Syria bombs Kurdish areas in city of Aleppo

Smoke rises from Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods amid intense clashes between government forces and the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Photo / Omar Haj Kadour, AFP

Clashes between Syrian government personnel and Kurdish forces have raged into the night on the third day of fighting, as Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi warned the violence undermined talks with Damascus.

Both sides have traded blame over who started the violence on Tuesday (local time), which comes as implementation stalls on a deal to merge the Kurds’ administration and military in the northeast into the government.

The worst violence in Aleppo since Syria’s Islamist authorities took power has also highlighted regional tensions between Turkey, which says it is ready to support Syria’s authorities, and Israel, which condemned what it described as attacks against the Kurds.

An AFP correspondent reported fierce clashes across the Kurdish-majority Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsud districts into the night, while authorities announced a curfew in the two districts and several others nearby “until further notice”.

“We’ve gone through very difficult times... my children were terrified,” said Rana Issa, 43, whose family fled Aleppo’s Ashrafiyeh neighbourhood earlier Thursday under sniper fire.

“Many people want to leave” but are afraid of the shooters, she told AFP.

State television, citing a civil defence official, said some 16,000 people fled the two neighbourhoods on Thursday, with at least 21 people dead over three days, according to government and Kurdish force figures.

A government source told AFP on condition of anonymity that the army started entering the outskirts of Sheikh Maqsud after an agreement with residents from non-Kurdish clans.

Turkey, Israel

Earlier on Thursday, state news agency SANA, citing a military source, said the army launched “intense and concentrated bombardment towards SDF positions” in the two Kurdish districts.

A flight suspension at Aleppo airport was extended until late Friday, while AFP correspondents said shops, universities and schools remained closed and civilians fled the two Kurdish neighbourhoods via safe corridors before an afternoon deadline for them to leave.

US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said on X that Washington was following developments “with grave concern” and issued an urgent appeal to all sides to “pause hostilities, reduce tensions immediately, and commit to de-escalation”.

The European Union, whose top officials are due to visit Syria on Friday, called on “all sides to exercise restraint, protect civilians and seek a peaceful and diplomatic solution”.

A Turkish defence ministry official said that “should Syria request assistance, Turkey will provide the necessary support”.

Israel and Turkey have been vying for influence in Syria since the December 2024 toppling of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey, a close ally of the new Syrian government, had been locked in “intensive consultations” with Damascus and the United States to resolve the deadlock.

Turkey, which shares a 900km border with Syria, has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar meanwhile said that “attacks by the Syrian regime’s forces against the Kurdish minority... are grave and dangerous”.

Israel and Syria are in talks to reach a security agreement and this week agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism.

Israel bombed Syrian forces in July when they clashed with the Druze community in the country’s south, saying it was acting to defend the minority, who are also present in Israel.

‘No to war’

The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, and was key to the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019.

The March integration agreement was to be implemented last year, but differences between the sides including Kurdish demands for decentralised 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.

Aron Lund, a fellow at the Century International research centre, told AFP that “Aleppo is the SDF’s most vulnerable area”.

“Both sides are still trying to put pressure on each other and rally international support,” he said.

He warned that if the hostilities spiral, “a full Damascus-SDF conflict across northern Syria, potentially with Turkish and Israeli involvement, could be devastating for Syria’s stability”.

In Qamishli in the Kurdish-held northeast, hundreds of people protested against the Aleppo violence, AFP correspondents said.

“We call on the international community to intervene,” said protester Salaheddine Cheikhmous, 61, while others held banners reading “no to war” and “no to ethnic cleansing”.

In Turkey, several hundred people protested in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir decrying the Syrian army attacks, AFP correspondents there said.

– Agence France-Presse