New clashes between Syrian military and Kurdish forces erupt east of Aleppo

[ad_1] Syrian authorities forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces exchanged fireplace Tuesday in a tense space of jap Aleppo province, marking a doable escalation after days of clashes within the northern metropolis.

No casualties have been instantly reported, as an deadlock continues in negotiations between the central authorities and the SDF over merging its hundreds of fighters into the nationwide military.

The Syrian military earlier declared an space east of Aleppo as a “closed army zone". Japanese Aleppo province has been a tense frontline dividing areas underneath the Syrian authorities and enormous swaths of northeastern Syria underneath the SDF.

In an announcement, the SDF stated authorities forces have began shelling Deir Hafer district. The group later stated authorities troops launched exploding drones, artillery and rockets to a village south of Deir Hafer.

Syrian state tv later stated the SDF focused the village of Homeima on the opposite aspect of the Deir Hafer frontline with exploding drones.

A number of days of lethal clashes in Aleppo final week displaced tens of hundreds of individuals. They ended over the weekend with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters from the contested neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsud. Aleppo Governor Azzam Ghareeb stated Damascus now has full management of Sheikh Maqsud and Achrafieh, the place clashes came about.

Syrian officers have accused the SDF of increase its forces close to the cities of Maskana and Deir Hafer, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of Aleppo metropolis. SANA, the state information company, reported that the military had declared the realm a closed army zone due to “continued mobilisation” by the SDF, and accused the group of utilizing the realm as a launchpad for drone assaults in Aleppo metropolis.

The military assertion stated the armed teams ought to withdraw east of the Euphrates River.

A drone hit the Aleppo governorate constructing on Saturday shortly after two Cupboard ministers and an area official held a information convention on the developments within the metropolis.

The SDF have denied mobilising within the space or being behind the assault.

The management in Damascus, underneath interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, signed a deal in March with the SDF, which controls a lot of the northeast, for it to merge with the Syrian military by the top of 2025. There have been disagreements on how it will occur.

A number of the factions that make up the brand new Syrian military, which was shaped after the autumn of former President Bashar Assad in a insurgent offensive in December 2024, have been beforehand Turkey-backed rebel teams which have an extended historical past of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The SDF for years has been the primary US associate in Syria in combating in opposition to the Islamic State group, however Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organisation due to its affiliation with the Kurdistan Employees’ Social gathering, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey. A peace course of is now underneath means.

Regardless of the long-running US help for the SDF, the Trump administration has additionally developed shut ties with al-Sharaa’s authorities and has pushed the Kurds to implement the March deal.

The latest developments have left the SDF and the autonomous administration that runs northeastern Syria annoyed with Washington and accusing Damascus of not implementing its finish of the deal.

“The American authorities must make clear its place of the Syrian authorities which is committing massacres,” the administration's international relations official, Elham Ahmad, instructed journalists Tuesday. She accused authorities forces of committing “horrific violations” and alleged that forces affiliated with IS and international fighters took half within the clashes.

Shams TV, a broadcaster based mostly in Irbil – the seat of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish area – had been set to air an interview with al-Sharaa on Monday however later introduced it had been postponed for “technical” causes, with out giving a brand new date for broadcast.