Syria's government is trying to forcefully absorb a Syrian Kurdish paramilitary group that once controlled much of the country's northeast. The fight ultimately comes down to a clash about Syria's future governance.
In Syria, a battle of wills that has gone on for almost a year has now turned violent.
The fight is between the Syrian-Kurdish militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, and the new interim Syrian government.
What happened?
For almost 14 years of the Syrian civil war, the SDF had been in control of most of northeastern Syria.
When the Syrian civil war started in 2011, the SDF took over territory there that had a Kurdish-majority population as troops — then fighting for the country's brutal dictatorial regime headed by Bashar Assad — withdrew from the area.
The Kurds never fought the Assad regime itself but gained further terrain, including Arab-majority areas like Raqqa, as they defeated the extremist "Islamic State" group. In fighting the "Islamic State," the SDF were allied with US troops.
The area the SDF controlled for over a decade came to be known as the Autonomous Administration of North and Eas
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