"Through international mediation to halt the attacks and violations
against our people in Aleppo, we have reached an understanding leading
to a ceasefire and the safe evacuation of martyrs, the wounded, trapped
civilians, and fighters from the Achrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud
neighborhoods to northern and eastern Syria."
"]Now
we depend upon] mediators to uphold their promises to stop the
violations and work towards the safe return of the displaced to their
homes."
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi
"Violence
risks undermining the progress achieved since the fall of the Assad
regime and invites external interference that serves no party's
interests."
"We urge all parties
to exercise maximum restraint, immediately cease hostilities, and return
to dialogue."
"[Recent developments in Aleppo are] deeply concerning. [Washington's
objective] remains a sovereign, unified Syria — at peace with itself
and its neighbors — where equality, justice, and opportunity are
extended to all its people."
U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack 
| Buses carrying Kurdish fighters depart
Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood under an evacuation agreement following army
operations, with a four-bus convoy leaving the area and heading toward
Tabqa, in Aleppo, Syria, on Jan. 10, 2026.
Izz Aldien Alqasem/Anadolu via Getty Images
|
When
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant established its presence in a
third each of Syria and Iraq, terrorizing both countries and intent on
increasing the third of each territory that it had gained to eventually
establish a complete Islamist terror state, while it preyed on the
residents' fears of the occupiers' barbaric reign as it released 'public
relations' videos of beheadings of Westerners captured in the region of
their Caliphate, burned captured regional prisoners alive, living up to
their fearsome reputations as mass murderers, the Syrian and Iraqi
militaries fled in panic as ISIL steadily advanced.
While
the terrorist army went about hunting down, persecuting the ethnic and
religious minorities in the territories they occupied, killing and
abducting Yazidi men and women, striking lethally at Christians and
others, it was only among the Kurds that these desperate victims of
Islamist terror found protection from the death-strikes that stalked the
land, and haven where their lives would be protected.
As
for any campaigns to wrest territory away from the ISIL predatory
killers, and to protect the population from their ongoing terror
campaigns, it was the Kurdish militias, the Peshmerga and others who
confronted the Islamist hordes of terrorists. The U.S. recognized their
mettle and dedication to countering the universally dreaded Islamic
State operatives and their leaders, supporting the Kurds, even while
Turkey gave the Islamists cover, and focused on using their troops to
challenge the Kurdish presence both in Turkey and in Syria.
 |
| Security forces affiliated with
the Ministry of the Interior stand guard in the Ashrafieh neighbourhood,
which they have taken control of, according to the Interior Ministry,
following battles with the Syrian Democratic Forces, in Aleppo, Syria,
January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri |
When
the Islamic State was finally defeated, its Caliphate disbanded, its
operatives fanning out elsewhere to continue their ravenous hunt against
vulnerable populations elsewhere, heading to Afghanistan, to Africa, it
was the Syrian Democratic Forces that were left to imprison and guard
Islamic State fighters that had been taken prisoner, as well as their
Islamic State wives and children in camps like Al-Hol, holding mostly
foreign-sourced fighters in the hopes that their countries of origin
would repatriate them. Having served the purpose of saving the world
from an ever-expanding Islamic State curse, the Kurds are now left in
Syria to their own devices as a former al-Qaeda chief agent and ISIL
familiar presides over Syria.
The West
has abandoned all caution, set aside suspicion of a man dedicated to
Islamofascism suddenly transformed to a Syrian unifier, claiming that
since the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, it is time
for Syria to become whole, to heal itself, accept its minority
populations as fully equal in value with the majority Sunnis who under
Assad had been ruled by the minority Shiite Alawites. Believing the
former Islamist leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani, now transformed to
President Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa to have been legitimately changed to a peace-loving unified-Syrian-dedicated saviour, the West has embraced him.
Unfortunately
for the Syrian minorities formerly targeted by Islamic State, the new
Syrian military answerable to al-Sharaa and his government is comprised
in part of former Islamic State members whose Sunni sensibilities view
the minority Alawite population as ripe for revenge. Islamist Sunni
terrorist units aligned with the government's military have mounted
atrocities against Alawites and Christians, Druze and Kurds, reflecting a
true picture of Syria today. And now that discussions between the
government and the Syrian Democratic Forces to be integrated into the
Syrian military have bogged down with disagreements, government forces
have attacked to areas in Aleppo held by Kurds.
 |
| People evacuate from Sheikh Maksoud neighbourhood following collapse of an agreement between the Syrian government and the
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in Aleppo, Syria, January 10, 2026.
REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi |
Authorities
in Syria had evacuated residents from contested areas in Aleppo, as
violent clashes between government and Kurdish forces have resulted from
those disagreements. In essence, the 'government forces' comprised of
Islamist operatives have been attacking Kurdish-held neighbourhoods of
Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafiah and Bani Zaide in 'targeted operations'
against the Syrian Democratic Forces. Under shelling by the Syrian army
targeting the Kurdish population of Aleppo, close to 140,000 people have
been displaced.
Mohamamad Ali, operations director with the Syrian Civil Defence in Aleppo explained "There's a large percentage of them [those displaced], with difficult medical issues, elderly people, women, and children".
Each side accuses the other of targeting civilian neighbourhoods and
infrastructure. Exchanges of shelling and drone strikes took place, with
tanks rolling into the contested neighbourhoods.
The
Damascus leadership under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa continues
to comport itself with methods startlingly similar to those of Islamic
State in its relations with Syrian minority groups. Kurdistan, like
other areas of Syria, but different in that it is an autonomous region
dedicated to the Kurdish population, is receiving undue treatment by
government forces despite the March agreement with the SDF to merge with
the Syrian army, and differences in just how that will be accomplished
does not sit well with al-Sharaa, the Syrian unifier.
 |
| The renewed clashes in Aleppo have seen thousands of civilians flee the city in recent days. |
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