Syrian forces expel Kurdish fighters as US strikes Islamic State targets | Syria
US and allied forces launched separate “large-scale” attacks against Islamic State targets, the interior ministry said, while Syrian government forces detained 300 Kurds and evacuated more than 400 Kurdish fighters following clashes in Aleppo.
An interior ministry official told Agence France-Presse that about 360 Kurdish fighters and 60 wounded from the Sheikh Maqsud district, the last part of Aleppo to fall to the military, were taken by buses to the Kurds’ de facto autonomous region in the northeast.
Another 300 Kurds, including members of the Kurdish internal security forces, were detained, the official said on Sunday. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced that they agreed to withdraw from Aleppo as part of a ceasefire after days of clashes.
Kurdish forces controlled many parts of Syria’s second city and exercised de facto self-government over large areas in the north and northeast; Most of these areas were captured during the country’s bloody 14-year civil war.
The Aleppo clashes, one of the most intense since the fall of the long-ruling Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024, broke out on Tuesday after talks to integrate the Kurds into the country’s new government stalled.
The violence in Aleppo has deepened one of the main fault lines in Syria; President Ahmed al-Shara’s promise to unite the country under a single leadership has met with resistance from Kurdish forces wary of the Islamist-led government.
At the same time, neighboring Türkiye, a close ally of Syria’s new Islamist authorities, has said it is ready to intervene, raising fears of a regional escalation. Israel sided with the Kurdish forces.
According to figures from both sides, at least 21 civilians lost their lives, while the Governor of Aleppo said 155,000 people fled their homes. Both sides blamed the other for starting the conflict.
The announcements came after U.S. and allied forces said on Saturday they had launched “large-scale” strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria, the latest response to an attack last month that left three Americans dead.
Washington said a single gunman from the militant group carried out the attack on Palmyra on December 13, in which two US soldiers and a US civilian translator were killed. The area is home to Unesco-listed ancient ruins 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 ISIS’ deadly attack on U.S. and Syrian forces in Palmyra,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
The Jordanian military said it participated in the attacks in coordination with “its partners within the framework of the international coalition to neutralize the capabilities of terrorist groups and prevent their reorganization.”
The Palmyra attack was the first incident since the overthrow of the Assad regime. The targeted US personnel were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, an international effort to combat ISIS, which seized large swaths 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 ISIS still has a presence in Syria, particularly in the country’s vast desert.
The Syrian army, which had previously announced that it had captured Ashrafiya, Aleppo’s other Kurdish-held neighborhood, confirmed that it had “finished its operations” in the Sheikh Maksud region early on Sunday.
State-run Ekhbariya TV said the last Kurdish-led SDF fighters left Aleppo on Sunday after a ceasefire agreement allowed evacuations. The official SANA news agency said buses “carrying the last group of SDF members” were heading northeast.
The SDF said in a statement that “an agreement was reached that led to a ceasefire and provided for the evacuation of martyrs, wounded, trapped civilians and fighters in Ashrafiya and Sheikh Maksud neighborhoods.”
In the SDF statement, it was stated that the ceasefire was achieved “with the mediation of international parties to stop the attacks and violations against our people in Aleppo.” Both the US and the EU had called for a return to political dialogue.
US envoy Tom Barrack said he met with al-Sharaa in Damascus on Saturday and called on all parties to “exert 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
