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Aleppo rocked as Syrian army shells Kurdish neighbourhoods

The Syrian army has shelled Kurdish areas of Aleppo for three days in a row. It went on to invade these areas and took control of the neighbourhood of Ashrafieh. Reports say the army also threatened to bomb a church and hit targets near a local hospital. Drop Site News reported that the clashes were between Syria’s provisional government and the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Is another atrocity unfolding in Aleppo?

The fighting is about:

stalled negotiations over how to integrate the autonomous SDF into the Syrian army.

Drop Site added:

The SDF’s units still control Aleppo’s Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, as well as large areas of territory in the country’s north-east.

The SDF only controls Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo at the time of writing. The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) reported:

government forces have indiscriminately fired dozens of artillery shells, mortars, and rocket launchers at residential neighborhoods in Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud on Thursday.

Adding:

Local sources speaking with SOHR said that government forces and allied armed factions fired heavy artillery shells on the outskirts of the Othman hospital, even though it was crowded with dozens of wounded civilians.

Syrian government forces deployed troops, tanks, and heavy weapons to Aleppo before launching an attack on Tuesday to take control of the Kurdish enclave in Syria’s second-largest city.

According to the Cradle, Syrian State TV published a map:

of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in Aleppo, marking specific areas and ordering residents to leave their homes, warning that government forces would attack their neighborhoods and houses.

And the Syrian Justice Archive posted on X that a local Catholic bishop was warning his church in Aleppo was being classed as a ‘military’ target:

We note that this style of tweeted warnings with areas highlighted in red on a map is uncannily akin to how Israel sends out warnings in Gaza, Lebanon, and other areas — as seen below. Something they have learned at the recent Paris meeting with Israel perhaps?

Kurdish forces in the area have been refusing to disarm as the government demands:

The government attack on Aleppo’s Kurdish neighborhoods comes amid efforts by Damascus to pressure the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to give up its arms and relinquish control of its territory in north-east Syria, including areas where the country’s major oil fields are located.

The new Syrian government is led by a number of US-Turkey allied ‘former’ Al-Qaeda figures. But the US also backs the SDF. Ahmed Al-Sharaa is the current Syrian leader. Al-Sharaa helped depose Syria’s old authoritarian ruler Bashar Al-Assad in December 2024.

Despite his background, Al-Sharaa was even invited to the White House to schmooze with Donald Trump in November 2025.

A statement from the US State Department said its officials were trying to encourage dialogue between the factions:

All parties should focus on how to build a peaceful, stable Syria that protects and serves the interests of all Syrians, rather than pushing the country back into a cycle of violence.

The Turkish military also said:

Syria’s security is our security. Turkiye will provide the necessary support should Syria request it.

As the Canary reported in December, Bashar Al-Assad’s regime was itself brutal. Yet its replacement by a group of US-Turkey backed jihadist militants — even if they have donned suits recently — does not bode well for the future the Syrians crave after years of war.

Featured image via screenshot from Aljazeera Video

By Joe Glenton

This post was originally published on Canary.