Deadly clashes resume in Syria's Aleppo between government, Kurdish forces

Fierce fighting resumed in Syria's northern city of Aleppo between government forces and Kurdish fighters for a second day on Wednesday (7 January), sending thousands of civilians fleeing and leaving at least four people dead.

The violence, and statements trading blame over who started it, signalled that a stalemate between Damascus and Kurdish authorities that have resisted integrating into the central government was deepening and growing deadlier.

It began on Tuesday, when at least six people were killed, including two women and a child, in an exchange of shelling between Syrian government troops and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

After relative calm overnight, shelling resumed on Wednesday and intensified in the afternoon, Reuters reporters in the city said. Aleppo's health directorate said a further four people were killed and 18 wounded.

Thousands of civilians flee

The Syrian army announced that military positions in the SDF-held neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah were "legitimate military targets." Two Syrian security officials told Reuters that they expected a significant military operation in the city.

The government opened humanitarian corridors for civilians to flee flashpoint neighbourhoods, ferrying them out on city buses. A source from the government's civil defence rescue force said an estimated 10,000 people had fled.

"We move them safely to the places they want to go to according to their desire or to displaced shelters," said Faisal Mohammad Ali, operations chief of the civil defence force in Aleppo.

The latest fighting has disrupted civilian life in a leading Syrian city, closing the airport and a highway to Turkey, halting operations at factories in an industrial zone and paralysing major roads into the city centre.

The Damascus government said its forces were responding to rocket fire, drone attacks and shelling from SDF-held neighbourhoods, but Kurdish forces said they held Damascus "fully and directly responsible for ... the dangerous escalation that threatens the lives of thousands of civilians and undermines stability in the city."

During Syria's 14-year civil war, Kurdish authorities began running a semi-autonomous zone in northeast Syria, as well as in parts of Aleppo city.

They have been reluctant to give up those zones and integrate fully into the Islamist-led government that took over after ex-President Bashar al-Assad's ousting in late 2024.

Last year, the Damascus government reached a deal with the SDF that planned for a full integration by the end of 2025, but the two sides have made little progress, each accusing the other of stalling or acting in bad faith.

Failure to integrate the SDF into Syria's army risks further violence and could potentially draw in Turkey, which has threatened an incursion against Kurdish fighters it views as terrorists.