Beheadings, ISIS Prison Break Follow Syria’s Jihadi Government Crackdown on Kurds

A torrent of violence, including reported beheadings and a prison break by Islamic State terrorists, erupted in Syria on Monday following the signing of an agreement between the jihadist federal government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The SDF and associated Kurdish political arms had enjoyed years of semi-autonomy in the region known as Rojava, or Syrian Kurdistan, during the rule of deposed dictator Bashar Assad. Assad fled to Russia following the collapse of his military in late 2024, leaving the country in the hands of Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an al-Qaeda offshoot.

Sharaa has spent much of the past year arguing that Kurdish autonomy was a threat to the stability of his government and pressuring