Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) exchanged fire on Tuesday in a tense area in eastern Aleppo province, marking a possible new escalation after earlier clashes.
No casualties were immediately reported by the warring sides. The Syrian army earlier declared an area east of the northern city of Aleppo, the country’s second largest, as a “closed military zone.”
Eastern Aleppo province has been a tense frontline that has acted as a divider between areas under Syrian government control and the large swaths of northeastern Syria held by the SDF.
The renewed fighting near Aleppo is one of several instances since the 2024 fall of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in which the new Syrian army has engaged in violence against minority groups. It has killed thousands in massacres and clashes with local militias in Kurdish, Druze and Alawite areas.
In an interview with the Hebrew outlet Ynet on Tuesday, a Syrian Druze spiritual leader accused the new Syrian government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, of committing “genocide” during deadly fighting last year in the heavily Druze area of Sweida, in which hundreds of civilians were killed. Hikmat al-Hijri called for Syrian Druze to gain autonomy under the protective umbrella of Israel, which intervened in the Sweida clashes in July, striking Syrian government targets.
“It’s no secret that Israel was the only country in the world that intervened militarily and saved us from a genocide as it was happening,” Hijri told Ynet. He called the current Syrian government “ISIS-esque” and “a direct successor of al-Qaeda.”
“We see ourselves as an inseparable part of Israel’s system of existence, as an arm that has forged an alliance with Israel. The ties are international and significant,” he said, adding that Israel could act as a “guarantor” for “future arrangements” and the “appropriate power” to oversee a transition to Druze self-rule in Syria, which Hijri hopes will be a stepping-stone to full independence.
Journalist @EinavHalabi has strongly criticized what she described as widespread distortion by many newspapers and media outlets of her interview with Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Syria. In a statement posted on X, she said:
“As usual,… pic.twitter.com/BeP0CRVqiQ
— ME24 – Middle East 24 (@MiddleEast_24) January 13, 2026
The clashes around Aleppo have come as the SDF has also resisted integrating with the Syrian army. In a statement, the SDF said government forces had started shelling Deir Hafer. The Kurdish-led group later said government troops launched exploding drones, artillery and rockets at a village south of Deir Hafer.
Syrian state television later said the SDF targeted the village of Homeima on the other side of the Deir Hafer frontline with exploding drones.
Several days of clashes in Aleppo last week, which displaced tens of thousands of people, came to an end over the weekend with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters from the contested neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud. Aleppo Governor Azzam Ghareeb said Damascus now has full control of the areas of Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh where the clashes took place.
Syrian officials have accused the SDF of building up its forces near the towns of Maskana and Deir Hafer, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of Aleppo city. SANA, the state news agency, reported that the army had declared the area a closed military zone because of “continued mobilization” by the SDF and accused the group of using the area as a launchpad for drone attacks in Aleppo.
The army, in its statement, said the armed groups should withdraw east of the Euphrates River, which runs east of Aleppo.
A drone hit the Aleppo governorate building on Saturday shortly after two cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference on the developments in the city. The SDF has denied mobilizing in the area or being behind the attack.
Buses carrying displaced residents drive past a building in ruins as they return to the Achrafieh neighborhood after days of fighting between government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, January 12, 2026. (AP/Omar Albam)
The leadership in Damascus, under al-Sharaa, signed a deal in March with the SDF, which controls much of the northeast, for it to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025. There have been disagreements on how it would happen.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF has for years been the main US partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, known as ISIS. But Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey. A peace process is now underway.
Displaced residents return to the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood after days of fighting between government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, January 13, 2026. (AP/Ghaith Alsayed)
Despite the long-running US support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with al-Sharaa’s government and has pushed the Kurds to implement the March deal.
Shams TV, a broadcaster based in Irbil — the seat of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region — had been set to air an interview with al-Sharaa on Monday but later announced it had been postponed for “technical” reasons, without giving a new date for the broadcast.
Trump has also pushed Israel to reach an accord with Syria. IDF forces occupied several points in southern Syria following the fall of Assad, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries. Two posts are on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.
Troops have operated in areas up to around 15 kilometers (nine miles) inside Syria, aiming to capture weapons that Israel says could pose a threat to the country if they fall into the hands of “hostile forces.”
