1. Home
2. Middle East
3. 9 Killed: Syrian Forces and Kurdish Fighters Clash in Aleppo

Clashes between government personnel and Kurdish-led forces in the north Syrian city of Aleppo killed nine people on Tuesday, with both sides trading blame over who started the fighting.

State news agency SANA blames the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for “the death of one defense ministry member,” while state television reports “two women were killed… in SDF bombing of residential buildings.”

The SDF says groups affiliated with the Syrian government “targeted the Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood” resulting in “the death of one resident.” The SDF added, “This indiscriminate shelling constitutes a direct attack on residential areas and exposes the lives of civilians to grave danger,” it said.

Turkey, a close ally of Syria's new authorities and which sees Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat, demanded Tuesday that all Kurdish armed groups, "including in Syria", lay down their weapons.

Ongoing Clashes

There have been intermittent clashes in the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighborhoods of Aleppo in recent months.

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa signed a deal in March with the SDF, which controls much of the northeast. The SDF was set to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025, but there have been disagreements on how it would happen. In April, SDF fighters left Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh as part of the deal with Damascus.

Officials from the central government and SDF met again Sunday in Damascus, but government officials said no “tangible progress” had been made. The SDF has tens of thousands of fighters and is the main force to be absorbed into Syria’s military.