Fighting continues in Syria’s Aleppo Governorate east of the city of Aleppo but west of the Euphrates River, as the Syrian military tries to seize the area from the Kurdish SDF forces that have had control over it largely throughout the past decade.
The Syrian Army has announced the creation of a humanitarian corridor out of the area and is pushing civilians to evacuate from the towns of Deir Hafer and Maskana, as well as the rest of the surrounding area.
Fighting between the Army and the SDF erupted in Deir Hafer last week, with both sides trading the blame over who started it. The fighting then spread to Aleppo city, and was meant to end with a temporary ceasefire that seemingly lasted less than 24 hours before fighting resumed, again, in Deir Hafer.
The military has declared the entire Kurdish-controlled area east of Aleppo a “closed military zone” at this point and is calling in reinforcements to try to seize the area, after the fighting in Aleppo city nominally gave them control over the Kurdish neighborhoods of the city, even if permanently holding those neighborhoods is another matter entirely.
Multiple roads east of Aleppo are now closed “for security reasons” and the army has issued a statement advising civilians to “stay away from Kurdish positions” and demanding that the armed Kurdish faction move east of the Euphrates River.
The SDF claimed the army’s strikes overnight included attacks on a post office and a bakery in Deir Hafer. Kurdish official Elham Ahmad said the actions of the Syrian military recently amount to a “declaration of war” against the Kurdish northeast.
