Syrians in Kurdish areas of Aleppo pick up pieces after clashes

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The battles in Aleppo between Syrian forces, who have reasserted control, and the SDF killed many and displaced about 155,000 people.

Syrians in Kurdish area of Aleppo pick up pieces after clashes

People walk past destroyed vehicles following a ceasefire which ended several days of fighting between Syrian forces and SDF. [Bakr Alkasem/AFP]

Published On 12 Jan 2026

Residents of a Kurdish neighbourhood in Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, have passed through government checkpoints to find blackened walls, burned-out vehicles and debris-strewn streets.

They returned home on Sunday after days of deadly clashes.

The fighting, which erupted in Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods on Tuesday after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on plans to integrate the SDF into the national army, killed dozens of people and displaced some 155,000, according to Syrian authorities.

The battles were the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

By Sunday, the government had taken full control of the two areas, having agreed to transfer SDF fighters from the districts to Kurdish autonomous regions in the country’s northeast.

The United Nations said it was trying to send more convoys to the neighbourhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgently needed supplies.

Syrians in Kurdish area of Aleppo pick up pieces after clashes

People return home in the Ashrafieh neighbourhood, in the northern city of Aleppo. [Omar Haj Kadour/AFP]

Syrians in Kurdish area of Aleppo pick up pieces after clashes

An armed security officer stands outside the Khaled Fajr Hospital in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood. [Bakr Alkasem/AFP]

Syrians in Kurdish area of Aleppo pick up pieces after clashes

The battles were the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. [Ahmad Fallaha/EPA]

Syrians in Kurdish area of Aleppo pick up pieces after clashes

The United Nations said it was trying to send more convoys to the neighbourhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgently needed supplies. [Bakr Alkasem/AFP]

Syrians in Kurdish area of Aleppo pick up pieces after clashes

The clashes erupted after negotiations to integrate the SDF into the national army stalled. [Bakr Alkasem/AFP]

Syrians in Kurdish area of Aleppo pick up pieces after clashes

A Syrian security officer stands next to munitions strewn on the ground following the ceasefire, in Sheikh Maqsoud. [Bakr Alkasem/AFP]

Syrians in Kurdish area of Aleppo pick up pieces after clashes

A Syrian security officer inspects a vehicle destroyed in a storage facility in Sheikh Maqsoud. [Bakr Alkasem/AFP]

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