The Syrian army on Saturday ordered Kurdish fighters in a neighbourhood of Aleppo to surrender, resuming bombardments after days of clashes with the minority group.
At least 21 civilians have been killed in the violence since Tuesday, marking the most severe confrontations in Aleppo between the central government and Kurds, an ethnic minority controlling parts of northeastern Syria.
The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people, with the United Nations estimating that at least 30,000 families have fled their homes.
On Friday morning, authorities had announced a ceasefire and said that encircled Kurdish fighters in the neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh would be evacuated to Kurdish autonomous zones.
Buses were sent to facilitate evacuations, but Kurdish fighters rejected what they called “surrender” and pledged to defend their territories.
Following this refusal, the Syrian army announced it would resume bombardments targeting “military sites” in Sheikh Maqsoud, urging civilians to move away from these areas.
By Friday evening, heavy artillery bombardments and gunfire were reported near the neighbourhood.
The clashes come amid difficulties in implementing a March agreement to integrate the autonomous Kurdish administration and its armed forces, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), into the central state’s institutions.
In a statement on Telegram, the SDF alleged that the army had launched assaults with “heavy tank support and brutal artillery shelling,” vowing to “continue resisting.”
Meanwhile, Syrian state television accused Kurdish forces of deploying drones to attack residential areas in Aleppo.
