ALEPPO, Syria — Syrian security forces began deploying Saturday in a neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of intense clashes with Kurdish fighters that killed and wounded dozens.
During the day, several drone strikes were reported in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, leading authorities to stop civilian flights at Aleppo International Airport until further notice, state TV said.
The fighting between the two sides is the most intense since the fall of President Bashar Assad in December 2024. At least 22 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced.
U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack held talks in Damascus on Saturday with top officials, including President Ahmad al-Sharaa, and called on all parties to cease hostilities and return to dialogue.
“Violence risks undermining the progress achieved since the fall of the Assad regime and invites external interference that serves no party’s interests,” Barrack said in comments 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.
He said that recent developments in Aleppo were “deeply concerning” and that Washington’s objective “remains a sovereign, unified Syria — at peace with itself and its neighbors — where equality, justice, and opportunity are extended to all its people.”
Residents flee Kurdish areas
Syria’s state news agency SANA reported that two Kurdish fighters died in suicide explosions while surrounded by security forces without inflicting other casualties, as gunfire was still heard in the neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud around noon Saturday.
On Saturday afternoon, an explosive drone hit the Aleppo provincial government building shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference on the developments in the city, state TV said. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Syria’s state TV aired the video, which allegedly showed the drone exploding in the building, and blamed Kurdish fighters for the attack. The main Kurdish-led force in the country denied the reports, saying its fighters did not attack a civilian target.
From the early hours, Syrian security forces were sweeping the neighborhood after calling on residents to stay home for their own safety.
Hundreds of people who fled the neighborhood 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, or SDF, 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 the surrounding government-controlled areas.
Exchange of accusations
Syrian Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa told state TV that Kurdish fighters used civilian buildings including hospitals and clinics during the fighting. Each side has accused the other of starting the violence and of deliberately targeting civilian neighborhoods and infrastructure, including ambulance crews and hospitals.
The Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, known as DAANES, which controls much of Syria’s northeast, said that security forces targeted Khaled Fajr Hospital in Sheikh Maqsoud, putting the lives of patients and paramedics in danger. It called on the international community to intervene to demand government forces stop the shelling.
State TV reported that at least one security member was wounded when a drone fired by the SDF struck the neighborhood.
Associated Press journalists said bursts of gunfire could be heard as government-deployed drones flew over Sheikh Maqsoud.
The Syrian military declared the neighborhood a “closed military zone” since Friday night as it launched a “clearing operation.”
On Friday, Barrack discussed the developments in Syria with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman. The U.S. envoy said Jordan offered support for efforts aimed at consolidating the ceasefire and the peaceful withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from Aleppo.
Alsayed writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.