Displaced Aleppo residents return home after days of intense clashes

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — Hundreds of displaced residents returned Monday to an Aleppo neighborhood in northern Syria after days of intense fighting between government forces and Kurdish fighters.

The clashes, which killed at least 23 people and displaced tens of thousands, broke out on Jan. 6 in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Achrafieh, Sheikh Maqsoud and Bani Zeid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on implementation of a deal that would merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured the three neighborhoods.

On Monday, armed security forces stood guard as traffic flowed normally through the streets of Achrafieh, while buses carried displaced families back to the neighborhood. Many shops had reopened, although residents complained about electricity cuts.

Jamal al-Youssef, an Arab resident, fled with his family for about four days because of the fighting. He said he welcomed the departure of the Kurdish fighters and the government’s exertion of control over the neighborhood.

“We’ve been waiting for this to happen for a long time, not just recently,” al-Youssef said, but added quickly that there was no issue between Arab and Kurdish civilians in the area. “We have three or four Kurdish families in my building and we don’t feel there’s any difference between us.”

The majority of some 148,000 displaced people had fled to the district of Afrin in the northwest of Aleppo province. About 10 buses carrying 700 families returned to Achrafieh on Monday, said Masoud Battal, director of the Afrin region for the Syrian government.

“I left Achrafieh five days ago. I was in Afrin and now we’re returning to our homes, thank God,” said Mohammed Sheikho, who was on one of the buses.

Meanwhile, crews were combing through the neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud to decommission leftover explosives and tow away destroyed vehicles blocking the roads. Security forces were also inspecting tunnels under the neighborhood that appeared to have been used by fighters.

Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, formed after the ouster 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.

Last week’s fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes amid shelling and drone strikes.

Hundreds of Kurdish fighters evacuated from the contested area in Aleppo to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF, over the weekend under a deal reached between the SDF and government authorities.

However, tensions remained high between the two sides.

Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported Monday evening that the Syrian army sent reinforcements to the deployment line east of Aleppo after seeing a buildup of SDF forces in the eastern Aleppo countryside near the towns of Maskana and Deir Hafer.

The SDF said in a statement that “there are no military movements or troop buildups by our forces in the aforementioned areas, and that all circulating claims are entirely unfounded.” It accused the government of an “attempt to manufacture tension and create pretexts for escalation.”