Tense Peace in Aleppo Following Syrian Forces and Kurdish Fighters’ Confrontation

DAMASCUS – On Tuesday morning, a tense tranquility took over the neighborhoods in Aleppo, a city in northern Syria. This followed a night of clashes between Syrian security forces and Kurdish fighters.

The violence came as tensions grow between the central government in Damascus and Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria.

The state-operated Syrian news agency SANA mentioned that on Monday evening, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces attacked checkpoints manned by the Internal Security Forces, resulting in one fatality and four injuries.

According to SANA, SDF forces fired mortar shells and heavy machine guns into residential areas in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighborhoods, leading to civilian casualties. However, the exact number of those injured or killed was not specified.

The SDF denied attacking the checkpoints and said its forces withdrew from the area months ago.

Syrian state-run TV reported Tuesday morning that a ceasefire had been reached without giving further details.

In March, the new interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, previously the head of an insurgent group that played a role in ousting the former Syrian President Bashar Assad, signed an agreement with the U.S.-supported, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which govern much of northeastern Syria.

Under the agreement, the SDF was to merge its forces with the new Syrian army, but implementation has stalled.

While Damascus aims to reassert control over all of Syria, the SDF is intent on retaining the semi-autonomous status of northeast Syria. Parliamentary elections were held in most of Syria on Sunday, but did not take place in areas under SDF control.

In April, scores of SDF fighters left the two predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo as part of the deal with Damascus.

On Tuesday, the SDF released a statement blaming government military units for “repeated attacks” on civilians in the two Aleppo neighborhoods, claiming they have imposed a blockade on them.

Government forces then attempted “to advance with tanks and armored vehicles, targeting residential areas with mortar shells and drone strikes, which has led to civilian casualties and significant damage to property,” the SDF said, which “provoked the residents and pushed them to defend themselves, alongside the internal security forces in the neighborhoods.”