Syria announces ceasefire after days of clashes with Kurdish fighters in
Aleppo
[January 09, 2026]
By OMAR ALBAM and GHAITH ALSAYED
ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — Syria's Defense Ministry announced a ceasefire on
Friday after three days of clashes between government forces and Kurdish
fighters in the northern city of Aleppo that displaced tens of thousands
of people.
There was no immediate public response from the Kurdish-led Syrian
Democratic Forces, while a local Kurdish council rejected calls for the
evacuation of fighters.
The ministry statement said the ceasefire was effective at 3 a.m. in the
neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid and gave armed
groups six hours to leave the area.
It said departing militants would be allowed to carry their “personal
light weapons” and would be provided with an escort to the country's
northeast, which is controlled by the SDF.
Aleppo Governor Azzam al-Gharib toured the contested neighborhoods with
an escort of security forces overnight.
However, in the hours after the announcement, no fighters departed.
Buses lined up to evacuate militants remained empty hours after the
deadline.
Associated Press journalists at the scene said a burst of machine-gun
fire targeted the location the buses had entered from, and an artillery
shell landed on the road, but calm quickly returned.
A local council representing the Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh
neighborhoods issued a statement saying, “We will not accept the
pressures imposed on us and the calls for surrender.”
“We do not trust the Damascus government to entrust our security to us,
and we have decided to remain in our neighborhoods and defend them,” it
said.
U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack welcomed the ceasefire announcement in a
statement on X and extended “profound gratitude to all parties — the
Syrian government, the Syrian Democratic Forces, local authorities, and
community leaders — for the restraint and goodwill that made this vital
pause possible.”
Barrack said the U.S. was working with the parties to extend the
ceasefire beyond the six-hour deadline.
Some 142,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, which broke out
Tuesday with exchanges of shelling and drone strikes.
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Members of Syrian government forces deploy on the streets as they
take over the Achrafieh neighborhood from Kurdish fighters during
ongoing clashes that erupted Tuesday in a contested area of the
northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP
Photo/Omar Albam)
Each side has accused the other of starting the violence and of
deliberately targeting civilian neighborhoods and infrastructure,
including ambulance crews and hospitals.
Kurdish forces said at least 12 civilians were killed in the
Kurdish-majority neighborhoods, while government officials reported
at least nine civilians were killed in the surrounding
government-controlled areas in the fighting.
Dozens more on both sides have been wounded. It was not clear how
many fighters were killed on each side.
The clashes come amid an impasse in political negotiations between
the central state and the SDF.
The leadership in Damascus under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa
had signed a deal in March last year with the SDF, which controls
much of the northeast, for it to merge with the Syrian army by the
end of 2025. There have been disagreements on how it would happen.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, formed after
the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in
December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that
have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF has for years been the main U.S. partner in Syria in
fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the
SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running
insurgency in Turkey. A peace process is now underway.
Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump
administration in the U.S. has also developed close ties with al-Sharaa’s
government and has pushed the Kurds to implement the March deal.
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