Schools, offices shut, thousands flee Aleppo as clashes persist

Syria’s army began shelling Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods in the northern city Aleppo on Wednesday after its deadline for civilians to leave expired, an AFP correspondent said, on the second day of clashes between the two sides.

Schools and public institutions were shut in north Syria’s Aleppo as sporadic clashes between government troops and Kurdish-led forces continued into their second day, according to state media. Authorities also announced the suspension of flights in Aleppo’s airport.

Tuesday’s clashes, which killed nine people, were the worst between the two sides, who have so far failed to implement a March deal to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration and military into Syria’s new Islamist government.

“At night, Aleppo was a ghost town, no movement, the shops were closed, and many streets were dark with no electricity,” Abdul Karim Baqi, 50, told AFP. Baqi, who lives in one of Aleppo’s two Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods, escaped the violence and sought refuge at a relative’s home.

The Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces traded blame over who started the deadly clashes on Tuesday, with the two sides so far failing to implement a March deal to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration and military into Syria’s new Islamist government.

The Syrian military had declared the city’s Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh neighbourhoods “closed military zones” from 3.00pm (1200 GMT), while creating “two safe humanitarian crossings” for civilians.

AFP correspondents in Aleppo saw thousands of people leaving the neighbourhoods before the deadline, including large groups of families with children carrying their belongings with them, some in tears.

“We fled the clashes and we don’t know where to go ... 14 years of war, I think that’s enough,” Ahmed, a 38-year-old man who only gave his first name, told AFP while carrying his son on his back.

Ammar Raji, 41, said he and his family were “forced to leave because of the difficult circumstances.”

“I have six children, including two young ones... I am worried we will not return,” Raji, who had previously escaped fighting in his northern hometown of Manbij six years ago, added.

The Syrian army said that “all Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) military positions within the Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh neighbourhoods of Aleppo are legitimate military targets,” referring to the Kurdish-led force.

Senior Kurdish official Ilham Ahmed accused Damascus of launching a “genocidal war” against the Kurds, calling on the Syrian government to “pursue a path of reason to resolve problems through dialogue.”

The March agreement on the Kurdish authority’s integration into the state was supposed to be implemented by the end of 2025.

The Kurds are pushing for decentralised rule, an idea which Syria’s new authorities have rejected.

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.

Kurdish security forces said in a statement that they had thwarted “the first incursion attempt... using tanks” shortly after the deadline set by the army expired. They accused “Damascus government factions... of shelling safe residential neighbourhoods with artillery and tanks.”

Syrian authorities on their end accused the SDF of bombarding government-controlled areas.

Joud Serjian, a 53-year-old housewife and resident of the government-controlled Syriac Quarter, said the violence “reminded us of the war.”

“We have nowhere else to go, so we’ll stay in our home,” she added.

The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s north and northeast, with the backing of a US-led international coalition, and was key to the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019.

Abdul Karim Omar, representative of the Kurds’ autonomous administration in Damascus, told AFP that Aleppo’s Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods were “completely besieged.”

He denied that any shells had been fired from these areas, arguing that they are controlled by the Kurdish security forces “who only have light weapons.”

Agence France-Presse