The Syrian army went on alert on Sunday after detecting armed groups aligned with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) east of Aleppo city.
In statements to the SANA state news agency, the Operations Command said that the nature and objectives of these military reinforcements and troop concentrations brought by the SDF to eastern Aleppo have not yet been identified.
The Command added that Syrian army forces have been placed on full alert, deployment lines east of Aleppo have been reinforced, and all necessary measures have been taken to be ready for all possible scenarios.
First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the SDF, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to opposition groups in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF.
However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
