Syria

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.

Violence, designation of ‘closed military zones’ and evacuations of civilians follow collapse of talks aimed at ending standoff over absorption of semiautonomous Kurdish forces by state institutions.

The Syrian army has declared Aleppo’s Kurdish areas “closed military zones” and ordered civilians to leave as clashes with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) extended into a second day.

The Syrian Army Operations Command told Al Jazeera that all SDF military positions in Aleppo neighbourhoods are legitimate targets as sporadic fighting between the government forces and Kurdish-led SDF continued on Wednesday after violence flared the previous day.

The clashes, which killed nine people on Tuesday, according to officials, are the fiercest fighting since the two sides failed to implement a March deal to merge the United States-backed semiautonomous Kurdish administration and military force with Syria’s new government.

The Syrian army announced that two neighbourhoods in Aleppo would become “closed military zones” from 3pm (12:00 GMT). In the meantime, it said, it would operate “humanitarian corridors” to allow civilians to leave.

All “military sites of the SDF organisation within the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods of Aleppo are a legitimate military target for the Syrian Arab Army, following the organisation’s major escalation towards the neighbourhoods of Aleppo city and its perpetration of numerous massacres against civilians,” the Army Operations Authority said in a statement.

The SDF noted a large deployment of Syrian army vehicles near the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah neighborhoods, labelling it a “dangerous indicator that warns of escalation and the possibility of a major war”.

The army, meanwhile, said it “urges our civilian population in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods of Aleppo to immediately stay away from the SDF positions”.

The state news agency SANA reported that the Syrian Civil Defence Forces and Syrian Arab Red Crescent are providing aid to people evacuating.

The Civil Defence said it had evacuated 850 civilians from Aleppo by about midday, citing deteriorating humanitarian conditions and shelling by the SDF.

A Syrian security source reported to Al Jazeera that prisoners have escaped from al-Shafiq prison, which is run by the SDF, to safe areas in Aleppo. He did not specify the number of prisoners that absconded.

Sectarian tensions

Both sides have blamed the other for sparking the violence, which broke out after talks this week between government officials and the main SDF commander stalled with “no tangible results” achieved, according to state media.

The incorporation of the SDF, which controls large chunks of Syria’s north and northeast, into state institutions has remained a subject of consternation since President Ahmed al-Sharaa took office a year ago.

The deal reached in March, in which the SDF agreed “all civil and military institutions in northeastern Syria” would be merged into “the Syrian state, including border crossings, the airport, and oil and gas fields”, has yet to be carried out.

Al-Sharaa’s efforts to amalgamate power and quell sectarian tensions among the numerous groups across Syria after the fall of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad have not been helped by Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has carried out persistent raids and bombardments in a bid to demilitarise southern Syrian regions bordering Israel.

Over the past year, Israel has launched more than 600 air, drone and artillery attacks across Syria, averaging nearly two a day, according to a tally by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Marie Forestier, a nonresident senior fellow for the Atlantic Council’s Syria Project, told Al Jazeera that the distance between Syrian, Israeli and US goals is “very difficult”, especially given that “Israel is doing everything to destabilise Syria.”

Syria and Israel have agreed to set up a joint mechanism after US-mediated talks in Paris on Tuesday, in what they are calling a “dedicated communication cell” aimed at sharing intelligence and coordinating military de-escalation.

The two countries have had a US-backed security agreement in place since 1974. However, when the Assad regime fell on December 8, 2024, Israel began attacking Syrian military infrastructure and pushed their troops into the demilitarised zone that is Syrian territory.

Syria and Israel have been engaging in intermittent negotiations over the last year to find a security agreement that would stop Israel’s repeat aggression against Syrians and Syrian territory.

Here’s everything you need to know about these talks.

What is the mechanism?

“The mechanism will serve as a platform to address any disputes promptly and work to prevent misunderstandings,” a joint statement released by the two countries said after the agreement on Tuesday.

