Seven killed in clashes between Syria govt, Kurdish forces in Aleppo

DAMASCUS: Clashes between government personnel and Kurdish-led forces in the north Syrian city of Aleppo killed at least seven people on Tuesday, mostly civilians, with both sides trading blame over who started the fighting.

The implementation of a March deal to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration and military into Syria’s new Islamist government has stalled, and tensions occasionally erupt into clashes, particularly in Aleppo, which has two Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods.

On Tuesday morning, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement that groups affiliated with the government “targeted the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood with a reconnaissance drone”, resulting in “the death of one resident”.

It later said the toll had risen to three civilians including two women in “indiscriminate artillery and missile shelling carried out by factions of the Damascus government” on the Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh districts.

“The shelling is still ongoing, with the use of drones… direct sniper fire and heavy-weapon fire,” the SDF statement said.

Aleppo’s Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh neighbourhoods have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite Kurdish fighters agreeing to withdraw from the areas in April.

In a statement carried by state news agency SANA, the defence ministry said the SDF targeted “a number of neighbourhoods in Aleppo city adjacent to the districts it controls”.

“The ongoing attacks have resulted in three dead and more than 12 wounded among civilians,” it said, also reporting one dead in an attack on an army position.

“The SDF is again proving that it does not recognise the March 10 agreement and is trying to undermine it,” the statement added.

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