Syrian Army Secures Aleppo as Kurdish Fighters Withdraw After Deadly Clashes
The Syrian government established full control over Aleppo on Sunday following the total evacuation of Kurdish fighters to the autonomous northeast. Consequently, the Syrian army has secured the Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh districts after several days of intense and deadly clashes.
A Syrian security official confirmed that 419 Kurdish fighters were transferred from Sheikh Maqsud to the Kurdish-controlled zone today. Furthermore, hundreds of people gathered in the city of Qamishli to meet the arriving fighters with tears and vengeful vows. “We will avenge Sheikh Maqsud… we will avenge our fighters, we will avenge our martyrs,” Umm Dalil told news correspondents. Residents in the northeast also chanted against President Ahmed al-Sharaa as tensions reached a boiling point across the entire region.
Humanitarian Impact and Arrests
Kurdish leader Mazlum Abdi stated that combatants evacuated “through the mediation of international parties to stop the attacks and violations.” Nevertheless, the Syrian government reportedly arrested 300 other individuals, whom the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights identified as innocent civilians. The official death toll has reached dozens, while thousands of residents remain displaced from their damaged homes in northern Aleppo. Returning residents in Ashrafiyeh found shrapnel littering the streets and discovered that many of their homes had been looted.
The violence erupted because negotiations stalled on integrating the Kurdish administration into the country’s new Islamist-led transitional government this year. US envoy Tom Barrack met with President Al-Sharaa to urge a “return to dialogue” based on last year’s integration agreement. However, Turkey remains a close ally of the new Syrian leadership and views the Kurdish forces as a security threat. Ultimately, the fall of these neighborhoods marks a significant shift in the balance of power within Syria’s second-largest city.