The idea is to have a body that will deal with grievances and resolve disputes between Israel and Syria, ideally in a way that brings Israeli attacks on Syrian land and people to an end. Both sides may also hope it can pave the way to a renewed security agreement.

What does Syria want?

A government source told state media SANA, that the focus for Syria is to reactivate “the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, with the aim of ensuring the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the lines in place prior to Dec. 8, 2024 within a reciprocal security agreement that prioritizes full Syrian sovereignty and guarantees the prevention of any form of interference in Syria’s internal affairs.”

The Syrian government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, will want Israel to respect Syrian sovereignty by pulling back its forces and stopping attacks but also to stop meddling in domestic affairs.

The Washington Post reported that Israel has supported figures opposed to Syria’s new government, including Suwayda’s Hikmat al Hijri. Israel has previously said they want to protect Syria’s minority Druze community.

What does Israel want?

Three things mainly, according to Al Jazeera’s senior correspondent Resul Serdar.

“For Israel, it’s about more land, patronage of minorities, and long term leverage,” he said.

Israel has tried to paint the new government in Syria as extremist and a threat to its security. It has called for the area south of Damascus to be demilitarised, while also trying to build relations with Syrian minorities, particularly the Druze in Suwayda.

Analysts believe this could be part of a strategy by Israel to keep its neighbours weak.

Israel has come to the table at least partially due to US leverage and influence. US President Donald Trump and his Special Envoy Tom Barrack have both built warm relations with al-Sharaa.

But Israel may also want to counter Turkish influence in Syria. Israel has previously accused Turkiye of turning Syria into its protectorate.

What does the US want?

“For Washington the priority is containment,” Serdar said.

The US also sees Damascus as a crucial partner in the fight against ISIL. Stability in Syria, particularly under a central government in Damascus, could mean pulling US troops out of eastern Syria.

But the US also wants a strong Syria to avoid the return of Iranian influence in the country and to avoid any wider regional violence.

For his part, Trump is eager to expand the Abraham Accords that sees Arab and Muslim countries sign normalisation agreements with Israel and has said he hopes Syria will do so. Syria, however, has said they do not intend to sign the Abraham Accords.

Will the mechanism work?

There are doubts.

A Syrian official told Reuters news agency that his country isn’t willing to move forward on “strategic files” without an enforced timeline over Israel’s withdrawal from Syrian territory taken after December 2024.

In addition to moving into Syrian territory, Israel has conducted numerous attacks on Damascus, including on the Syrian Ministry of Defense building.

A similar mechanism between Israel and Lebanon was created after the November 2024 ceasefire there, with France and the United States involved to enforce the deal. However, the mechanism has not stopped near-daily attacks by Israel on Lebanese territory, nor has it led to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from five occupied points in Lebanon.

For the mechanism to work, the United States will have to do something it has rarely done in recent years: hold Israel accountable.

What about the Golan Heights?

Israel has illegally occupied areas of the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967.

Israeli officials have indicated they are not willing to return the Golan Heights to the new Syrian government.

After the fall of the Assad regime, Israel expanded into Syrian territory and seized the strategic outlook of Jabal al-Sheikh, a mountain that lies between Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

For now, Syria appears to be focused on getting Israel out of the areas it occupied since December 2024.

A deal penned in March stipulated that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) would integrate with state institutions by the end of the year, but its implementation has since stalled.

Syrian government officials have held talks with the commander of the main Kurdish-led force in the country over plans to merge it with the national army, state media reported, adding that no “tangible results” had been achieved.

The Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement on Sunday that a delegation led by top commander Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani) held talks with government officials in Damascus related to the military integration process.

A major sticking point has been whether the SDF would remain a cohesive unit in the new army or whether it would be dissolved and its members individually absorbed. The group has tens of thousands of fighters and is the main force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s military.

