Syrian government forces have arrested 300 Kurds and evacuated more than 400 Kurdish fighters after clashes in Aleppo, the Interior Ministry has said, while US and allied forces carried out separate “large-scale” attacks on Islamic State targets.
An Interior Ministry official told Agence France-Presse that about 360 Kurdish fighters and 60 wounded had been bused to the Kurds’ de facto autonomous zone in the northeast from the Sheikh Maqsoud district, the last area of Aleppo to fall to the army.
Another 300 Kurds, including members of the Kurdish internal security forces, were arrested, the official said on Sunday. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they had agreed to withdraw from Aleppo under a ceasefire after days of fighting.
Kurdish forces had controlled several parts of Syria’s second city and had de facto autonomous rule over large parts of the north and northeast, much of which was captured during the country’s bloody 14-year civil war.
Clashes in Aleppo, some of the most intense since the regime of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December 2024, erupted on Tuesday after negotiations to integrate the Kurds into the country’s new government stalled.
The violence in Aleppo has deepened one of the main rifts in Syria, where President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s pledge to unite the country under one leadership has met resistance from Kurdish forces wary of his Islamist-led government.
It has also raised fears of a regional escalation, with neighboring Turkey, a close ally of Syria’s new Islamist authorities, saying it is prepared to intervene. Israel has sided with the Kurdish forces.
Figures from both sides said at least 21 civilians had been killed, while Aleppo’s governor said 155,000 people had fled their homes. Both sides have blamed each other for initiating the clashes.
US and allied forces said they had carried out “large-scale” attacks on the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria on Saturday, in the latest response to an attack last month that killed three Americans.
Washington said a lone gunman from the militant group carried out the December 13 attack in Palmyra, killing two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter. The area is home to ancient ruins that are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was once controlled by jihadist fighters.
“Today’s strikes targeted ISIS across Syria” and were part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, which was launched “in direct response to the deadly ISIS attack on U.S. and Syrian forces in Palmyra,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
The Jordanian military said it took part in the attacks in coordination “with partners in the framework of the international coalition… to neutralize the capabilities of terrorist groups and prevent them from reorganizing.”
The Palmyra attack was the first such incident since the fall of the Assad regime. The targeted U.S. personnel supported Operation Inherent Resolve, the international effort to combat IS, which seized parts of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014.
The jihadist group was eventually defeated by local ground forces, backed by international airstrikes and other support, but IS still maintains a presence in Syria, especially in the country’s vast desert.
The Syrian army, which had earlier announced the capture of Ashrafiyeh, the other Kurdish neighborhood in Aleppo, confirmed early on Sunday that it had “completed operations” in the Sheikh Maqsoud district.
State-run Ekhbariya TV said the last Kurdish-led SDF fighters had left Aleppo on Sunday after the ceasefire allowed evacuations. The official news agency SANA said buses “carrying the last batch of SDF members” were heading to the northeast.
The SDF said in a statement that it had “reached an agreement that led to a ceasefire and secured the evacuation of the martyrs, the wounded, the captured civilians and the fighters from the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhoods.”
The SDF statement said the ceasefire was reached “through the mediation of international parties to stop the attacks and violations against our people in Aleppo.” Both the US and EU had called for a return to political dialogue.
US envoy Tom Barrack said on Saturday he had met al-Sharaa in Damascus and urged all sides to “exercise maximum restraint, immediately cease hostilities and return to dialogue”. He said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s team was ready to mediate.
AFP and Reuters contributed to this report
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