling and airstrikes, according to local pro-SDF reports.
“Kurds view the Tishreen Dam as a vital source of water and electricity for the region. The area is already facing significant water and electricity shortages, and losing the dam—or its potential collapse—would have dire consequences. As a result, they are determined to defend it,” Mutlu Civiroglu, a Washington, DC-based journalist specializing in Kurdish affairs and the SDF’s fight against IS in Syria and Turkey, told FDD’s Long War Journal on January 25.
Civiroglu says that the dam is important for the defense of Kobani, a city north of the dam on the Turkish border that is controlled by the SDF and was the site of a tough battle against IS in 2014-2015. “Many Kurds believe that losing Kobani would undermine the sacrifices they made and place the rest of Rojava under threat,” Civiroglu said.