State TV said the meeting did not produce “tangible results” and that the sides agreed to hold further meetings at a later date.

The leadership in Damascus under President Ahmed al-Sharaa inked a deal in March with the SDF, which controls large swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast. The Kurdish-led force was to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025, but there have been disagreements on how it would happen.

The deal also would bring all border crossings with Iraq and Turkiye, as well as airports and oil fields in the northeast, under the central government’s control. Prisons holding about 9,000 suspected members of the ISIL (ISIS) group are also expected to come under government control.

Turkiye considers the SDF a “terrorist” organisation because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long armed conflict on its soil, although a peace process is now under way.

Ankara sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat and has publicly called for them to be integrated into the state, but not as a single unit.

The SDF insists on a decentralised system of governance that would allow it to maintain its influence in the areas it controls. Tensions between the SDF and the government – which opposes calls for decentralisation – have occasionally led to violence.

In late December, clashes broke out between security forces and SDF fighters in the northern city of Aleppo during a visit to Syria by Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

Last month, Fidan urged the SDF to not be an obstacle to Syria’s stability and warned that patience with the group was running out.

Jan. 4 (UPI) — British and French aircraft conducted a joint strike on Saturday night on an underground facility in Syria used by ISIS to store weapons and explosives.

Royal Air Force Typhoons and a Voyager refueling tanker joined the French aircraft to strike the mountain facility north of Palmyra as part of ongoing patrols to prevent the terrorist group from resurging and regaining ground in Syria, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in a press release.

“This action shows our U.K. leadership, and determination to stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies, to stamp out any resurgence of [ISIS] and their dangerous and violent ideologies in the Middle East,” John Healey, U.K. defense secretary, said in the release.

The Saturday evening strike targeted access tunnels into the facility using Paveway IV guided bombs, with the ministry noting that initial indications show the mission was successful as a more detailed assessment is conducted.

The area around the site is “devoid of civilians habitation,” the ministry said, and there is no indication the bombing posed risks to civilians.

In a post on X, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces posted video from the strikes and said Operation Inherent Resolve, which includes ongoing patrols of the region, is essential to the region’s stability.

“Preventing the resurgence of [ISIS]: a major issue for the security of the region,” the French ministry said in the post. “The fight against terrorism remains a priority for France and the partner countries of the Coalition.”

The British personnel who conducted the mission were deployed over Christmas and the New Year, Healey said, continuing various patrols in Syria, and specifically Palmyra, that have been conducted by an international coalition that includes the United States.

In a lone gunman ambush on a patrol in Palmyra last month, two Iowa National Guard members and a civilian interpreter were killed, in addition to three other U.S. soldiers and two Syrians being shot. The gunman was identified as a member of ISIS.

Officials with Operation Inherent Resolve said in a statement on X that although ISIS no longer controls territory, “it continues to operate through residual cells, particularly in remote desert areas.”

The UK’s Ministry of Defence says an underground facility likely storing ISIL weapons was the target of the attack, but the area was ‘devoid of any civilian habitation’.

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence has said its aircraft joined France in striking an underground facility in Syria that had likely been used by the ISIL (ISIS) group to store weapons, as the group appears to be resurgent after a period of relative dormancy in the region.

“Royal Air Force aircraft have completed successful strikes against Daesh in a joint operation with France,” the ministry said of the Saturday night attack in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

The statement said the area, north of the ancient site of Palmyra, was “devoid of any civilian habitation”.

The United States military in late December said it had killed or captured about 25 ISIL fighters in a wave of attacks over nine days in Syria.

The Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees the US military’s Middle East operations, issued a statement on Tuesday marking the conclusion of the operations last month.

The campaign followed the killing of two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter by an ISIL attacker in Syria on December 13, and widespread US strikes against the group six days later.

In the meantime, Turkiye’s government said on Wednesday it had detained more than 100 ISIL suspects in nationwide raids, as the group shows signs of intensified regional activity after a period of relative dormancy.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced the arrests, saying Turkish authorities rounded up 125 suspects across 25 provinces, including Ankara.

