Syrian govt & Kurdish SDF trade blame as fresh violence in Aleppo kills 9

In one of the worst flare-ups since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, at least nine people were killed on Tuesday in clashes between Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s forces and Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Aleppo. Most of the deceased were civilians.

The clashes occurred at a time when progress for the merger of Kurdish autonomous administration in northeastern Syria with Damascus-based regime run by al-Sharaa has stalled. Renewed fighting has raised the risk of Turkey’s intervention in favour of al-Sharaa.

Both the sides have blamed each other for the violence that continued late into the night. While the SDF accused al-Sharaa’s forces of targeting the Kurdish neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsud, al-Sharaa’s defence ministry said the SDF had targeted army positions and residential areas in Aleppo.

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Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the Kurds have been running an autonomous administration in the oil-rich northeastern Syria. The SDF is the official military of the autonomous administration. Now Kurds are not reluctant to give up their autonomy earned over a decade and a half.

Instead of absorption in al-Shaara’s regime, the Kurds have demanded decentralised rule Syria. But al-Shaara and his Islamist allies have rejected the idea.

The Islamist and jihadist elements part of al-Shaara’s ruling coalition have long been opposed to the Kurds. Along with their principal backer, Turkey, al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other groups aligned with him, had repeatedly attacked the Kurds in late 2024 and early 2025 when they had mounted a lightning offensive that overthrew the Assad dynasty.

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Simmering tensions, Turkey’s threats of intervention

Tensions have been ever-simmering between al-Sharaa’s forces and Kurds and clashes have been occasionally reported In Aleppo.

In the latest round of violence, at least four civilians were killed in the Kurdish neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh in “indiscriminate artillery and missile shelling”, AFP quotes the Kurdish administration as saying.

It further said that the attack included the “use of drones… direct sniper fire and heavy-weapon fire”.

Meanwhile, Turkey, which supports al-Shaara and considers SDF a terrorist organisation, has called for Kurds’ disarmament.

Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler said “the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and all affiliated groups must immediately cease all terrorist activity in regions where they are present, including in Syria, and lay down their weapons without condition”, according to AFP.

Guler further said, “We will not allow any terrorist organisation —particularly the PKK, the PYD, the YPG, and the SDF— to establish a foothold in the region.”

The SDF is dominated by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish group considered by Turkey as an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish group that agreed to end its four decades of armed struggle against Turkey last year.