ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said the recent attack on Aleppo’s Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh was not a local security development, but a politically driven assault whose decision was made outside Syria, following failed reconciliation efforts and external interference.
In an interview with pro-SDF Ronahi TV, Sipan Hemo, a member of the SDF General Command, said the assault followed months of pressure, blockades, and provocations, despite an agreement reached last year aimed at allowing the two neighborhoods to govern themselves through the SDF affiliates security forces (Asayish).
“The declaration of war against Sheikh Maqsood didn’t even happen within Syria-it happened from outside Syria,” Hemo said. “Certain officials of different states had gone to Damascus and told them, ‘Come for this, everything is ready for you.’ Support was taken from outside, and the declaration of war was made.”
The SDF, the de facto military force in northeast Syria (Rojava), withdrew from the neighborhoods and other parts of Aleppo as part of an agreement it signed with Damascus on April 1st last year.
Hemo said the roots of the escalation go back to an agreement that the SDF signed with Damascus on April 1st last year, under which SDF forces withdrew from Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh so the neighborhoods could be administered by their own councils and protected by the Kurdish internal security forces.
However, he said surrounding forces repeatedly violated the agreement.
“They harassed the neighborhood. When people left or entered, they were arrested,” he said, adding that defensive measures taken by local security were later used as a pretext to impose a siege.
Hemo dismissed claims that the two Kurdish neighborhoods posed a threat to Aleppo.
“In a city as large as Aleppo, what impact could two Kurdish neighborhoods like Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh truly have on the city’s fate?” he said. “No logical mind would believe they pose a threat.”
Addressing a meeting held in Damascus on January 4, Hemo said the talks were part of broader discussions related to the March 10 agreements and potential integration frameworks, mediated by international actors. He described the initial atmosphere as positive, but said the process stalled after last-minute intervention by Syrian intelligence officials.
“At that moment the ‘game’ began,” he said. “The shift that happened there… showed signs of a plot or a game being played.