The operation was the third of its kind in less than a week during the holiday season, and follows a deadly shootout on Tuesday between Turkish police and suspected ISIL members in the northwestern city of Yalova.

That clash killed three Turkish police and six suspected ISIL members, all Turkish nationals. A day later, Turkish security forces arrested 357 suspected ISIL members in a coordinated crackdown.

In 2017, when the group still held large swaths of neighbouring Syria and Iraq before being vanquished on the battlefield, ISIL attacked an Istanbul nightclub during New Year’s celebrations, killing 39 people. Istanbul prosecutor’s office said Turkish police had received intelligence that operatives were “planning attacks in Turkiye against non-Muslims in particular” this holiday season.

On top of maintaining sleeper cells in Turkiye, ISIL is still active in Syria, with which Turkiye shares a 900km (560-mile) border, and has carried out a spate of attacks there since the ouster of former President Bashar al-Assad last year.

Syria has faced mounting security challenges after more than 13 years of ruinous civil war that ended late in 2024 with the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

In 2025, Israel carried out thousands of attacks in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, with at least 10,600 attacks recorded across multiple countries including Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Yemen and Qatar.

An Al Jazeera Arabic investigation obtains recordings of Suheil al-Hassan discussing Israeli support, regrouping efforts.

An Al Jazeera Arabic investigation has uncovered a plot by the aides of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad to destabilise Syria, featuring leaked recordings that suggest coordination with Israel.

The revelations, set to be broadcast on the programme Al-Mutahari, or The Investigator, on Wednesday evening, are based on more than 74 hours of leaked audio recordings and hundreds of pages of documents obtained in the investigation.

The leaks implicate al-Assad’s high-ranking officers, specifically Suheil al-Hassan, the brigadier-general who commanded the notorious Quwwat al-Nimr (Tiger Forces), an elite unit in the former regime’s army.

‘Israel will stand with you’

The investigation uncovers attempts by these officers to regroup, gather funding, and secure weapons to undermine stability in the country following the ousting of al-Assad.

In one of the most significant recordings, a source — identified in the leaks as a hacker or intermediary — is heard assuring al-Hassan of Israeli backing.

“The State of Israel, with all its capabilities, will stand with you,” the source tells al-Hassan.

“There is a level higher than me, Mr Rami is the one who coordinates,” al-Hassan is heard saying. “And I have dangerous intelligence information.”

It has been a year since a lightning offensive by allied rebel groups, led by current President Ahmed al-Sharaa, ended the Assad dynasty’s 54-year reign, forcing Bashar al-Assad into Russian exile.

Yet, as the regime collapsed, Israel seized on the instability by significantly escalating its military campaign in Syria, targeting much of its neighbour’s military infrastructure, including main airports, air defence systems, fighter planes, and other strategic facilities, as well as occupying more of Syria’s Golan Heights, and bombing the capital, Damascus, in July.

Over the past year, Israel has launched more than 600 air, drone or artillery attacks across Syria, averaging nearly two a day, according to a tally by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED).

‘The feeling of the coast’

The recordings also feature Ghiath Dalla, a former brigadier-general in al-Assad’s forces, who appears to validate al-Hassan’s position as a representative of the regime’s traditional strongholds.

“My Master, Suheil the Tiger, spoke the feeling of the whole mountain and the whole coast,” Dalla is heard saying, referring to the coastal and mountainous regions that were long considered the heartland of support for the al-Assad family.

The leaked conversations also capture al-Hassan expressing disdain for current developments, referred to as “the flood”.

“Our prayers for you all are that this foolishness, this evil, and this blackness called the flood ends,” al-Hassan says in the recording.

Investigation to air

The full extent of the plot will be detailed in the upcoming episode of The Investigator, hosted by Jamal el-Maliki.

