Street Clashes Intensify in Aleppo’s Kurdish Neighborhood Amid Infiltration and Counter-Operations
Street clashes escalated in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsud as Asayish fighters conducted infiltration-style operations and temporary government forces attempted to enter residential buildings, with explosions and casualties reported on both sides amid conflicting claims over control.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Explosions echoed through Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood as street-level confrontations escalated, marked by infiltration-style operations and counter-attempts to penetrate residential buildings, underscoring the volatility gripping the area.
Local sources cited by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighters from the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) carried out infiltration-style operations, coinciding with attempts by groups affiliated with the temporary government forces to sneak into several residential buildings in Sheikh Maqsud. The developments were accompanied by the sound of successive explosions across the vicinity, with confirmed reports of killed and wounded on both sides as tensions persisted and intermittent clashes continued inside the neighborhood.
The latest fighting unfolds amid sharply conflicting narratives over control of Sheikh Maqsud. In an update, the Aleppo Internal Security Forces Media Center categorically rejected claims circulated by the so-called Ministry of Defense in the Damascus government alleging control over ninety percent of the neighborhood, describing the assertions as false and misleading and bearing no relation to realities on the ground.
According to the media center, Sheikh Maqsud’s axes are witnessing fierce street battles with militias affiliated with the Damascus government, during which significant losses have been inflicted on their ranks. In parallel, artillery and tank shelling continue to pound the neighborhood in what the statement described as a systematic pattern aimed at spreading fear among residents and destroying infrastructure, including hospitals, in flagrant violation of international and humanitarian laws and norms.
At the same time, SANA quoted a military source as saying that the Syrian Arab Army had completed sweeping more than ninety percent of Sheikh Maqsud’s area, highlighting the starkly divergent accounts surrounding the situation.
As infiltration operations, counter-movements, and shelling persist, Sheikh Maqsud remains locked in a tense standoff shaped by street battles and competing claims, with civilians caught amid an unstable and rapidly shifting battlefield.