Syrian government, SDF order their troops to halt deadly clashes

Syria’s defense ministry and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ordered their troops to cease fire on Monday after clashes between the two sides in the northern city of Aleppo killed at least three people.

State news agency SANA cited the defense ministry as saying that the Syrian army’s general staff had issued “an order to stop targeting the sources of fire.”

The US-backed SDF meanwhile said they had “issued directives to our forces to cease responding to attacks.”

Earlier, the Syrian health ministry reported deaths and injuries in shelling by the SDF on residential neighborhoods in Aleppo. ⁠The injuries included two children and two civil defense workers.

Syrian state news agency SANA, citing the defense ministry, had earlier reported that the SDF launched a sudden attack on security forces and the army in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah neighborhoods of Aleppo, resulting in injuries.

The SDF denied this ‍and said the attack was carried out by factions affiliated with the Syrian government. It said those factions were using tanks and artillery against residential neighborhoods in the city.

The defense ministry denied the SDF’s statements, saying the army was responding to sources of fire from Kurdish forces.

Prior to the clashes, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said during a visit to Damascus on Monday that the SDF appeared to have no intention of honoring a commitment to integrate into the state’s armed forces by an agreed year-end deadline.

Turkey views the SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, as a terrorist organization and has warned of military action if the ‍group does not honor the agreement.