A ceasefire holds in Syria but civilians live with fear and resentment

QAMISHLI, Syria (AP) — Fighting this month between Syria's government and Kurdish-led forces left civilians on either side of the frontline fearing for their future or harboring resentment as the country's new leaders push forward with transition after years of civil war.

The fighting ended with government forces capturing most of the territory previously held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the country’s northeast, and a fragile ceasefire is holding. SDF fighters will be absorbed into Syria's army and police, ending months of disputes.

The Arab-majority population in the areas that changed hands, Raqqa and Deir el-Zour, have celebrated the SDF's withdrawal after largely resenting its rule.

But thousands of Kurdish residents of those areas fled, and non-Kurdish residents remain in Kurdish-majority enclaves still controlled by the SDF. The International Organization for Migration has registered more than 173,000 people displaced.

Subhi Hannan is among them, sleeping in a chilly schoolroom in the SDF-controlled city of Qamishli with his wife, three children and his mother after fleeing Raqqa.

The family is familiar with displacement after the years of civil war under former President Bashar Assad. They were first displaced from their hometown of Afrin in 2018, in an offensive by Turkish-backed rebels. Five years later, Hannan stepped on a landmine and lost his legs.

During the insurgent offensive that ousted Assad in December 2024, the family fled again, landing in Raqqa.

In the family’s latest flight this month, Hannan said their convoy was stopped by government fighters, who arrested most of their escort of SDF fighters and killed one. Hannan said fighters also took his money and cell phone and confiscated the car the family was riding in.

“I’m 42 years old and I’ve never seen something like this,” Hannan said. “I have two amputated legs, and they were hitting me.”

Now, he said, “I just want security and stability, whether it’s here or somewhere else.”

The father of another family in the convoy, Khalil Ebo, confirmed the confrontation and thefts by government forces, and said two of his sons were wounded in the crossfire.

Syria’s defense ministry in a statement acknowledged “a number of violations of established laws and disciplinary regulations” by its forces during this month's offensive and said it is taking legal action against perpetrators.

The level of reported violence against civilians in the clashes between government and SDF fighters has been far lower than in fighting last year on Syria’s coast and in the southern province of Sweida. Hundreds of civilians from the Alawite and Druze religious minorities were killed in revenge attacks, many of them carried out by government-affiliated fighters.

This time, government forces opened “humanitarian corridors” in several areas for Kurdish and other civilians to flee. Areas captured by government forces, meanwhile, were largely Arab-majority with populations that welcomed their advance.

One term of the ceasefire says government forces should not enter Kurdish-majority cities and towns. But residents of Kurdish enclaves remain fearful.

The city of Kobani, surrounded by government-controlled territory, has been effectively besieged, with residents reporting cuts to electricity and water and shortages of essential supplies. A U.N. aid convoy entered the enclave for the first time Sunday.

On the streets of SDF-controlled Qamishli, armed civilians volunteered for overnight patrols to watch for any attack.

“We left and closed our businesses to defend our people and city,” said one volunteer, Suheil Ali. “Because we saw what happened in the coast and in Sweida and we don’t want that to be repeated here.”

On the other side of the frontline in Raqqa, dozens of Arab families waited outside al-Aqtan prison and the local courthouse over the weekend to see if loved ones would be released after SDF fighters evacuated the facilities.

Many residents of the region believe Arabs were unfairly targeted by the SDF and often imprisoned on trumped-up charges.

At least 126 boys under the age of 18 were released from the prison Saturday after government forces took it over.

Issa Mayouf from the village of al-Hamrat, was waiting with his wife outside the courthouse Sunday for word about their 18-year-old son, who was arrested four months ago. Mayouf said he was accused of supporting a terrorist organization after SDF forces found Islamic chants as well as images on his phone mocking SDF commander Mazloum Abdi.

“SDF was a failure as a government,” Mayouf said "And there were no services. Look at the streets, the infrastructure, the education. It was all zero.”

Northeast Syria has oil and gas reserves and some of the country's most fertile agricultural land. The SDF “had all the wealth of the country and they did nothing with it for the country,” Mayouf said.

Mona Yacoubian, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Kurdish civilians in besieged areas are terrified of “an onslaught and even atrocities" by government forces or allied groups.

But Arabs living in formerly SDF-controlled areas “also harbor deep fears and resentment toward the Kurds based on accusations of discrimination, intimidation, forced recruitment and even torture while imprisoned,” she said.

“The experience of both sides underscores the deep distrust and resentment across Syria’s diverse society that threatens to derail the country’s transition,” Yacoubian said.

She added it's now on the government of interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to strike a balance between demonstrating its power and creating space for the country's anxious minorities to have a say in their destiny.

AlSayed reported from Raqqa, Syria, and Sewell reported from Beirut.

Men walk along a street in Hassakeh, northeastern Syria, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, as the city saw a gradual return to daily life following the announcement of a 15-day ceasefire between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)

Syrian families wait outside the courthouse for the release of their children who were held at al-Aqtan prison by retreating Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Raqqa, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A Syrian bride displaced from the town of Al-Tabqa in northern Syria attends her wedding ceremony inside a classroom at a school being used as a shelter following clashes between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Qamishli, northeastern Syria, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)

A Syrian bride displaced from the town of Al-Tabqa in northern Syria attends her wedding ceremony inside a classroom at a school being used as a shelter following clashes between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Qamishli, northeastern Syria, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)

MILAN (AP) — Italy’s Ladin minority settled a millennium ago in the Dolomite mountain hamlet of Anpezo — now the two-time Olympic host city of Cortina d’Ampezzo. But members of this ancient ethnolinguistic group are disappointed that the Winter Games will not spotlight their culture.

