Syrian forces arrest Uzbek fighters after Idlib dispute sparks protests

A dispute over one detained Uzbek fighter in Idlib turned into a wider challenge for Syria’s rulers, drawing armed reinforcements, public protest and arrests across the northwest. What began as a single arrest in Idlib city quickly spread into a confrontation that exposed how fragile state authority remained in territory the government was trying to bring back under control.

The immediate trigger was the detention of an Uzbek fighter accused of opening fire in Idlib city. Local reporting said he was held after shots were fired inside the city, and dozens of fighters of Uzbek nationality then gathered outside the Criminal Security Branch to demand his release. The protest brought a sharper response from Syrian security forces, which moved to contain the unrest and launched a sweep in several parts of Idlib countryside.

Arrests were reported in Kafriya and al-Foua, while military convoys arrived from Saraqib and Ariha and heavy machineguns were seen among the reinforcements. Sporadic gunfire was heard as the security operation unfolded, underscoring how a localized dispute escalated into a broader show of force. The Syrian Interior Ministry did not immediately respond.

The confrontation carried significance well beyond the immediate arrests. A Syrian security source previously said there were around 1,500 Uzbek fighters in Syria, some with families, a reminder that foreign militants remain embedded in the country’s war-scarred northwest. The episode was described as the second confrontation in recent months between Syrian government forces and foreign militants in Idlib, after tensions around the Omar Diaby camp near the Turkish border in October 2025.

It also highlighted a central dilemma for Ahmed al Sharaa’s Islamist-led government: how to assert control over foreign fighters who arrived during the civil war after 2011 without triggering new unrest. Many of those militants were tied to the jihadist current associated with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the group led by al Sharaa before he cut ties with al Qaeda in 2016. At the same time, reports say the interim government has been integrating about 3,500 foreign fighters, many from China and Central Asia, into the Syrian army’s 84th Division. That dual approach, bringing some fighters into state structures while arresting others, has left the northwest a testing ground for whether the government can enforce discipline without unraveling the alliances that helped it take power.