Aleppo

The Syrian government says its forces have reasserted control over violence-hit neighbourhoods in Aleppo after dozens of fighters with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) laid down their arms after days of intense fighting.

Syria’s Ministry of Interior spokesman, Nour al-Din al-Baba, said on Saturday that government forces had taken near-complete control of Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh areas, adding that operations were nearing their “final moments”.

“The Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood has almost been completely captured,” al-Baba told the Syrian News Channel.

Fighting flared up on Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh and Bani Zaid after Syrian forces and the SDF failed to implement a March 2025 agreement to reintegrate the Kurdish forces into state institutions.

Tensions spiked after the deadline for the deal passed at the end of last year, with the Kurdish fighters refusing to leave areas of Aleppo that have been under SDF control since the early days of the Syrian war, which erupted in 2011.

On Saturday, dozens of fighters surrendered and were taken on buses to SDF-controlled areas in the country’s northeast, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar Atas reported from Aleppo.

“Compared with what we have seen over the last three days, it is quiet in Aleppo,” he said.

Calm was restored after a brief escalation earlier in the day, which saw a drone attack believed to have been launched by the SDF hit a governorate building during a news conference attended by several high-ranking Syrian officials.

Serdar Atas said Governor Azzam al-Gharib had been delivering a news briefing on the latest developments when the blast took place, blackening the upper floors of the building.

The SDF denied the reports, saying its fighters did not attack a civilian target.

In a statement carried by the SANA state news agency, Syria’s army said the Kurdish-led force fired more than 10 drones in Aleppo, causing numerous injuries and extensive property damage. It accused the group of using Iranian-made drones.

Serdar Atas said that Syrian forces were sweeping the city’s neighbourhoods for explosives and mines.

“However, the government says there are still some SDF factions that are fighting back and refusing to lay down their arms and surrender,” he said.

Reintegration stalled

The clashes in Aleppo – which the city’s Health Directorate said have killed 23 people, including civilians, and wounded 104 others – have marked the fiercest fighting since longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s fall in December 2024.

They have also underscored the major challenges facing Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has pledged to unite the country following al-Assad’s removal.

Steven Heydemann, a professor of Middle East studies at Smith College in the United States, told Al Jazeera that the presence of SDF forces in Aleppo neighbourhoods had been a “source of friction” with the central government in Damascus.

Since the March 2025 integration deal was signed, Kurdish leaders have expressed concerns over security guarantees and political representation, while Damascus has pushed to reassert control over all remaining autonomous areas.

“Aleppo is Syria’s largest city, the linchpin of northwestern Syria’s commercial, political and industrial life,” Heydemann told Al Jazeera.

“So to have enclaves in Aleppo outside the control of the central government was always going to be very difficult for the government to swallow.”

On Friday, the Syrian Ministry of Defence gave Kurdish fighters a six-hour window to withdraw from Aleppo to their semi-autonomous region in the northeast of the country as part of a ceasefire.

But Kurdish councils that run the city’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh districts rejected any “surrender”.

Government forces then entered Sheikh Maqsoud on Saturday and carried out sweeps of the neighbourhood, confiscating weapons and detaining or disarming SDF fighters, according to Syrian officials.

Thousands displaced

Nearly 180,000 people have been displaced from the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh areas due to this week’s fighting, with authorities warning them not to return due to ongoing operations and the risk posed by unexploded ordnance.

Meanwhile, both sides have continued to trade accusations of attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure.

Tom Barrack, the US special envoy for Syria, on Saturday urged “all parties to exercise maximum restraint, immediately cease hostilities, and return to dialogue” after a meeting with al-Sharaa and Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad al-Shaibani.

Barrack added that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s team was ready to facilitate engagement between the two sides to advance the integration process.

Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna said that Washington can “do the most” to boost talks between the Syrian government and the SDF.

“The US has enjoyed a strong relationship with the SDF for over a decade. The US helped build up and train the SDF, it fought alongside the SDF, and 1,000 US troops remain in SDF territory, where they work closely together in the effort to eradicate ISIL (ISIS) from Syria,” Oghanna said.

“But the US has also recently strengthened its ties with Damascus,” he added.

The United Nations also voiced alarm over the fighting, warning of the humanitarian consequences and calling on all sides to respect international law and ensure civilian protection.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Aleppo governor says the last fighters from the SDF have left the city after the Syrian army took control of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood.