Instead, Ladins will wave their flag themselves, both figuratively and literally, with a series of initiatives sharing their identity with visitors — and not just in Cortina, but across all of Ladinia, the Ladin-speaking region that spans five Dolomite valleys and three of Italy's four Olympic territories.

Ladin leaders expected Milan Cortina Olympics organizers would reach out to feature their language and traditions that exist only in Italy, just as organizers have done in previous host cities, from Lillehammer to Beijing.

When they didn't, mayors of all 17 Ladin towns sent a letter soliciting that representation, but received no reply.

"We are cut out, as if we don't exist,'' said Elsa Zardini, head of the Ladin community in Cortina.

Wood carvers and stewards of the forest, Ladins have lived in the Dolomites for 2,000 years. Their legends include the story of Laurin, king of the dwarfs, whose curse is said to have bestowed the region's dramatic pale limestone peaks with their pinkish sunset glow. For religious ceremonies, they wear traditional costumes including colorful dresses and headpieces for women.

Ladin is a Romance language, formed when the Latin of Roman conquerors blended with ancient Rhaetic. The U.N.’s cultural agency lists it as endangered, with just 35,000 speakers. About 2,500 of them live in Cortina, half the town’s population. Its mayor is half Ladin; his mother, from Genoa, didn't want him to learn Ladin for fear it would interfere with his Italian.

Ladinia spans three of the four territories hosting the Games: Veneto, home to Cortina, which will host curling, sliding and women’s Alpine skiing, as well as the autonomous provinces of Alto Adige and Trentino, which are hosting biathlon, cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined.

Slalom skier Alex Vinatzer, competing in these Games, is Ladin. So is former Olympic figure skater Carolina Kostner, who won bronze in 2014, and downhill skier Kristian Ghedina, a five-time Olympian.

When Ghedina went to Lillehammer in 1994 to compete in the Winter Games, the Artic Sami people featured in the opening ceremony. In Sydney in 2000, Indigenous Australian Cathy Freeman lit the cauldron. And four years ago, Beijing — even with its record of suppressing some ethnic groups — showcased all of China's 54 ethnic minorities.

But Milan Cortina's 2 1/2-hour opening ceremony on Feb. 6 will not include the Ladins, local organizers confirmed, but will celebrate Italian beauty and culture, including fashion, design and music.

“We want to celebrate those elements that have been exported all over the world,” the opening ceremony's creative director Marco Balich told The Associated Press.

Even before this perceived slight, the Games were a sore spot for the Ladins of Cortina.

The 1956 Olympics went a long way toward propelling the once-Ladin majority town into a luxury resort replete with luxury fashion boutiques. Today, Ladins struggle to hang on to inherited property due to the increased value and the corresponding inheritance tax. Many young Ladin families move away — tearing at the cultural fabric.

At the official Olympic events, both in Cortina before the Games begin, Ladins will enjoy just two appearances.

A pair in traditional dress were on hand for the arrival of the Olympic torch on Monday, invited by the town. However, they didn't appear in any images shared by the local organizing committee. And before the Olympic opening ceremony, a small group of costumed Ladins will parade through Cortina — footage that will not be broadcast with the main ceremony, which will reach millions across the globe, officials told the AP.

"It's really not much. Yes, there will be someone in our costume, our costumes will be seen,'' said Zardini, the president of Cortina's Ladin association. “We had other goals, to highlight that we are a linguistic minority and to explain our culture, but that is not the case.”

That left Ladins to find other ways to raise their own profile.

Zardini is handing out Ladin flags — their azure, white and green colors representing the sky, snow and meadows of their mountain landscapes — to anyone wishing to display one during the Games. Her initiative has spread to neighboring South Tyrol and Trentino provinces.

“It isn’t so much a protest as a welcome, so visitors realize that a people living here speaks a certain language and has its own traditions,” she said. “That is our intention. And then, some have of course displayed it in protest.”

An umbrella group for six Ladin communities has prepared mini-dictionaries of Ladin terms translated into five languages for Olympic visitors, its president, Roland Verra, told the AP.

“Nief” means snow and, for the more adventurous, Winter Games is “Juesc Olimpics da d’ivern.”

The group, the General Ladin Union of the Dolomites, also produced a video in Ladin, with English subtitles, explaining the Ladins' history — from Roman conquest to Germanic invaders, the Napoleonic wars, up to 1919, when their region became part of Italy. It will be shown on a loop in front of Cortina's Town Hall.

In Trentino, Ladins are preparing an event featuring Ladin music and literature, and hoping tourists turn up.

“This is a great opportunity to represent the ancient legends that would certainly be very well seen, very spectacular,” Verra said.

FILE- Clouds hang over the 'Seceda' Dolomites mountain, 2519 meters, near Ortisei val Gardena, (St. Ulrich in Groeden) in northern Italian province of South Tyrol, Italy, June 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

A tourists signboard written in Ladin language, Italian and German is seen in San Vigilio di Marebbe, northern Italy, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Nicole Winfield)

The Runcac chapel is seen in San Vigilio di Marebbe, northern Italy, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Nicole Winfield)

Jasmine Feuchter poses for a photo in a traditional craft shop in San Vigilio di Marebbe, northern Italy, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Nicole Winfield)