Ceasefire quickly unravels after days of clashes between Syrian security forces and Kurdish fighters

ALEPPO, Syria — Syria's Defense Ministry announced a ceasefire Friday after three days of clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo that displaced over 140,000 people, but fighting resumed in the evening.

There was no public response from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to the ceasefire announcement, while a local Kurdish council rejected calls for the evacuation of fighters.

The Defense Ministry statement said the ceasefire became effective at 3 a.m. in the three city neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid and gave armed groups six hours to leave the area.

It said departing militants would be allowed to carry their “personal light weapons” and would be provided with an escort to the country's northeast, which is controlled by the SDF.

Aleppo 's Gov. Azzam al-Gharib toured the contested neighborhoods with an escort of security forces overnight.

However, in the hours after the announcement no fighters departed. Buses lined up to evacuate militants remained empty hours after the deadline.

Associated Press journalists at the scene said a burst of machine-gun fire targeted the location the buses had entered from, and an artillery shell landed on the road, but calm quickly returned.

A local council representing the Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighborhoods issued a statement saying, “We will not accept the pressures imposed on us and the calls for surrender.”

“We do not trust the Damascus government to entrust our security to us, and we have decided to remain in our neighborhoods and defend them,” it said.

Friday evening, the Syrian army announced Sheikh Maqsoud to be a “closed military zone" and launched what it described as a “clearing operation.”

Tom Barrack, the U.S. envoy to Syria, welcomed the ceasefire announcement and extended “profound gratitude to all parties — the Syrian government, the Syrian Democratic Forces, local authorities, and community leaders — for the restraint and goodwill that made this vital pause possible.”

Barrack's statement on X said the U.S. was working with the parties to extend the ceasefire beyond the six-hour deadline.

U.S. President Donald Trump later told Kurdish broadcaster Rudaw that “I want to see peace" between the two sides.

“The Kurds and the Syrian government — we get along with both, as you know very well. They have been natural enemies over the years, but we get along with both," he said.

'A good step'

An estimated 142,000 people have been displaced by the fighting that broke out Tuesday with exchanges of shelling and drone strikes.

Each side has accused the other of starting the violence and of deliberately targeting civilian neighborhoods and infrastructure, including ambulance crews and hospitals.

Kurdish forces said at least 12 civilians were killed in the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods, while government officials reported at least nine civilians were killed in the surrounding government-controlled areas in the fighting.

Dozens more on both sides have been wounded. It was not clear how many fighters were killed on each side.

Residents of the contested areas were hoping that the ceasefire would take hold Friday.

Ahmed Hajjar, a tailor in Achrafieh, said the ceasefire announcement was “a good step” but called for the removal of army checkpoints around the neighborhood.

“I can’t work now, the workers aren’t able to come, and I can’t send any products outside,” he said. "If I want to bring in textiles I get stuck at the checkpoint for an hour and a half or two or three hours.”

The Syrian military accused the SDF of violating the ceasefire Friday, saying it "targeted buses three times, shelled army positions, and attacked soldiers, resulting in the martyrdom of three soldiers and injuries to more than twelve others."

The SDF-affiliated Internal Security Forces, meanwhile, said government forces had struck a hospital in Sheikh Maqsoud where civilians had taken refuge and put it out of service.

SDF links to PKK

The clashes come amid an impasse in political negotiations between the central state and the SDF.

The leadership in Damascus under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa had signed a deal in March last year with the SDF, which controls much of the northeast, for it to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025. There have been disagreements on how it would happen.

Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The SDF has for years been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey. A peace process is now underway.

Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with al-Sharaa’s government and has pushed the Kurds to implement the March deal.

Al-Sharaa spoke by phone Friday with Masoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party -- the dominant Kurdish party in neighboring Iraq -- both officials said in statements.

The KDP has friendly relations with Turkey and has historically been at odds with the SDF and other groups aligned with the PKK, but over the past year they have taken steps to mend ties.