Thousands have fled clashes between the Syrian government and Kurdish fighters

At least 12 people have been reported killed in two days of heavy fighting between the Syrian government and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo.

Tens of thousands of civilians have also fled the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, which were shelled by the Syrian army on Wednesday afternoon after targeting them as “closed military areas”.

The government said the operation was a response to attacks by armed groups in the areas and was “solely aimed at preserving security”.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia alliance – which insists it has no military presence in Aleppo – called it a “criminal attempt” to force residents to move.

An Aleppo resident told the BBC on Wednesday that the situation was “terrible and terrible”.

“All my friends left for other towns. Sometimes it’s calm and suddenly the war starts again,” they said.

A displaced man from Ashrafieh, Samer Issa, told the Reuters news agency that he slept in a mosque that had been converted into a shelter with his young children.

“The shelling intensified. We left because our children could not bear the hits and attacks anymore,” he said, describing the situation as “heartbreaking”.

The violence underscores the challenges facing President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s government in a country that remains deeply divided a year after he led the rebel offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad.

In March 2025, the Kurdish-led SDF, which controls most of north-east Syria and has thousands of fighters, signed an agreement to unite all the military and civilian institutions of the Syrian state.

But that hasn’t happened yet, with both sides accusing each other of trying to destroy the deal.

The SDF remains reluctant to give up the autonomy it won during the country’s 13-year civil war, when it helped US-led forces defeat the Islamic State (IS) group.

The stand-off in Aleppo also risks dragging in Turkey, which backs the government and considers the Kurdish militia that dominates the SDF a terrorist organization.