The last fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have left the city of Aleppo, according to officials, following a ceasefire deal that allowed evacuations after days of deadly clashes.

Aleppo Governor Azzam al-Gharib told Al Jazeera early on Sunday that Aleppo has become “empty of SDF fighters” after government forces coordinated their withdrawal on buses out of the city overnight.

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani) said the group had reached an understanding through international ⁠mediation on a ceasefire and the safe evacuation of civilians and fighters.

“We have reached an understanding that leads to a ceasefire and securing the evacuation of the dead, the wounded, the stranded civilians and the fighters from the Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhoods to northern and eastern Syria,” he said in a post on X.

“We call on the mediators to adhere to their promises to stop the violations and work towards a safe return for the displaced to their homes,” he added.

The development came after the Syrian army took over the Kurdish-majority neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsoud following days of clashes that broke out when talks to integrate the SDF into the national army collapsed.

At least 30 people were killed in the clashes, while more than 150,000 were displaced.

More soon…

The Syrian army is locked in intense fighting in Aleppo after SDF fighters refused to withdraw under a ceasefire.

The Syrian army is locked in intense fighting in Aleppo after Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters refused to withdraw under a ceasefire, as more civilians fled their homes to escape the violence in the northern Syrian city.

Aleppo’s emergency chief Mohammed al-Rajab told Al Jazeera Arabic that 162,000 people have fled fighting in the city’s Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhoods.

A Syrian military source has told Al Jazeera Arabic that the army is “making progress” in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood, the epicentre of the most intense fighting, and now controls 55 percent of the area.

Meanwhile, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said that the military had arrested several members of the SDF in its latest operations in Sheikh Maqsoud, which the army announced on Friday evening after a deadline for Kurdish fighters to evacuate the area, imposed as part of its temporary ceasefire, expired.

Syria’s Ministry of Defence had declared the ceasefire earlier on Friday, following three days of clashes that erupted after the central government and the SDF failed to implement a deal to fold the latter into the state apparatus.

After some of the fiercest fighting seen since last year’s toppling of Syria’s former leader Bashar al-Assad, Damascus presented Kurdish fighters a six-hour window to withdraw to their semi-autonomous region in the northeast of the country in a bid to end their longstanding control over parts of Aleppo.

But Kurdish councils that run the city’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh districts rejected any “surrender” and pledged to defend areas that they have run since the early days of the Syria’s war, which erupted in 2011.

Syria’s army then warned it would renew strikes on Sheikh Maqsoud and urged residents to evacuate through a humanitarian corridor, publishing five maps highlighting targets, with strikes beginning roughly two hours later.

As violence flared, the SDF posted footage on X showing what it said was the aftermath of artillery and drone attacks on Khaled Fajr Hospital in Sheikh Maqsoud, accusing “factions and militias affiliated with the Damascus government” of “a clear war crime”.

A Defence Ministry statement cited by the state-run news agency SANA said the hospital was a weapons depot.

In another post on X, the SDF said that government militias were attempting to advance on the neighbourhood with tanks, encountering “fierce and ongoing resistance by our forces”.

Later, the Syrian army said three of its soldiers had been killed and 12 injured in SDF attacks on its positions in Aleppo.

It also claimed that Kurdish fighters in the neighbourhood had killed more than 10 Kurdish youths who refused to take up arms with them, then burned their bodies to intimidate other residents.

The SDF said on X that the claims were part of the Syrian government’s “policy of lies and disinformation”.

At least 22 people have been killed and 173 others wounded in Aleppo since the fighting broke out on Tuesday, the worst violence in the city since Syria’s new authorities took power after toppling Bashar al-Assad a year ago.

The director of Syria’s civil defence told state media that 159,000 people had been displaced by fighting in Aleppo.

Mutual distrust

The violence in Aleppo has brought into focus one of the main faultlines in Syria, with powerful Kurdish forces that control swaths of Syria’s oil-rich northeast resisting integration efforts by Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government.

The agreement between the SDF and Damascus was struck in March last year, with the former supposed to integrate with the Syrian Defence Ministry by the end of 2025, ​but Syrian authorities say there has been little progress since.

Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite the group’s assertion that it withdrew its fighters from Aleppo last year, leaving Kurdish neighbourhoods in the hands of the Kurdish Asayish police.

