ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Syrian army on Wednesday signaled a major escalation, declaring that “all military outposts” it claims belong to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Kurdish-majority areas of northern Aleppo are “legitimate military targets,” Syrian state media reported. This comes despite reiterations from the Kurdish-led forces that they maintain no military presence in the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsood neighborhoods.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) cited the Syrian army's Military Operations Administration (MOA) as saying, “We announce that all military sites of the SDF within the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh are legitimate military targets for the Syrian Arab Army.”
The MOA added that this follows "the group’s [SDF's] significant escalation toward Aleppo neighborhoods and its committing numerous massacres against civilians.”
Of note, the SDF is the de facto military force in Rojava and a key ally of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi and Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa on March 10 signed a landmark agreement outlining the integration of “all civil and military institutions” in Rojava into the Syrian state administration - including the SDF - and establishing a nationwide ceasefire.
A follow-up agreement signed in early April, in the presence of American representatives, established a joint security framework for the Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods. Under the agreement, SDF fighters withdrew from both areas, while local security forces - namely the Kurdish Internal Security Forces (Asayish) - remained deployed.
Despite repeatedly denying involvement in the intermittent clashes that erupted in Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh, Syrian state media have consistently accused the SDF of involvement.
The unprecedented escalation comes as local officials from the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods told Rudaw on Wednesday that “Damascus-affiliated factions” are carrying out “indiscriminate attacks with heavy weapons and drones” on residential areas in Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsood.
Hevin Sulaiman, co-chair of the Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods’ council, described the situation in the two areas as “a humanitarian catastrophe,” calling for “urgent intervention” from “the international community and the Global Coalition forces to support the civilian population” and pressure Damascus to “stop the war.”
She further appealed to President Masoud Barzani and Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani to “intervene in their own capacity, as this massacre is being carried out against the Kurdish people,” adding that “this conflict can be resolved through dialogue, and war serves no party’s interest.”
Syrian state media on Tuesday reported that one soldier and three civilians were killed in Aleppo in what it described as SDF drone and shelling attacks on residential areas in northern Aleppo. The Kurdish-led forces rejected the claim, accusing Damascus-affiliated factions of indiscriminately targeting Kurdish neighborhoods, killing at least six people, including two children.