The deadliest fighting in months broke out on Tuesday in northern Aleppo as Syrian government forces and Kurdish-led fighters exchanged fire, underscoring the fragile state of efforts to merge the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into the national army.
Syria’s state media said a soldier was killed and three others wounded in an attack it blamed on the SDF.
State television later reported that three civilians, including two women, were killed and several others wounded among them two children during shelling of a residential area.
Officials also said nine employees of Aleppo’s Directorate of Agriculture were injured when its offices were hit.
The SDF denied responsibility for the shelling that killed civilians and said a shell fired by factions affiliated with the Damascus government landed in the al-Midan neighborhood while targeting the nearby Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud.
The group accused government forces of indiscriminate attacks on residential areas.
According to the SDF, a government drone strike killed one resident of Sheikh Maqsoud and wounded two children.
While shelling in the nearby Bani Zaid area killed a woman and injured dozens. These incidents were not acknowledged by state media.
At Aleppo’s Al-Razi Hospital, families waited anxiously for news of the wounded. One father said his four-year-old daughter lost an eye after being hit by shrapnel.
Activists reported that thousands of civilians in Kurdish neighborhoods were effectively besieged and exposed to heavy shelling.
The clashes come as negotiations over integrating the SDF into Syria’s military remain stalled.
The interim government signed a deal in March with the SDF to complete the merger by the end of 2025, but disagreements persist.
Talks in Damascus this week failed to produce a breakthrough.
Both sides accused each other of trying to derail the agreement. Syria’s Defense Ministry said the SDF was provoking confrontation, while the SDF accused government forces of violating international humanitarian law by deliberately targeting civilian areas and infrastructure.
By Tuesday evening, a tense calm returned to parts of Aleppo, but the renewed fighting highlighted how fragile the political and security arrangements remain.
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