Curfew in Aleppo after military attack

TT

Updated 21.33 | Published 13.01

 

Residents from the Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh districts seek shelter in a mosque in Aleppo. Photo: Ghaith Alsayed/AP/TT

The Syrian military has declared a curfew for six districts in Aleppo "until further notice". The announcement comes as the military has carried out airstrikes against Kurdish forces in the city.

The curfew applies to the Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh districts, both with a large proportion of Kurds, as well as four adjacent areas.

The two Kurdish-dominated areas are targets of the attacks that the Syrian military has subjected Aleppo to in recent days.

Both on Wednesday and Thursday, the attacks were preceded by calls for civilians to leave. On Wednesday, local authorities said that more than 40,000 people had left.

Sources within both the government and the Kurdish forces told AFP that at least 21 people had been killed in the past three days.

The clashes are taking place at a stalemate in political negotiations between Syria's new government, which came to power after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad at the end of 2024, and the Kurdish-led so-called SDF forces.

In March, the government in Damascus signed an agreement with the SDF, which controls large parts of northeastern Syria, that they would join the country's regular army by the end of 2025. The fighting is rooted in disagreements over how this should happen, the AP news agency writes.

In a post on X on Thursday evening, US envoy Tom Barrack urged the parties to "pause the fighting" and added that Washington was following the developments with "grave concern". A few hours earlier, the EU urged government forces and the SDF to exercise restraint.