Syrian transitional government troops and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had been fighting for weeks in northern Syria. On Tuesday evening, the announcement of a four-day ceasefire restored a measure of calm. SDF fighters were close allies of the international coalition battling the extremist "Islamic State,", or IS, group in Syria and managed to take control of strategically important areas in Syria during 14 years of civil war. Recent clashes with Syrian government troops has pushed them out of these areas.
Syria's upcoming parliamentary election will exclude three minority-dominated regions due to security concerns and absence of central control, Hassan al-Daghim, the spokesperson for the higher electoral commission based in Damascus, recently told Syria's national news agency SANA. Al-Daghim explained that elections in the Druze-majority province of Sweida, as well as in the Kurdish-dominated regions of Hassakeh and Raqqa, will be postponed until "circumstances allow."