Syrians in Kurdish areas of Aleppo pick up pieces after clashes

The battles in Aleppo between Syrian forces, who have reasserted control, and the SDF killed many and displaced about 155,000 people.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 2026Residents 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.People return home in the Ashrafieh neighbourhood, in the northern city of Aleppo. [Omar Haj Kadour/AFP]