Parts of the leaks are airing on Al Jazeera’s platforms on Wednesday, with the complete investigation scheduled for release in mid-January.

Syria’s new leader has been trying to stabilise his country and reintegrate it globally since he took office in January.

But outbreaks of sectarian violence are threatening President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s efforts to rebuild the country after 14 years of civil war.

The latest flare-up on Sunday saw protesters from the Alawite minority group come face to face with supporters of the government in the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous. Government troops sent to stop the violence were attacked. The once-powerful community says it is being marginalised.

How big a security threat are the protests and violence?

How can President al-Sharaa calm tensions?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Fadel Abdulghany – Founder and executive director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights.

Gamal Mansour – Specialist in comparative politics and international relations

Labib Nahhas – Director of the Syrian Association for Citizens’ Dignity

Syrian government troops have been deployed to coastal cities after demonstrations sparked by a mosque explosion escalated into deadly clashes. Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar explains what we know.

Gamal Mansour of the University of Toronto says Syria’s authorities are still in a fragile state-building phase, and the clashes in coastal Syria have exposed gaps in control.

The deployment comes after deadly unrest amid protests by the Alawite minority in the coastal cities.

Syrian government troops have been deployed to the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous after demonstrations led to deadly clashes in which at least three people were killed and 60 were injured.

It’s the latest turmoil to challenge President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s fledgling government, which has been pushing to stabilise the nation and reintegrate internationally after 14 years of ruinous civil war.

Syria’s Ministry of Defence announced on Sunday that army units with tanks and armoured vehicles had entered the centre of the cities in the country’s west in response to attacks by “outlaw groups” against civilians and security forces, with a mission to restore stability.

Syria’s state news agency SANA, quoting officials, reported that the attacks were carried out by “remnants of the defunct regime” of former President Bashar al-Assad during protests in Latakia.

SANA said 60 people were wounded by “stabbings, blows from stones, and gunfire targeting both security personnel and civilians”.

Clashes reportedly broke out as the protesters were confronted by pro-government demonstrators, and masked gunmen opened fire on security personnel.

The Ministry of Interior said in a statement that a police officer had been among those killed. An Al Jazeera team confirmed that gunfire was directed at Syrian security forces at the Azhari roundabout in Latakia, while two security personnel were also wounded in Tartous after unknown assailants threw a hand grenade at the al-Anaza police station in Baniyas.

Alawite protests

The violence has flared as thousands of Alawite Syrians took to the streets across the religious minority’s heartland in central and coastal parts of Syria on Sunday to protest against violence and discrimination.

The protests were called for by Ghazal Ghazal, an Alawite spiritual leader living outside the country, who had issued a call to “show the world that the Alawite community cannot be humiliated or marginalised” after the deadly bombing of a mosque in Homs on Friday.

The bombing, which killed eight people and was claimed by a Sunni group known as Saraya Ansar al-Sunna, was the latest act of violence against the religious minority, to which the ousted former President al-Assad also belongs and which had huge prominence under his rule.

The protesters also demanded that the government implement federalism – a system that would see power decentralised from Damascus in favour of greater autonomy for minorities – and the release of Alawite prisoners.

“We do not want a civil war, we want political federalism. We do not want your terrorism. We want to determine our own destiny,” Ghazal, head of the Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and abroad, said in a video message on Facebook.

‘We want federalism’

One of the antigovernment protesters on Sunday, Ali Hassan, said the demonstrators sought an end to the ongoing violence against the Alawite community.

“We just want to sleep in peace and work in peace, and we want federalism,” he said. “If this situation continues like this, then we want federalism. Why is it that every day or every other day, 10 of us are killed?”

A counterprotester, Mohammad Bakkour, said he had turned out to show his support for the government.

“We are here to support our new government, which from the very first day of liberation called for peace and for granting amnesty to criminals,” he said, accusing the antigovernment protesters of seeking to “sabotage the new path toward rebuilding the nation”.

