Aleppo governor says final SDF fighters have left the town after the Syrian military took management of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood.
The final fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have left the town of Aleppo, in keeping with officers, following a ceasefire deal that allowed evacuations after days of lethal clashes in Syria’s second-largest metropolis.
Aleppo Governor Azzam al-Gharib informed Al Jazeera early on Sunday that Aleppo has change into “empty of SDF fighters” after authorities forces coordinated their withdrawal on buses out of the town in a single day.
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SDF commander Mazloum Abdi (often known as Mazloum Kobani) mentioned the group had reached an understanding by way of worldwide mediation on a ceasefire and the protected evacuation of civilians and fighters.
“We now have reached an understanding that results in a ceasefire and securing the evacuation of the useless, the wounded, the stranded civilians and the fighters from the Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhoods to northern and japanese Syria,” he mentioned in a publish on X.
“We name on the mediators to stick to their guarantees to cease the violations and work in the direction of a protected return for the displaced to their houses,” he added.
The event got here after the Syrian military took over the Kurdish-majority neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsoud following days of clashes that broke out when talks to combine the SDF into the nationwide military collapsed.
At the very least 30 folks have been killed within the clashes, whereas greater than 150,000 have been displaced.
Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna, reporting from Damascus, mentioned calm has returned to Aleppo, and that america was instrumental in brokering the settlement between the SDF and the federal government.
“The US is in a singular place, as a result of it enjoys good relations with the SDF and the federal government,” Oghanna mentioned, noting that Washington has been working with the Kurdish-led pressure in opposition to ISIL (ISIS) for greater than a decade.
With the autumn of former President Bashar al-Assad’s authorities in late 2024, the US has additionally constructed shut ties with the insurgent commander who turned Syria’s interim chief, Ahmed al-Sharaa. The Syrian president met US President Donald Trump on the White Home final 12 months and has formally joined the US-led coalition in opposition to ISIL.
The preventing in Aleppo started on Tuesday within the predominantly Kurdish neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh and Bani Zaid, amid tensions over a failure to implement a March 2025 agreement to reintegrate the Kurdish forces into state establishments.
The deadline for the deal handed on the finish of final 12 months, and the SDF refused to go away areas which have been below its management for the reason that early days of the Syrian struggle, which erupted in 2011.
Al Jazeera’s Oghanna mentioned that although the preventing in Aleppo has ended, “the fault line, the backdrop for this preventing, stays”.
“There are various tough points in Syria, however the biggest risk to nationwide stability and unity stays this query of whether or not the SDF be part of Damascus and be below Damascus’s management,” he mentioned.
The SDF has a considerable amount of fighters, estimated at between 50,000 to 90,000. They’re primarily within the northeast of the nation and management virtually 1 / 4 of Syria’s territory.
Oghanna mentioned the preventing in Aleppo makes the SDF integration “look far much less seemingly”.
“There are additionally different sticking factors, which could make the SDF refuse to place down their weapons,” he mentioned.
“The SDF don’t wish to cede management of the nation’s northeast, they usually wish to preserve a specific amount of autonomy so as to have the governance in northeastern Syria.”
