Damascus: Clashes between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday left at least five people dead, with both sides accusing each other of initiating the violence.

According to Syria’s state news agency SANA, SDF fighters targeted an area near the Shihan roundabout, killing a member of the defence ministry. The agency later reported that three civilians, including two women, were killed after what it described as SDF shelling of residential buildings in Aleppo’s Al-Midan neighbourhood.

The SDF rejected those claims, saying in a statement that groups affiliated with the Syrian government had targeted the Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood using a reconnaissance drone. The group said the attack killed one resident and wounded two others.

Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh, two Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods in Aleppo, remain under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite an earlier agreement under which Kurdish fighters were to withdraw from the areas in April.

In a separate incident, the SDF accused factions affiliated with the Syrian army of attacking the town of Deir Hafer, around 50 kilometres east of Aleppo and close to the strategically important Tishreen Dam. The Kurdish-led force said it reserved the right to respond to what it called legitimate threats.

The violence comes amid stalled efforts to implement a March agreement aimed at merging the Kurds’ semi-autonomous civil administration and military structures into Syria’s new Islamist-led government. The deal was supposed to be finalised by the end of 2025, but progress has been slow and sporadic.

The SDF controls large parts of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast and played a central role, with backing from a US-led international coalition, in defeating the Islamic State group territorially in 2019. Integrating the force into the Syrian state following the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last year has proved complex.

On Sunday, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi held further talks with officials in Damascus, but Syrian state media said the discussions produced no concrete outcomes. Kurdish leaders continue to push for a decentralised political system, a demand firmly rejected by Syria’s new authorities.

Similar clashes in Aleppo last month also killed five people, underscoring how unresolved political and military arrangements continue to fuel instability in post-Assad Syria.
(With AFP inputs)