Kurdisk milis i strider med regeringsstyrkor i Aleppo

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is a Kurdish-led coalition of U.S.-backed left-wing ethnic militias and rebel groups, and serves as the official military wing of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES; also unofficially known as Rojava). Founded on 10 October 2015, the stated mission of the SDF is to create a secular, democratic, and federalized Syria. The SDF is opposed by Turkey, who view the group as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is internationally designated a terrorist group. On 10 March 2025, the SDF agreed to integrate into Syrian state institutions under the Syrian caretaker government. Mazloum Abdi met with the committee formed by Ahmed al-Sharaa to implement the deal; further meetings were planned for April. Formed as a rebel alliance in the Syrian civil war with American support, the SDF is composed primarily of Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian/Syriac, as well as some smaller Armenian, Turkmen, and Chechen forces. It is militarily led by the People's Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia which is designated as a terrorist group by both Turkey and Qatar. The SDF also includes several ethnic militias and various factions of the Syrian opposition's Free Syrian Army. Opponents of the SDF include various Islamist, Syrian nationalist, and pro-Turkish forces involved in the civil war. Major enemies include al-Qaeda affiliates, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Syrian National Army (TFSA), the Turkish Armed Forces, and their allies. Up to 2019, the SDF focused primarily on ISIL, successfully driving them from important strategic areas such as Al-Hawl, Shaddadi, Tishrin Dam, Manbij, al-Tabqah, Tabqa Dam, Freedom Dam, and ISIL's former capital of Raqqa. In March 2019, the SDF announced the total territorial defeat of ISIL in Syria, with the SDF taking control of the last stronghold in Baghuz. Since then, the SDF has increasingly been involved in combatting the TFSA and Turkish presence in northern Syria.

Sheikh Maqsood (Arabic: ٱلشَّيْخ مَقْصُود, romanized: aš-Šayḵ Maqṣūd, IPA: [aʃ.ʃajx maq.sˤuːd]; Kurmanji Kurdish: Şêx Meqsûd, IPA: [ʃeːx mɛq.suːd]), sometimes spelled al-Sheikh Maqsoud, Maqsud or Maksud, is a Kurdish-majority neighborhood in the city of Aleppo, Syria.