Kurdish fighters defy truce, refuse to leave the city

Kurdish groups in Syria’s Aleppo vowed to defend their neighbourhoods from government forces yesterday, rejecting ceasefire terms declared by Damascus that demand Kurdish fighters withdraw from the Syrian city where clashes have raged this week.

The violence in Aleppo has exposed a deep faultline between President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government and Kurdish forces, which have resisted its efforts to bring their fighters under centralised authority.

At least nine civilians have been killed and more than 140,000 have fled their homes. Neither the government nor the Kurdish forces have announced a toll of casualties among their fighters.

The ceasefire announced by the defense ministry overnight demanded the withdrawal of Kurdish forces to the Kurdish-held northeast. That would effectively end Kurdish control over pockets of Aleppo held by Kurdish forces since the early days of the Syrian conflict which began in 2011.

But in a statement, Kurdish councils that run the Sheikh Maksoud and Ashrafiyah districts of Aleppo said calls to leave were “a call to surrender” and that Kurdish forces would instead “defend their neighbourhoods”, accusing government forces of intensive shelling.