Clashes between the government and Kurdish forces in the disputed area of ββthe northern Syrian city of Aleppo intensified on Thursday after authorities ordered civilians to evacuate.
Syrian authorities opened evacuation corridors for civilians for a second day, evacuating tens of thousands of people from the city.
The Aleppo governorate, in coordination with the military, gave residents permission to leave until 1pm local time.
State news agency SANA cited the military as saying it would launch “targeted operations” against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the suburbs of Sheikh Maqsoud, Akrafieh and Bani Zayed 30 minutes after the deadline.
The military has since issued a series of maps marking areas subject to evacuation orders.
More than 142,000 people have been evacuated across the province, according to the Aleppo Central Task Force.
“Most of them have difficult medical problems and are elderly, women and children,” said Mohammad Ali, head of operations at the Syrian Civil Defense Agency in Aleppo.
Kurdish forces said at least 12 civilians were killed in Kurdish-majority areas, while government officials reported at least nine civilians were killed in surrounding government-controlled areas in fighting that broke out on Tuesday.
Dozens more were injured on both sides. It is not clear how many fighters were killed on both sides.
Both sides have accused the other of intentionally targeting civilian areas and infrastructure, including emergency workers and hospitals.
Clashes intensified in the afternoon, with artillery shelling, drone strikes and tanks seen entering the disputed area. Internal security forces under the SDF said in a statement that they “destroyed two armored vehicles and caused casualties to the attackers” as they advanced.
Aleppo Governor Azzam al-Gharib said Thursday night that a “large number” of SDF fighters had defected or fled and security forces were preparing to deploy to the area.
political deadlock
The clash occurred amid stalled political negotiations between the central government and the Self-Defense Forces.
In March, the Damascus leadership, led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, signed a deal to merge the SDF, which controls much of the northeast, with the Syrian army by the end of 2025.
There was disagreement about how that would happen. In April, a large number of SDF fighters left Sheikh Maqsood and Akhlafieh as part of the deal.
Officials from the central government and the Self-Defense Forces met again in Damascus on Sunday, but officials said there was no concrete progress.
Some of the factions that make up the New Syrian Army, which was formed after the ouster of former President Bashar al-Assad in a December 2024 rebel offensive, were previously Turkish-backed rebel groups and have a long history of conflict with Kurdish forces.
international concerns
The SDF has long been the United States’ main partner in Syria in the fight against the so-called Islamic State (IS), but Turkey views it as a terrorist organization because of its ties to Turkey’s long-running insurgency, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). A peace process is currently underway.
Despite years of U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also forged close ties with the al-Shara regime and pushed the Kurds to implement the March agreement.
A State Department official said in a statement Thursday that the United States is “closely monitoring the situation” and called for “restraint on all sides.”
The newspaper said US special envoy Tom Barrack was working to foster dialogue between the two countries.
βAll parties should focus on how to build a peaceful and stable Syria that protects and serves the interests of all Syrians, rather than pushing the country back into a cycle of violence,β the statement said.
Additional sources of information β’ AP