Shahba Canton
| Shahba Canton Kantona Şehba مقاطعة الشهباء | |||||||||
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| One of the two cantons of the Afrin Region | |||||||||
| 2016–2024 | |||||||||
Coat of arms
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The Shahba Canton was located in a strip north of Aleppo between the Turkish-backed Syrian Interim Government and Ba'athist Syria. | |||||||||
| Capital |
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| Government | |||||||||
| Co-president of the Council of Shahba | |||||||||
• 2016–2024 | Ismail Musa | ||||||||
| Historical era | Syrian Civil War | ||||||||
• Established | 2016 | ||||||||
• Council of Shahba created | March 22, 2016 | ||||||||
• Captured during Operation Dawn of Freedom | December 1, 2024 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 2024 | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Turkish occupation of northern Syria | ||||||||
| The Shahba Canton was part of the Afrin region, alongside the Afrin Canton. After Turkey and its allies occupied Afrin, the SDF controlled only the Shahba Canton. | |||||||||
The Shahba Canton (Kurdish: Kantona Şehba, Arabic: مقاطعة الشهباء, Classical Syriac: ܦܠܩܐ ܕܫܗܒܐ, romanized: Pelqo d'Shahba) was a political unit of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, in the Aleppo Governorate. The canton was established to administer the areas captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant west of the Euphrates, as part of the Afrin Region.
The Shahba autonomous region was founded during the first and second conferences of the Shahba region in Afrin on 28 January 2016 and 2–4 February 2016. The conferences set up the Shahba Regional Assembly with its own council and senate and a de facto autonomous administration, created on 22 March 2016. During the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives, the remaining SDF-controlled area around Tell Rifaat was also taken by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.