The outbreak of clashes between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has highlighted the political and security challenges the country continues to face more than a year after the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n
The fighting in Aleppo, which has killed at least 22 people this week, brought to the forefront fundamental tensions between Damascus and the SDF \u2013 both of which are backed by the United States.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The SDF and the Syrian government had signed an agreement to integrate the Syrian-dominated forces into a state institution in March of last year. But little progress has been made on that front, and the sporadic violence between the two sides turned into intense fighting this week.<\/p>\n A truce to halt the clashes was announced on Friday, but it appears to be already unravelling. Analysts warn that without a comprehensive resolution to the tensions, more fighting is all but inevitable.<\/p>\n While it appears that there is no domestic or international appetite for an all-out war in Syria, experts say that with the merger of the SDF \u2013 which controls large parts of northeast Syria \u2013 into the state stalled, the threat of renewed violence persists.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a lot of international interest in major fighting at the moment, especially from the US side \u2014 so that could help tamp things down,\u201d said Aron Lund, a fellow at Century International.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s far from over, however. All the main issues remain unresolved, and neither side is willing to compromise on fundamentals, so we\u2019re going to see more clashes eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n This week\u2019s fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people in the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh and Bani Zeid neighbourhoods, with both sides accusing each other of initiating the violence.<\/p>\n Early on Friday, the Syrian Ministry of Defence announced a six-hour temporary ceasefire in the three neighbourhoods, which was later extended to give the SDF fighters more time to leave.<\/p>\n Syria\u2019s Defence Ministry said SDF fighters based in Aleppo\u2019s neighbourhoods will be redeployed to areas east of the Euphrates River.<\/p>\n However, \u2060Kurdish councils that run Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh said in a statement that calls to leave were \u201ca call to surrender\u201d and that Kurdish forces would instead \u201cdefend their neighbourhoods\u201d.<\/p>\n The fighting casts its shadow over the March 2025 deal between Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa\u2019s government and the SDF to bring the Kurdish-led forces under state institutions.<\/p>\n The agreement provides for a nationwide ceasefire, SDF cooperation with the state in confronting pro-al-Assad armed groups, and formal recognition of the Kurds as an integral part of Syria, with guaranteed citizenship and constitutional rights.<\/p>\n It also places all border crossings with Iraq and Turkiye, along with airports and oilfields in northeastern Syria, under the authority of the central government.<\/p>\n So far, no meaningful progress has been made towards integration. Both sides remain at odds over a number of issues, including the process and structure of integration, for example, whether the SDF would join as a unified bloc or dissolve into individual recruits.<\/p>\n A meeting on January 4 between senior SDF commanders and government officials concluded with no \u201ctangible\u201d outcomes according to state media, with talks suspended pending further negotiation.<\/p>\n The SDF rose to prominence as Syria began to fragment under the strain of civil unrest in 2011.<\/p>\n It was officially established in 2015, with the People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia linked to the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK), forming the bulk of its fighting force.<\/p>\n Despite the PKK being listed as a \u201cterrorist\u201d group by the US and most Western countries, Washington quickly allied itself with the SDF in the fight against ISIL (ISIS).<\/p>\n The group continues to be backed by a US-led international coalition and retains advanced equipment and training that were provided by the US and its partners.<\/p>\n It is estimated to have 50,000 to 90,000 well-trained, battle-hardened fighters.<\/p>\n But Turkiye, which struggled with a decades-long PKK rebellion and attacks, views the SDF as a threat to its security.<\/p>\n In the recent clashes, official Syrian government media outlets have referred to the SDF as \u201cPKK terrorists\u201d.<\/p>\n With Turkiye, a NATO ally of the US, distrustful of the SDF, the country\u2019s defence ministry has said it is ready to \u201csupport\u201d Syria in its fight against the group.<\/p>\n Ankara, an ally of al-Sharaa\u2019s government, has criticised Washington for years over its support for the SDF and launched several military operations in northern Syria to push the group off its border.<\/p>\n The intensifying rivalry between Turkiye and Israel has also raised concerns that the Israeli government may put its weight behind the SDF to provide a counterweight to Ankara\u2019s influence in Syria.<\/p>\n Israel has already intervened in the internal Syrian conflict when it bombed Damascus in July in support of Druze fighters battling government forces in the south of the country.<\/p>\n The Israeli military has also expanded its occupation beyond the Golan Heights, and it has been establishing checkpoints and abducting people deep inside Syria\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n The US, which has troops stationed in eastern Syria, is allied with all the parties involved: Turkiye, Israel, the Syrian government and the SDF.<\/p>\n And so, Washington has been trying to mediate between all the sides. Last week, Syria and Israel agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism after US-brokered talks.<\/p>\n US envoy Tom Barrack has urged the \u201cutmost restraint\u201d after the clashes in Aleppo and hailed the short-lived ceasefire.<\/p>\n \u201cTogether with our allies and responsible regional partners, we stand ready to facilitate efforts to de-escalate tensions and to afford Syria and its people a renewed opportunity to choose the path of dialogue over division,\u201d Barrack said in a statement calling for de-escalation from all sides.<\/p>\n \u201cLet us prioritize the exchange of ideas and constructive proposals over the exchange of fire. The future of Aleppo, and of Syria as a whole, belongs to its people and must be shaped through peaceful means, not violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said with both the government and SDF maintaining relationships with the US, it could limit the risk of the March agreement\u2019s total collapse, saying it keeps a \u201cceiling on escalation\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerican involvement does not guarantee resolution, but it constrains the range of outcomes and keeps both parties tethered to a negotiating framework neither can afford to abandon,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera\u2019s Ayman Oghanna said Washington can \u201cdo the most\u201d to boost talks between the Syrian government and the SDF.<\/p>\n \u201cThe US has enjoyed a strong relationship with the SDF for over a decade. The US helped build up and train the SDF, it fought alongside the SDF, and 1,000 US troops remain in SDF territory where they work closely together in the effort to eradicate ISIL from Syria,\u201d Oghanna said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the US has also recently strengthened its ties with Damascus.\u201d<\/p>\n Rob Geist Pinfold, an international security lecturer at King\u2019s College London, said the temporary ceasefire in Aleppo simply pushes \u201cthe more complicated issues\u201d down the road.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, we\u2019ve got a temporary ceasefire \u2026 which makes everyone\u2019s lives better, but this means that we are arguably further away from getting to a comprehensive deal.\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, Lund, the analyst, warned that more clashes could lead to a wider escalation.<\/p>\n \u201cUnless this situation is managed well, it could prompt foreign interventions and worsen the already bad relationship between Israel and Turkiye,\u201d Lund told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Some analysts have said the key is more talks and less violence.<\/p>\n Armenak Tokmajyan, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, argued that military pressure alone will not resolve Syria\u2019s fragmentation.<\/p>\n \u201cReintegration \u2026 cannot happen just with force,\u201d he told Al Jazeera, stressing the need for a multi-pronged strategy, including an inclusive national framework.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of these armed groups don\u2019t want to lay down their weapons because they don\u2019t know what this state will look like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The outbreak of clashes between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has highlighted the political and security challenges the country continues to face more than a year after the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad. The fighting in Aleppo, which has killed at least 22 people this week, brought to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
The clashes<\/h2>\n
![\"Interactive_Syria_control_oil_gas_Jan9_2026\"](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Interactive_Syria_control_oil_gas_Jan9_2026-01-1767954259.png?quality=80\")
The SDF<\/h2>\n
Regional influences<\/h2>\n
US \u2018can do the most\u2019<\/h2>\n
What comes next?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"