The Syrian army and Kurdish forces announced the resumption of overnight fighting east of Aleppo, an area Damascus seeks to bring under its control following its takeover of the major northern Syrian city.
اضافة اعلان
The official SANA news agency quoted a military source on Wednesday as saying that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) targeted civilian homes and Syrian army positions in the vicinity of the village of Humaymah in eastern Aleppo countryside “using heavy machine guns and drones,” adding that the Syrian army responded to the sources of fire.
For its part, the Syrian Democratic Forces said they had repelled an infiltration attempt carried out by the Syrian army on the axis of Zubaida village in the southern countryside of Deir Hafer.
Earlier, the Syrian army’s Operations Command declared the Deir Hafer and Maskanah areas and their surroundings in Aleppo countryside a closed military zone, urging civilians to stay away from SDF positions in the area for their safety. It also called on Kurdish forces to withdraw from the areas they control east of Aleppo city “to east of the Euphrates.”
The army published a map highlighting in red the areas it requested withdrawal from, including the towns of Maskanah, Babiri, Qawas, and Deir Hafer, stretching from west of the Euphrates River to east of Aleppo city.
An AFP correspondent reported on Tuesday that government forces were bringing military reinforcements to the Deir Hafer area.
Subsequently, the SDF accused government forces of shelling Deir Hafer, where the villages of Humaymah and Zubaida are located.
For months, the two sides have exchanged accusations of undermining efforts to implement an agreement between them that was supposed to be completed by the end of 2025, which stipulated the integration of Kurdish autonomous administration institutions into the framework of the Syrian state.
On Sunday, the army took control of the entire city of Aleppo after expelling Kurdish fighters from two neighborhoods they had controlled: Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh.
SANA + AFP
