Syria is hardening into two main parts, controlled by rival armed groups. The Euphrates River divides them. A Reuters journey over hundreds of miles shows how tensions are heating up between the Islamist factions that dominate the government and Kurdish militants who hold the country's oil wealth and hydroelectric dams.

Ar Raqqah

Although Syria's civil war has officially ended, the Euphrates River continues to serve as a tense frontline between the Damascus government, supported by Islamist former rebel factions, and Kurdish-led forces controlling the country's east. Both sides maintain significant military presence, and negotiations for peace have stalled, leaving ordinary Syrians in a precarious situation.

Reuters journalists traveled across the region, documenting the impact of the ongoing divide on local communities. Many residents remain displaced, and security concerns persist, with both sides preparing for potential conflict. The area is marked by distrust, sporadic violence, and unresolved disputes over territory and resources, complicating prospects for lasting peace.

Reuters journey shows Syria's Euphrates River is simmering frontline

Syria's civil war is over, but the two largest armed camps in the country are still facing off across the Euphrates River. One side is under the control of the Damascus government and the new Syrian military, and is dominated by Islamist former rebel factions. The other side are the forces of a region run by Kurds. Caught in the middle of this emerging divide are ordinary Syrians who've suffered through years of conflict, including an Islamic State insurgency. They worry that new violence could push the country back into conflict at any moment. I travelled 1,100 miles across this divide with a group of Reuters journalists over the summer to understand the relationship between these two sides. What we found was a lawless frontier, armed groups ready to settle scores, local tensions that threaten unity, and militants prepared to kill each other before giving ground. Earlier this month, President Ahmad al-Sharrat told Syrian state television that negotiations had stalled and that he was doing everything possible to avoid a war. Privately, Syrian government officials accuse the Kurdish side of trying to buy time and keep their de facto autonomous region. The Euphrates is the main physical divide between these two armed camps. On the western bank, you have the new Syrian army, which consists of Islamist former rebel factions. These groups control areas mostly to the west of the Euphrates, including all of Syria's major cities and its coastline on the Mediterranean. To the east of the river, Kurdish-led forces control roughly a third of the country. That third is remote, but it's important because it holds hydroelectric dams which help power Syria and oil wealth which will be essential to its future. Both sides have tens of thousands of fighters who have been armed, trained and funded at different points during the Syrian civil war by the United States and its allies. To see firsthand the impact of this rivalry on ordinary Syrians, we travelled to this camp in the city of Tabqa on the Euphrates. It's populated by Kurds who were displaced by fighting between Kurdish forces and rebel factions that now make up part of the Syrian military. Most people in the camp said that they didn't feel comfortable going back to areas now under Syrian government control. But we also met some others in Kurdish-run territory who were beginning to resent the local authorities. We travelled to some Arab-majority areas under Kurdish control, including the city of Raqqa, which was Islamic State's Syrian capital. We met residents there who complained that the security forces are using the ongoing threat of Islamic State attacks to crack down on local activism. We found concrete evidence of the Kurdish side preparing for the worst when we travelled to the hills around the Tishrin Dam in northern Syria. We found that workmen had been digging new tunnels in the hills for fighters to shelter from potential attacks by Turkish warplanes or by the Syrian army. We went into the tunnels while the workmen took a break, and we found that even though they're in their early stages, they already extend a couple of hundred feet into the mountainside. They're high and wide enough for somebody to walk down comfortably. The tunnels were cool and damp, and being dug with picks and shovels. This commander, Martasim Abbas, leads a Turkish-backed faction that has fought against Kurdish forces before. Abbas has fought almost all his adult life and was calm and measured. He told us the Assad regime and Islamic State were always worse enemies than the Kurds, but that now, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces were the main focus. We also visited Deir Ezzor, one of Syria's most heavily destroyed and neglected cities. It's also divided exactly by the river, between these two sides. This dirt bridge is the only thing that links the two halves of Deir Ezzor. Militants from each side guard either end of the bridge. When we crossed it, it was tense. Fighters were trying to control a crowd that wanted to get from one side to the other and have their guns loaded and ready to fire. Since then, there have been a number of gun battles across the river that have wounded several civilians and several fighters. We met the commander for Deir Ezzor in the New Syrian Army, who believes that all Arab-majority areas under Kurdish control should be taken back, including his own village. We also spoke to a commander in the Kurdish Women's Forces. She told me that no peace deal with the Damascus government would be possible as long as Turkish-backed commanders hold senior positions in the Syrian military. Away from the front lines, I met negotiators from both sides. They are meant to find a way to make peace and to unite the two armed camps, but they also don't trust each other. Kurdish negotiator Fawza Youssef worried that under the Damascus government, women and minority rights might not be guaranteed. One of her opposite numbers on the Damascus team said that the Kurds were deliberately holding onto oil and land that belonged to the Syrian government. So what are the possible outcomes? They include the two sides uniting under one Syrian government. They include a de facto partition that will persist, and they include the possibility of conflict spilling over. But whatever happens, it's ordinary Syrians who have to live under warlords, foreign interference, and who are struggling to rebuild their lives.

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