With Islamic State near defeat in Syria, Damascus is setting its sights on territory held by Kurdish-led forces, including eastern oil fields, risking a new confrontation that could draw the United States in more deeply and complicate Russian diplomacy.
President Bashar Assad and his Iranian allies appear to have been emboldened by events in Iraq, where Kurdish authorities have suffered a major blow since regional states mobilized against their independence referendum, analysts say.
Rivalry between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by the United States, and the Syrian government backed by Iran and Russia is emerging as a fault line with their common enemy — Islamic State — close to collapse in Syria.