The Japan Times - Syria threatens to bomb Kurdish district in Aleppo as fighters refuse to evacuate

The government and Kurdish forces have traded blame over who started the violence in Syria's second city on Tuesday as they struggle to implement a deal to merge the Kurds' de facto autonomous administration and military into the country's new government.

At least 21 people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled the worst clashes in Aleppo since Syria's new Islamist authorities took power, with the fighting presenting yet another challenge for a country struggling to forge a new path since the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad a year ago.

Early on Friday, Syrian authorities announced a truce with Kurdish forces linked to the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and said fighters and their light weapons would be sent to Kurdish areas further east.

But Kurdish fighters rejected any "surrender" and said they would stay and defend their districts.

Later on Friday, Syria's army warned it would renew strikes on the Kurdish-majority district of Sheikh Maqsud and urged residents to evacuate, publishing maps of what it said were military targets and urging Kurdish fighters to lay down their weapons.

An AFP correspondent saw residents laden with belongings fleeing before a two-hour humanitarian corridor closed at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT).

- 'Apply pressure' -

The Kurds then said in a statement the neighbourhood was coming "under intense and heavy shelling".

State television accused the Kurds of launching drones on residential areas of Aleppo.

Turkey's Defence Minister Yasar Guler welcomed the government operation, saying "we view Syria's security as our own security and that we support Syria's fight against terrorist organisations".

Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite Kurdish fighters agreeing to withdraw from the areas in April.

The SDF controls swathes of Syria's oil-rich north and northeast, and was key to the defeat of the Islamic State group in 2019. But Ankara views their main component as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which earlier this year agreed to end its four-decade armed struggle against Turkey.

Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration in Syria's northeast, accused Syria's authorities of "choosing the path of war" by attacking Kurdish districts in Aleppo and of "seeking to put an end to the agreements that have been reached. We are committed to them and we are seeking to implement them".

The March integration agreement was meant to be implemented last year, but differences, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule, have stymied progress.

Ahmad said that "the United States is playing a mediating role... we hope they will apply pressure to reach an agreement".

A diplomatic source told AFP that US envoy Tom Barrack was headed to Damascus.

- 'More coercive' leverage -

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed the situation in a telephone call with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and said he was determined to "end the illegal armed presence" in the city, a Syrian presidency statement said.

Turkey, which shares a 900-kilometre (550-mile) border with Syria, has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.

Separately, French President Emmanuel Macron told Sharaa of his country's keenness on a united Syria "where all society's components are represented and protected", a French foreign ministry statement said.

Paris urged the implementation of the March integration deal, and is seeking to facilitate dialogue between the government and the SDF in coordination with Washington, the statement added.

Syria's authorities have committed to protecting minorities, but sectarian bloodshed rocked the country's Alawite and Druze communities last year.

Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the clashes "are testing the already fragile Damascus–SDF integration framework" and "highlighting the growing gap between the framework on paper and realities on the ground".

"The turn to military pressure reflects a shift away from technical negotiation toward more coercive forms of leverage," Hawach said in a statement.

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K.Abe--JT