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AFP, DAMASCUS
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The Syrian Ministry of Defense yesterday announced a ceasefire in Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between the army and Kurdish fighters forced thousands of civilians to flee.
The violence killed 21 people and was the latest challenge for a country still struggling to forge a new path after Islamist authorities ousted former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad more than a year ago.
Since Tuesday, government forces have been fighting the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Aleppo.
A Syrian soldier assists a fleeing resident in Aleppo, Syria, on Thursday.
Photo: AFP
Both sides have traded blame over who started the fighting, which comes as they struggle to implement a deal to merge the Kurds’ administration and military into the country’s new government.
“To prevent any slide toward a new military escalation within residential neighborhoods, the Ministry of Defense announces … a ceasefire in the vicinity of the Sheikh Maqsud, Ashrafiyeh and Bani Zeid neighborhoods of Aleppo, effective from 3am,” the ministry wrote in a statement.
Kurdish fighters were given until 9am yesterday to leave those areas, while the Aleppo governorate said Kurdish fighters would be sent, along with their light weapons, to Kurdish areas further east.
The goal of the ceasefire is for civilians who were displaced by the fighting to be able “to return and resume their normal lives in an atmosphere of security and stability,” the ministry said.
Aleppo Governor Azzam al-Gharib said he had inspected the security arrangements in the Ashrafiyeh neighborhood.
There was no immediate comment from Kurdish forces in response to the government statements.
An Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent reported fierce fighting across the Kurdish-majority Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsud districts into Thursday night.
Syria’s military had instructed civilians in those neighborhoods to leave through humanitarian corridors ahead of launching the operation.
State television reported that about 16,000 people had fled.
SDF Commander Mazloum Abdi said attacks on Kurdish areas “undermine the chances of reaching understandings,” days after he visited Damascus for talks on the March integration deal.
The agreement was meant to be implemented last year, but differences, including Kurdish demands for decentralized rule, have stymied progress.
Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite Kurdish fighters agreeing to withdraw from the areas in April.
Turkey, which shares a 900km border with Syria, has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.
Israel and Turkey have been vying for influence in Syria since Assad was toppled in December 2024.
