The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has begun the process of laying down its arms and disbanding the organization, following calls from its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in Turkey.

In Syria's oil-rich Deir ez-Zor region, local tribes united with Bashar Assad's forces to drive out the Kurds under US protection. Deir ez-Zor is the only oil and gas-producing region in Syria that has been controlled by Kurdish groups for nearly 10 years and is home to more than 20 US military bases.