Syrian army says it will renew Aleppo attacks after Kurds reject ceasefire terms | Syria

The Syrian army said it would renew attacks on the Kurdish-majority area of ​​Aleppo, where fighting intensified this week, after Kurdish groups rejected ceasefire terms demanding Damascus’ fighters withdraw from the city.

The army said it would target military areas used by Kurdish fighters in the Sheikh Maqsoud region and announced that a humanitarian corridor would be opened from 16:00 to 18:00 on Friday for the departure of civilians.

The government and Kurdish forces traded blame over who started the conflict on Tuesday; This comes as the Kurds try to implement the agreement reached last March to unite their administration and army in Syria’s new government.

Tens of thousands of people fled and at least 21 people lost their lives in the most intense clashes in the country for more than six months.

Earlier on Friday, the Syrian government announced a ceasefire that will come into effect at 3 a.m. local time. According to the terms of the ceasefire, Kurdish militants would leave the three disputed neighborhoods where clashes took place: Sheikh Maksud, Esrafiye and Beni Zeyd. These people will be provided with safe passage to the northeast of the country under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and will be allowed to carry light weapons with them.

In the statement, the Kurdish councils governing Sheikh Maksud and Ashrafiye Some parts of Aleppo accused government forces of intense bombardment, saying calls for secession were “a call to surrender” and that Kurdish forces would “defend their neighbourhoods.”

An Aleppo resident said the fighting appeared to have stopped overnight and images from disputed neighborhoods showed that the gunfire, which had been incessant for the past few days, had also stopped. Government security forces have released videos showing clearing operations in some neighborhoods, as well as videos showing inspections of underground tunnels used by the SDF to transport fighters and weapons beneath Aleppo.

Relations between the Syrian government and the SDF, which controls about a third of Syrian territory, have deteriorated in recent months. The two sides signed an agreement to integrate the SDF into Syria’s new army by the end of last year, but negotiations to implement the agreement have come to a halt.

The Damascus government described the SDF as a separatist structure that undermines the unity of the Syrian state, while the SDF described the new government as “jihadists” and expressed fears for the security of ethnic and religious minorities under its rule.

Aleppo, where the SDF controls Kurdish-majority neighborhoods normally surrounded by the Syrian government, has been a flashpoint for months. Recent clashes have deepened divisions between the two sides; SDF leader Mazlum Abdi warned that the clashes of the last few days undermined the “chances of agreement”.

The Syrian government also said in a statement that government control should be extended throughout Syria to “preserve the unity of Syria” and that the monopoly on violence should remain in the hands of the state.

Both sides accused each other of committing war crimes over the past three days, while the SDF said Damascus was guilty of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement by ordering civilians to leave their homes before the bombardment. The Damascus government claimed that the SDF was using civilians as human shields and targeting people trying to leave neighborhoods through government-created humanitarian crossings.

The SDF has been supported for years by the United States, which has equipped and armed Kurdish forces to assist in their fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria. The United States has tried for months to mediate a unification between the SDF and the new government in Damascus, but there has been little change on the ground since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad last year.

Türkiye, one of Damascus’ key backers, sees the SDF as an extension of the Kurdish separatist group the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with which it has been fighting a bitter insurgency for 40 years. Türkiye said it was ready to assist the Syrian government if requested.

“The SDF’s insistence on protecting what it has at all costs is the biggest obstacle to achieving peace and stability in Syria,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a press conference on Thursday. he said.

The SDF’s status and the vast territory of the country it holds continues to be a problem for Damascus, which is trying to fully consolidate its control over Syria.

Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report