“The entire people are calling for one people and one homeland, but they do not want one people or one homeland – they want sectarianism, chaos, problems, and federalism for their personal interests.”

Fighting has broken out at a demonstration in the city of Latakia in Syria, killing at least three people and injuring dozens. Hundreds of people from the Alawite minority were protesting in coastal and central parts of the country, two days after a mosque was bombed in Homs.

Hundreds of people take to the streets in Tartous and Latakia to demand the release of former soldiers who served ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.

On December 13, a joint US-Syrian patrol was ambushed by a member of Syria’s own security forces near Palmyra, a city in central Syria once controlled by the ISIL (ISIS) group.

Two US soldiers and an interpreter were shot dead, and four people were wounded, before Syrian forces killed the gunman.

In the aftermath of the attack, US and Syrian officials linked the attacker to ISIL, which once controlled vast swaths of Syria and Iraq, and promised to retaliate.

The incident highlights the growing cooperation between the United States and Syria against ISIL, particularly after Damascus joined the US-backed coalition against the group in November.

While it is still unclear if the attacker was a member of ISIL or another group opposed to US-Syrian relations, analysts say that cooperation between the two countries is strong and growing stronger.

“The Syrian government is responding very robustly to fighting ISIL following US requests to do so, and it is worth noting that HTS [Hayat Tahrir al-Sham], before it was in government, had a long-term policy of fighting ISIL,” Rob Geist Pinfold, a scholar of international security at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera, referring to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s former group.

“It [HTS] did it in Idlib, and cracked down on insurgents and cells, and this is more a continuation of that policy.”

Syria’s Minister of Interior spokesman, Noureddine al-Baba, told Syria’s Al-Ikhbariah TV that there was no direct chain of command to the gunman within Syria’s internal security forces, and that he was not part of the force tasked with escorting the US forces. Investigations are under way, he added, to determine whether he had direct ties to ISIL or adopted violent ideology.

ISIL attacks down

In May 2015, ISIL took over the city of Palmyra from the former Syrian government.

Famous for its Greco-Roman ruins, the city bounced back and forth between regime forces and ISIL until the group was expelled in 2017.

In May 2017, the US-led coalition also forced the group out of Raqqa, which ISIL had declared the capital of its so-called caliphate three years earlier.

Many surviving ISIL fighters were imprisoned in the al-Hol and Roj camps in northeast Syria, controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Others escaped into the Syrian desert around Palmyra, from where they have occasionally launched attacks.

When the regime of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fell on December 8, 2024, analysts said ISIL fighters used the ensuing chaos to go into various cities across the country. In June, the group launched an attack on a church in Damascus that killed at least 25 people.

Samy Akil, a fellow at the Tahrir Institute, said recent estimates put ISIL’s manpower in Iraq and Syria at between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters.

But experts told Al Jazeera that the coordination between Damascus and Washington has improved over the last year, and pointed to the fact that Syria’s security forces have thwarted several ISIL attacks due to US-provided intelligence.

“Ahmed al-Sharaa’s new government is committed to fighting the group and, in contrast to the Assad era, al-Sharaa’s government gets regular tip-offs from US intelligence, and probably other forms of US support as well. That’s a pretty powerful combination,” Aron Lund, a research fellow at Century International, focusing on Syria, told Al Jazeera.

This collaboration has seen a decrease in ISIL attacks in Syria, according to a report by consulting firm Karam Shaar Advisory. ISIL launched an average of 63 attacks a month in 2024, while in 2025, that number dropped to 10, according to the report.

“Since HTS arrived in Damascus, collaboration [with the US] has become much easier,” Jerome Drevon, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera.

Structural flaws

After the fall of the Assad regime, there were questions over how security would be enforced. The few thousand HTS members who had previously only controlled Idlib in northwest Syria would not be enough to enforce security across the country.

