Kurdish Forces Deny Syrian Army Has Taken Over Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsud District

The Syrian army has combed through Aleppo city's Sheikh Maksoud district, it said on Saturday, signalling it had seized the area from Kurdish fighters by force after a temporary ceasefire failed to end to days of deadly fighting.

The violence in the second city has deepened one of the main faultlines in Syria, where President Ahmed al-Sharaa's promise to unify the country under one leadership after 14 years of war has faced resistance from Kurdish forces wary of his Islamist-led government.

The US and other world powers welcomed a ceasefire earlier in the week, but Kurdish forces refused to leave the last stronghold of Sheikh Maksoud under the deal. Syria's army said late on Friday it would conduct a ground operation to expel them.

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Early on Saturday, Syria's army said it had finished combing through the district, but that some Kurdish fighters were still in hiding. In a written statement, Kurdish forces denied the government had captured Sheikh Maksoud and said they were still resisting. Reuters reporters in the city did not hear the sound of clashes.

The takeover of Sheikh Maksoud by the army would end Kurdish control over pockets of Aleppo held by Kurdish forces since Syria's war erupted in 2011. Kurdish forces still hold large parts of Syria's northeast, where they run a semi-autonomous zone.

They have resisted efforts to integrate into Syria's new government, made up of former rebel fighters who ousted longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. With negotiations on their merging stalled, fighting erupted in Aleppo on Tuesday, leaving at least nine civilians dead and forcing more than 140,000 to flee.

US envoy Tom Barrack said in a statement on X posted on Saturday that he had met with Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi in Amman to consolidate a ceasefire and ensure the Kurdish forces' "peaceful withdrawal from Aleppo."

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