Fierce fighting in Syria's northern city of Aleppo between government forces and Kurdish fighters killed at least four people on Wednesday and drove thousands of civilians from their homes, with Washington reported to be mediating a de-escalation.
The violence, and statements trading blame over who started it, signaled that a stalemate between Damascus and Kurdish authorities that have resisted integrating into the central government was deepening and growing deadlier.
Clashes broke out on Tuesday, when at least six people were killed, including two women and a child, in an exchange of shelling between Syrian government troops and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
After relative calm overnight, shelling resumed on Wednesday and intensified in the afternoon, Reuters reporters in the city said. Aleppo's health directorate said a further four people were killed and more than two dozen wounded.
By evening, fighting had subsided, the Reuters reporters said.
Ilham Ahmed, who heads the foreign affairs department of the Kurdish administration, told Reuters that international mediation efforts were underway to de-escalate. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters the US was mediating.
THOUSANDS OF CIVILIANS FLEE
The Syrian army announced that military positions in the Kurdish-held neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah were "legitimate military targets." Two Syrian security officials told Reuters that they expected a significant military operation in the city.
The government opened humanitarian corridors for civilians to flee flashpoint neighborhoods, ferrying them out on city buses. A source from the government's civil defense rescue force said an estimated 10,000 people had fled.
"We move them safely to the places they want to go to according to their desire or to displaced shelters," said Faisal Mohammad Ali, operations chief of the civil defense force in Aleppo.
The latest fighting has disrupted civilian life in what is a leading Syrian city, closing the airport and a highway to Türkiye, halting operations at factories in an industrial zone and paralyzing major roads into the city center.
The Damascus government said its forces were responding to rocket fire, drone attacks and shelling from Kurdish-held neighborhoods.
Kurdish forces said they held Damascus "fully and directly responsible for ... the dangerous escalation that threatens the lives of thousands of civilians and undermines stability in the city."
During Syria's 14-year civil war, Kurdish authorities began running a semi-autonomous zone in northeast Syria, as well as in parts of Aleppo city.
They have been reluctant to give up those zones and integrate fully into the government that took over after ex-President Bashar al-Assad's ousting in late 2024.
Last year, the Damascus government reached a deal with the SDF that envisaged a full integration by the end of 2025, but the two sides have made little progress, each accusing the other of stalling or acting in bad faith.
The US has stepped in as a mediator, holding meetings as recently as Sunday to try to nudge the process forward. Sunday's meetings ended with no tangible progress.
Failure to integrate the SDF into Syria's army risks further violence and could potentially draw in Türkiye, which has threatened an incursion against Kurdish fighters it views as terrorists.
