Syrian army tells Kurdish forces to withdraw from area east of Aleppo

Syria's Islamist government is seeking to extend its authority across the country, and progress has stalled on integrating the Kurds' de facto autonomous administration and forces into the central government under a deal reached last March.

In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country's northeast, thousands of people demonstrated against the Aleppo violence, with some burning pictures of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, an AFP correspondent said.

Syrian state television published an army statement with a map declaring a large area east of Aleppo city a "closed military zone" and said "all armed groups in this area must withdraw to east of the Euphrates" River.

The area, controlled by Kurdish forces, extends from near Deir Hafer, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Aleppo, to the Euphrates about 30 kilometres further east, as well as towards the south.

On Monday, Syria accused the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of sending reinforcements to Deir Hafer and said it sent its own personnel there in response.

The SDF is the de facto army of the Kurds' semi-autonomous administration and controls swathes of the country's oil-rich north and northeast, much of which it captured during Syria's civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group.

An AFP correspondent saw government forces transporting reinforcements including air defence batteries and artillery towards Deir Hafer on Tuesday.

Kurdish forces denied any build-up of their personnel around Deir Hafer and accused the government of attacking the town, while state television said SDF sniper fire there killed one person.
'Bloodshed'
Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration, said government forces were "preparing themselves for another attack".

"The real intention is a full-scale attack" against Kurdish-held areas, she told an online press conference, accusing the government of having made a "declaration of war" and breaking the March agreement on integrating Kurdish forces.

"These assaults should stop," she said, adding that if guarantees were provided "for the security of the civilian population, we are ready to continue the negotiation and dialogue", suggesting the United Nations or other international organisations also take part.

But, she added, "We will defend ourselves."

Syria's government took full control of Aleppo city over the weekend after capturing its Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh neighbourhoods and evacuating fighters there to Kurdish-controlled areas in the northeast.

Both sides traded blame over who started the violence last Tuesday that ultimately killed dozens of people and displaced tens of thousands.

In Qamishli, shops were shut in a general strike and thousands protested to voice their anger at the Aleppo fighting, some carrying Kurdish flags and banners in support of the SDF and its chief Mazloum Abdi.

"Leave, Jolani!" they shouted, referring to President Sharaa by his former nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

"This government has not honoured its commitments towards any Syrians," said cafe owner Joudi Ali.

"There has been bloodshed since it took power, like the Alawite and Druze massacres," the 29-year-old told AFP, referring to sectarian violence last year involving the two minority communities.
PKK, Turkey
Other protesters burned portraits of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, whose country has lauded the Syrian government's Aleppo operation "against terrorist organisations".

Turkey has long been hostile to the SDF, seeing it as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and a major threat along its southern border.

Last year, the PKK announced an end to its long-running armed struggle against the Turkish state and began destroying its weapons, but Ankara has insisted that the move include armed Kurdish groups in Syria.

On Tuesday, the PKK called the "attack on the Kurdish neighbourhoods in Aleppo" an attempt to sabotage peace efforts between it and Ankara.

A day earlier, Ankara's ruling party levelled the same accusation against Kurdish fighters.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 45 civilians and 60 soldiers and fighters from both sides killed in the Aleppo violence.

Aleppo civil defence official Faysal Mohammad told AFP on Tuesday that emergency workers had pulled 50 bodies from the two Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods since the end of fighting, without saying whether they were combatants or civilians.

mam-strs-lg/smw