Syrian security forces began deploying Saturday in a neighborhood in Aleppo after days of intense clashes with Kurdish fighters that killed and wounded dozens. Several drone strikes were reported during the day in the city, the nation's largest, leading authorities to suspend civilian flights at Aleppo International Airport, state TV said. The fighting between the two sides is the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad in December 2024. At least 22 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced. US Special Envoy Tom Barrack held talks in Damascus on Saturday with top officials, the AP reports, including President Ahmad al-Sharaa, and called on all parties to stop fighting.
"Violence risks undermining the progress achieved since the fall of the Assad regime and invites external interference that serves no party's interests," Barrack posted on X. "We urge all parties to exercise maximum restraint, immediately cease hostilities, and return to dialogue," he added, saying that fighting undermines the deal reached in March between the government and the Kurdish leadership. Barrack said the US objective "remains a sovereign, unified Syria." The state news agency SANA reported that two Kurdish fighters blew themselves up while surrounded by security forces without inflicting casualties, as gunfire was still heard in the neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud around noon Saturday. In the afternoon, an explosive drone hit the Aleppo Governorate building shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference, state TV said. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Syrian security forces were sweeping the neighborhood after calling on residents to stay home for their own safety. Hundreds of people who fled days earlier were waiting at Sheikh Maqsoud's entrances to be allowed in once the military operations are over. Clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish northern neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh, and Bani Zaid, after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge their forces into the national army. Security forces have since captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid. Kurdish forces said at least 12 civilians were killed in the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods in the five days of fighting, while government officials reported at least 10 civilians were killed in surrounding government-controlled areas. The Syrian military has declared the neighborhood a "closed military zone."
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