Syria’s security forces undertook a serious recruitment drive, bringing in tens of thousands of new recruits to add to many of the existing former opposition battalions that were incorporated under the state’s new security apparatus.

With such a huge recruitment campaign, analysts said, vetting was a difficult task.

“The Palmyra attack points to structural flaws rather than a mere one-off event. Integration of former faction fighters and rapid new recruitment have produced uneven vetting and oversight, compounded by a permissive environment for radical views, allowing infiltration to persist,” Nanar Hawash, International Crisis Group’s senior Syria analyst, told Al Jazeera.

“Together, these factors blur early warning signs and create space for hidden threats, raising the risk of repeat attacks.”

Analysts said they expect Syrian security forces to improve the vetting process with time. Meanwhile, another attack like December 13’s was possible and could dent the US’s faith that al-Sharaa’s government can provide security in Syria.

“It could happen again due to the sheer numbers [of new recruits], but over time, the government will improve its game and be more thorough to prevent that from happening again, because it will have consequences,” Drevon said.

“We should be careful over generalising based on one attack, which can be a one-off. But if it happens again, it might change the perception of the Syrian government.”

What does ISIL want?

As for ISIL, analysts said the group’s priorities have changed since the fall of al-Assad.

“What we’re seeing now is ISIL is trying to test boundaries and conduct attacks knowing it cannot gain territorial control,” Akil said.

“It aims at destabilising and staying relevant.”

“ISIS cannot hold cities or topple governments. But it doesn’t need to. Its strength lies in destabilisation,” Hawach said. “The Palmyra attack showed that one operative with the right access can kill three US personnel and shake a bilateral relationship.”

Analysts said ISIL could destabilise Syria by targeting state security forces, religious minorities – like it did in the Damascus church attack in June – or any foreigner on Syrian soil, from US soldiers to humanitarian or United Nations workers. The group could also look to capitalise on tensions between the SDF and Damascus over disagreements on how to integrate the former into the state’s security apparatus.

The SDF also manages the al-Hol and Roj prison camps in northeast Syria, where many of ISIL’s most battle-hardened fighters and commanders are held. This could prove to be a key target for ISIL in Syria.

“ISIL thrives in those vacuums,” Hawach said.

“It’s a guerrilla insurgency, not a caliphate, but in a fragile state, that’s enough to cause serious damage.”

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Syrian state media says security forces have imposed a ​cordon around ‌the area and are investigating.

At least six ‍people ‍have been killed and more than 20 were injured when an explosion ⁠struck a mosque ​in Syria’s Homs province.

The attack targeted the Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi al-Dahab neighbourhood of Homs shortly after Friday prayers, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed people fleeing the mosque in panic, placing some victims on stretchers and carrying others, wrapped in cloaks, to ambulances.

The blast appeared to have taken place in the corner of the mosque’s main prayer hall, leaving a small crater in the wall and scorching the surrounding area, with prayer carpets ripped and strewn with debris, and books and fragments scattered across the floor.

Local officials told the Reuters news agency the blast ‌may have been ‌caused by ⁠a suicide bomber or explosives placed there.

State media said security forces had imposed a ​cordon around ‌the area and were investigating.

Ayman Oghanna, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Aleppo, noted that Homs is home to a diverse population of Alawites, Christians and Sunni Muslims. He said the attack targeted an Alawite mosque, warning it could “inflame sectarian tensions” across the country.

He said no group had claimed responsibility for the strike, but noted a recent surge in ISIL (ISIS) activity in Syria. He added that government forces had carried out an operation near Aleppo, arresting three alleged ISIL members.

Last week, the United States bombed ISIL positions in Syria in retaliation for the killings of two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter. Damascus also joined a global anti-ISIL alliance in November, pledging to crush the remaining elements of the group.

Friday’s attack underscores the country’s fragile security situation, as the new authorities in Damascus struggle to assert control.