Marwan Bishara, senior political analyst with Al Jazeera, said there were significant gaps between the two sides, particularly when it came to integrating the Kurdish fighters into the army as individuals or groups.

“What would you do with the thousands of female fighters that are now part and parcel, of the Kurdish forces? Would they join the Syrian army? How would that work out?” said Bishara.

“The Kurdish are sceptical of the army and how it is formed in Damascus, and of the central government and its intentions. While … the central government is, of course, wary of and sceptical that the Kurds want to join as Syrians in a strong united country,” he added.

Turkiye refrains from military action

In the midst of the clashes, Syria’s President al-Sharaa spoke by phone with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying he was determined to “end the illegal armed presence” in Aleppo, according to a Syrian presidency statement.

Turkiye, which shares a 900-kilometre (550-mile) border with Syria, views the SDF as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which waged a four-decade armed struggle against the Turkish state, and has warned of military action if the integration agreement is not honoured.

Turkiye’s Defence Minister Yasar Guler welcomed the Syrian government operation, saying that “we view Syria’s security as our own security and … we support Syria’s fight against terrorist organisations”.

Omer Ozkizilcik, nonresident senior fellow for the Syria Project in the Atlantic Council, told Al Jazeera that Turkiye had been intending to launch an operation against SDF forces in Syria months ago, but had refrained at the request of the Syrian government.

Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast, accused Syria’s authorities of “choosing the path of war” by attacking Kurdish districts in Aleppo and of trying to end deals between the two sides.

Alarm spreads

Al-Sharaa spoke with Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani on Friday, affirming that the Kurds were “a fundamental part of the Syrian national fabric”, the Syrian presidency said.

The former al-Qaeda commander has repeatedly pledged to protect minorities, but government-aligned fighters have killed hundreds of Alawites and Druze over the last year, spreading alarm in minority communities.

A spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed “grave concern” over the ongoing violence in Aleppo, despite efforts to de-escalate the situation.

“We call on all parties in Syria to show flexibility and return to negotiations to ensure the full implementation of the March 10 agreement,” said Stephane Dujarric.

France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was working with the United States, which has long been a key backer of the SDF, particularly during its fight to oust ISIL (ISIS) from Syria, to de-escalate.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged al-Sharaa on Thursday to “exercise restraint”, reiterating his country’s desire to see “a united Syria where all segments of Syrian society are represented and protected”.

As a ceasefire between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces collapses, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric reminded all parties that they’re bound by international humanitarian law to protect civilians.

Al Jazeera witnessed injured civilians arriving at an Aleppo hospital as intense artillery fire streaked across the sky and ricocheted off buildings. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syrian army have been engaged in increasingly intense fighting after integration talks broke down.

Civilians were seen fleeing several northern Aleppo neighbourhoods en masse as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian military escalate their fighting after a breakdown in integration talks. Estimates vary widely, but some have placed the number of evacuees at more than 100,000.

Fighting between Syrian government troops and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces continues in Aleppo, where shelling near residential areas has prompted tens of thousands of civilians to flee. Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar was reporting live as shots rang out nearby.

A mother and her teenage son died in fighting between the Syrian military and Kurdish-led SDF forces in Aleppo. The violence began shortly after talks in Damascus on integrating SDF forces into the army. Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna is in Aleppo, where a truce has been called.

At least two people killed in clashes in northern city of Aleppo during Turkish FM Fidan’s visit to Syria.

Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces agreed to stop fighting in the northern city of Aleppo, after a wave of attacks left at least two civilians dead.

Syria’s state news agency SANA cited the defence ministry as saying that the army’s general command issued an order to stop targeting the SDF’s fighters after the deadly clashes erupted during a visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

Fidan, whose country views the SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, as a ‘terrorist’ organisation, said on Monday that the SDF appeared to have no intention of honouring its pledge to integrate into the state’s armed forces by an agreed year-end deadline.

Following the SANA report on Monday evening, the SDF said in a later statement that it had issued instructions to stop responding to attacks by Syrian government forces following de-escalation contacts.

More to follow.

At least two people have been killed in clashes in Aleppo between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that control the country’s northeast. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa signed a deal in March with the SDF to integrate the group into the country’s state institutions by the end of this year.