Syria: Thousands flee Aleppo fighting between army, Kurds

Thousands of civilians left affected areas of Aleppo as the army launched strikes on Kurdish forces. The government declared a curfew, as the fighting disrupted flights, shops, universities and schools.

The Syrian army launched fresh strikes on parts of Aleppo on Thursday, after ordering locals to leave areas from which it said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had launched attacks. 

The army released several maps identifying areas it said would be targeted in the strikes and urged residents to leave for their own safety.

Authorities announced a curfew in the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh and four nearby districts in Syria's second city.

State news agency SANA described the strikes as "targeted operations" against the military wing of the SDF, the YPG.

Flights suspended at airport, some 16,000 thought to have fled 

A flight suspension at Aleppo's airport was extended until late Friday amid the fighting, and the AFP news agency reported that shops, universities and schools remained shut in affected areas. 

State television, citing a civil defense official, said some 16,000 people had fled the two areas under curfew on Thursday, and that at least 17 people had been killed in clashes over the past three days. 

According to Aleppo's Directorate of Social Affairs and Labor, almost 140,000 people have been displaced across the wider region amid the unrest.

"There's a large percentage of them with difficult medical issues, elderly people, women, and children," said Mohammad Ali, operations director with the Syrian Civil Defense in Aleppo.

Difficult talks between new government and SDF 

The latest bout of fighting, after smaller-scale clashes in December, first erupted on Tuesday and has driven thousands of civilians from their homes.

It comes amid a breakdown in efforts from Syria's relatively new government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Islamist insurgent leader, to incorporate Kurdish fighting forces into a revamped Syrian army after the fall of Bashar Assad.  

Given the frequent clashes between the Turkish-backed militias and Kurdish forces during Syria's civil war, these efforts always seemed set to be challenging, at best. 

SDF leader Mazloum Abdi, who was in Damascus on Sunday for US-brokered talks seeking to revive the integration, said that attacks on Kurdish areas of Aleppo "during the negotiation process undermine the chances of reaching understandings." 

Tensions evident between Turkey, Israel; US walks fine line

Turkey, which was a key backer of al-Sharaa long before his forces' sudden overthrow of President Bashar Assad in December 2024, views the Kurdish fighters in Syria as an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish independence group deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, the EU and others. 

The government in Ankara has said that at present, it is only observing developments across its southern border to northern Syria, but has said it would "provide the necessary support" should the Syrian government request it. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan blamed the breakdown in negotiations on the SDF's "uncompromising stance," calling the group the "greatest obstacle for peace in Syria." 

But Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sarr has said that the "attacks by the Syrian regime's forces against the Kurdish minority ... are grave and dangerous." 

The EU voiced "great concern" at the uptick in fighting and called on "all sides to exercise restraint, protect civilians and seek a peaceful and diplomatic solution." 

The US, meanwhile, is walking a fine line. On the one hand, it's been a key backer and ally of the SDF, especially in the fight against the so-called Islamic State in Syria and Iraq in years past. 

But Washington has also welcomed the removal of President Assad and tried to support President al-Sharaa's stated goal of becoming a more moderate and inclusive leader in peacetime, despite his past at the head of groups the US deemed to be terrorist organizations like the Al Nusra Front.

A State Department official said on Thursday that the US was "closely monitoring the situation" and that envoy Tom Barrack was trying to facilitate further dialogue. 

"All parties should focus on how to build a peaceful, stable Syria that protects and serves the interests of all Syrians, rather than pushing the country back into a cycle of violence," the State Department statement said. 

The fighting with Kurdish forces in Aleppo also follows soon after sectarian clashes with the Alawite minority community in the west of the country around the port city of Latakia at the end of December.

Edited by: Karl Sexton