The Syrian military said it would open a “humanitarian corridor” on Thursday to allow civilians to evacuate a contested area east of Aleppo, where it described a military buildup following clashes involving government forces and Kurdish-led units, according to a statement released late Wednesday.
The military said civilians could evacuate through the corridor from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday. It urged the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and other armed groups to withdraw to the east of the contested zone, specifically calling for them to move to the other side of the Euphrates River.
The announcement referred to areas in Aleppo province about 60 kilometers (40 miles) east of Aleppo city, including the towns of Deir Hafer and Maskana and surrounding areas. The AP reported that the timing and wording of the corridor order appeared to signal plans for an offensive in those towns and nearby areas.
The Syrian government troops, the AP reported, sent reinforcements to the area after accusing the SDF of building up its own forces there, an accusation the SDF denied. The AP said there were limited exchanges of fire between the sides in the Deir Hafer area, and that the SDF said Turkish drones carried out strikes there.
The government has accused the SDF of launching drone strikes in Aleppo city. The AP reported that the accusation included a strike that hit the Aleppo governorate building on Saturday shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference there.
The Deir Hafer-area tensions come after several days of intense clashes in Aleppo city last week. Those clashes ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and government forces taking control of three contested neighborhoods, the AP reported. The fighting killed at least 23 people, wounded dozens more and displaced tens of thousands, it said.
The AP said the fighting broke out as negotiations stalled between Damascus and the SDF over an agreement to integrate their forces and over central government control of institutions in northeastern Syria, including border crossings and oil fields. It also reported that some factions in the new Syrian army—formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a December 2024 rebel offensive—had previously been Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have long clashed with Kurdish forces.
The U.S. has backed the SDF as its main partner in Syria against the Islamic State group, while Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, the AP said. The AP added that a peace process is underway.
In Washington’s engagement, the AP reported that the Trump administration has developed close ties with the interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s government and pushed Kurdish forces to implement the integration deal, while Washington has avoided publicly taking sides in the Aleppo clashes. The AP said the SDF warned of “dangerous repercussions on civilians, infrastructure, and vital facilities” if escalation continues, and that it blamed Damascus, saying Damascus bears “full responsibility for this escalation and all ensuing humanitarian and security repercussions in the region.”
The AP also reported that Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, said the U.S. is “closely monitoring” the situation. In his statement, Cooper called for “all parties to exercise maximum restraint, avoid actions that could further escalate tensions, and prioritize the protection of civilians and critical infrastructure,” and urged the parties to “return to the negotiating table in good faith.”
In a separate development, the AP reported that al-Sharaa, in a televised interview aired Wednesday, praised “the courage of the Kurds” and said he would guarantee their rights and wants them to be part of the Syrian army, while criticizing the SDF. The AP said he accused the SDF of not abiding by an agreement reached last year for the SDF to withdraw from neighborhoods it controlled in Aleppo city and of forcibly preventing civilians from leaving when the army opened a corridor for evacuation.
The AP reported that al-Sharaa also claimed the SDF refused attempts by France and the U.S. to mediate a ceasefire and a withdrawal of Kurdish forces during the clashes due to an order from the PKK. It added that the interview was initially intended to air Tuesday on Shams TV in Irbil, but was canceled for “technical reasons,” and that later the station’s manager said it was “spiked out of fear” of inflaming tensions after al-Sharaa took a hard line against the SDF.
According to the AP, Syria’s state TV aired clips from the interview on Wednesday, and there was no immediate response from the SDF to the remarks.
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