The truce follows recent flare-up of violence in two Kurdish districts of Aleppo.
The Syrian government has agreed to a cease-fire with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led armed group, after clashes erupted over the weekend in the northwestern city of Aleppo.
Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said on Oct. 7 that he had met SDF commander Mazloum Abdi in Damascus, where they had agreed on a “comprehensive ceasefire … in northern and northeastern Syria.”
Implementation of the truce agreement “will begin immediately,” Abu Qasra wrote in a post on X.
The SDF was established in 2015 and helped U.S. forces deployed in the region to combat the ISIS terrorist group.
Since then, the SDF has carved out a sizable area of northeastern Syria where the central government in Damascus exerts little control.
In recent weeks, tensions have mounted between the SDF and Damascus despite an agreement signed in March that had called for integrating the Kurdish-led group into Syrian state institutions.
Those tensions erupted over the weekend when SDF fighters clashed with government forces in two Kurdish districts of Aleppo.
Damascus accused the SDF of staging attacks on security checkpoints on the city’s outskirts, killing one security officer and injuring three others.
According to Syria’s state-run SANA news agency, several civilians were also injured when the SDF targeted residential areas with machinegun and mortar fire.
SDF spokesman Farhad Shami denied the claims, saying the violence had been initiated by “factions affiliated with the interim government in Damascus.”
In remarks cited by Rudaw, an Iraqi-Kurdish news agency based in Erbil, Shami blamed the violence in Aleppo on “provocations” by Damascus-affiliated groups.
Rudaw also quoted the Asayish, a local Kurdish security force, as saying that it had repelled a wide-scale attack by forces aligned with Damascus.
As with the SDF, the Asayish works within the framework of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, a Kurdish administrative body that functions independently of Syria’s central government.
On Oct. 6, Syria’s Ministry of Defense said that recent movements by its forces in northern Syria had been part of a planned redeployment and did not amount to the launch of fresh military operations.
In a statement cited by SANA, the ministry said it had repositioned its forces following repeated attacks by the SDF on civilians and military personnel.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify claims made by either side.
By Adam Morrow
