Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party on Wednesday called Syrian government attacks on Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo an “extermination operation” after clashes between Damascus forces and Kurdish fighters killed at least nine people, most of them civilians.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) said in a statement from its Central Executive Board that Syrian government forces used tanks, artillery, howitzers and drones against the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah and also hit the nearby Beni Zeyd area, which it described as predominantly Assyrian.
The party cited what it described as a statement from Aleppo’s internal security forces and put the toll at seven civilians killed and at least 46 wounded. New reports put the death toll at 11 as of Wednesday.
The DEM Party alleged that several armed factions “known to receive support from” Turkey took part in the attacks, naming Hamzat, Emşat, Sultan Murad and Nurreddin Zengi.
The statement followed a flare-up on Tuesday that was among the deadliest bouts of violence in months between Syrian government forces and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led force that was a key partner in the fight against the Islamic State group.
The SDF said factions affiliated with the government targeted Sheikh Maqsoud and reported “indiscriminate artillery and missile shelling” along with drone use, sniper fire and heavy-weapon fire.
Syrian state media offered a different account.
In a statement carried by the Syrian Arab News Agency, the Syrian defense ministry accused the SDF of targeting neighborhoods adjacent to districts it controls.
The agency reported five people killed by SDF fire, four of them civilians including a child, along with one member of the defense ministry.
Syria’s agriculture ministry said two of the dead were workers at a research center, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
Civil aviation authorities announced the suspension of flights to and from Aleppo airport for 24 hours with diversions to Damascus airport, the agency reported.
Aleppo Governor Azzam al-Gharib announced that schools, universities and government offices in the city would be closed Wednesday and public events canceled, citing what the Syrian Arab News Agency described as “indiscriminate” SDF shelling that targeted hospitals and institutions.
The clashes come as implementation of a March 10 agreement to merge the Kurdish-led administration and its forces into Syria’s new Islamist-led government has largely stalled.
The integration deal was supposed to be implemented by the end of 2025.
The violence adds to uncertainty over the integration talks more than a year after the ouster of former president Bashar al-Assad.
The DEM Party said that under the March 10 agreement the SDF withdrew heavy weapons from the Kurdish neighborhoods in April 2025 and transferred security responsibilities to local internal forces.
It said the new attacks “nullify” the March 10 agreement.
The DEM Party urged mediators between the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, the Kurdish-led governing authority in parts of northern and eastern Syria, and the Damascus government to act as guarantors and halt the attacks.
It argued that Syria should be run through a joint administration based on equal rights and said attempts by Damascus to impose a centralized model would trigger new conflict.
The party compared the Aleppo attacks to earlier violence involving the Druze in Suwayda, a southern province with a large Druze population, and said a similar outcome was now being sought in Aleppo.
The flare-up also drew a response from Ankara.
In comments carried by Agence France-Presse, Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and “all affiliated groups” must stop “terrorist activity” including in Syria and “lay down their weapons without condition.”
“We will not allow any terrorist organization, particularly the PKK, the PYD, the YPG and the SDF, to establish a foothold in the region,” Güler said, using acronyms for Syrian Kurdish groups Turkey links to the PKK.
Turkey designates the PKK as a terrorist organization and says the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) dominate the SDF and operate as a PKK extension.
The PKK has fought the Turkish state for decades and earlier in 2025 agreed to end its armed campaign.
The SDF controls large parts of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast and was backed by a US-led coalition in the fight against the Islamic State group, which lost its last territorial enclave in Syria in 2019.
On Tuesday the SDF also accused government-affiliated factions of attacking Deir Hafer, about 50 kilometers east of Aleppo, and areas near the Tishreen Dam northeast of the city.
The SDF said it reserved the right to respond.
On Sunday SDF commander Mazloum Abdi had talks in Damascus on integrating the Kurdish-led forces, but Syrian state media reported no results.
Kurdish officials have pushed for decentralized rule in Syria, an idea Damascus has rejected.