ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Just days after halting its military operations in Aleppo’s Kurdish-majority neighborhoods, the Syrian Arab Army on Tuesday declared several areas in eastern Aleppo “closed military zones.” The announcement follows claims by Damascus that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are reinforcing their military presence in the area - allegations the Kurdish-led forces have firmly denied.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) published a map released by the army’s Operations Command showing Deir Hafer, Maskanah, and surrounding areas in the eastern Aleppo countryside marked in red, stating that the areas are “considered closed military zones as of this date [Tuesday].”
The Operations Command attributed the move to what it said was the “continued mobilization by the SDF, together with the terrorist [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] PKK militias and remnants of the former [Ba’ath] regime,” as well as claims that the area has become “a launch point for Iranian suicide drones that shelled the city of Aleppo.”
The latter is connected to a previous claim by the Syrian army on Saturday that the SDF struck targets near Deir Hafer and Maskanah “with more than 10 Iranian-made drones,” causing multiple injuries and significant property damage. The SDF, for its part, accused Damascus of using a Turkish-made Akinci drone to “target a military position of our forces” in Raqqa.
Signaling a potentially imminent escalation in the area, the Operations Command on Tuesday said that “all armed groups in this area must withdraw to the east of the Euphrates,” urging them, “Preserve your lives.”
“The Syrian Arab Army will take all necessary measures to prevent the armed groups gathering in this area from using it as a launch point for their criminal operations,” SANA reported.
Deir Hafer is a strategic district in eastern Aleppo province, much of which is under the control of the SDF, which serves as the de facto military authority in northeast Syria (Rojava).
The area has been tense for months, with Damascus-aligned factions intensifying efforts to seize the district. Capturing Deir Hafer would allow them to open a logistical corridor linking Aleppo to Raqqa province in north-central Syria and to exert additional military pressure on the SDF in areas critical to Kurdish operations along the Euphrates River.
In recent days, Damascus had reiterated claims that it “detected the arrival of additional armed groups at positions held by the SDF” near Deir Hafer and Maskanah, alleging that the reinforcements include fighters from the PKK as well as members of the deposed Bashar al-Assad regime.
The Syrian army said on Monday that it “will not stand idle in the face of this serious escalation.”
The SDF, for its part, on Monday dismissed reports that it is expanding its presence in eastern Aleppo as “misleading,” describing them as “an attempt to manufacture tension and create pretexts for escalation.”
The exchange of accusations comes against the backdrop of deadly violence that struck Aleppo’s Kurdish neighborhoods of Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsood last week.
At least 82 people were killed, including 43 civilians, according to a Sunday report by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Approximately 150,000 others were displaced, the Erbil-based Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF) told Rudaw on Saturday.