Syria’s government has said it will launch a limited military operation in Aleppo targeting PKK/YPG-linked SDF forces, after accusing the group of attacking civilians and escalating violence in the city.
The country’s information ministry said on Wednesday that the operation comes in response to renewed shelling and gunfire by the SDF, including incidents in which fighters opened fire on civilians attempting to leave the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods.
The SDF is dominated by the terrorist group YPG, the Syrian branch of the terrorist PKK.
Alikhbariya TV said SDF forces fired shots in an effort to prevent civilians from leaving the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh districts.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said SDF terrorists were preventing residents from fleeing the two neighbourhoods from reaching the humanitarian corridors announced by the Syrian army.
According to SANA, the corridors are located in the Al-Awarid area and Zuhur Street and were designated to allow the safe exit of civilians amid SDF attacks.
Prison break in SDF-held area
State media reported that the escalation coincided with a prison break in an SDF-controlled area of Aleppo, where detainees escaped from a jail in the Al-Shaqif district. Authorities did not disclose how many prisoners fled.
As fighting intensified, the Syrian Civil Defence said it evacuated at least 850 civilians by midday, citing worsening humanitarian conditions and ongoing shelling.
Evacuations were conducted through assembly points in the Al-Awarid area and along Zuhur Street, as residents fled nearby neighbourhoods.
Aleppo’s Internal Transport Company said it placed its entire bus fleet on full alert to move displaced residents to temporary shelters, aiming to ease civilian suffering amid the unrest.
Massacres by SDF
The Syrian army declared SDF positions in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh “legitimate targets,” accusing the group of carrying out massacres in the province.
Military authorities announced the two neighbourhoods would be treated as closed military zones after mid-afternoon, imposing a full movement ban and urging civilians to stay away from SDF positions.
The developments come despite a March 10 agreement under which the SDF was to integrate into Syrian state institutions, a deal Damascus says the group has failed to implement in the months since.
