Syria on Friday announced a cease-fire after three days of clashes with the U.S.-backed PKK/YPG terrorist group in the northern city of Aleppo that displaced thousands of people.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement that the cease-fire was effective at 3 a.m. local time in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid and gave the terrorist group six hours to leave the area.
It said departing terrorists would be allowed to carry their "personal light weapons" and would be provided with an escort to the country's northeast, east of the Euphrates River, which is occupied by the PKK/YPG.
Aleppo Governor Azzam al-Gharib toured the contested neighborhoods with an escort of security forces overnight.
There was no immediate public response from the YPG, and it was not clear if the terrorists in Aleppo had agreed to the deal.
The U.S. ambassador to Türkiye and special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, welcomed the announcement in a statement on X and extended "profound gratitude to all parties – the Syrian government, the Syrian Democratic Forces, local authorities, and community leaders – for the restraint and goodwill that made this vital pause possible."
Barrack said the U.S. was working with the parties to extend the cease-fire beyond the six-hour deadline.
The PKK/YPG, which uses the SDF name in Syria, has carried out multiple attacks across Aleppo since Dec. 6 after occupying several areas in the city. Damascus had previously called on the group to adhere to agreements and halt its attacks.
The terrorist group has also targeted civilian residential areas in Aleppo, killing nine Syrians and wounding 55 others, most of them civilians, since Dec. 6, according to local authorities.
Some 142,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, which broke out Tuesday with exchanges of shelling and drone strikes.
The clashes come amid an impasse in political negotiations between the central state and the YPG.
The leadership in Damascus under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa had signed a deal in March last year with the YPG, 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.
The YPG has, for years, been the main U.S. partner in Syria under the pretext of fighting Daesh terrorists. It established a self-styled autonomous administration in the northeast and parts of Aleppo during Syria’s civil war. The group continues to insist on decentralization and autonomy in the regions it occupies.
Türkiye considers the YPG an extension of the PKK terrorist group, which has waged a decades-long terror campaign in Türkiye, killing at least 40,000 people. An initiative is underway to disarm and dissolve the group.
Despite the long-running U.S. support for the YPG, the Trump administration in the U.S. has also developed close ties with al-Sharaa's government and has pushed the YPG to implement the March deal. Several meetings held until last week with U.S. and Syrian officials ended without tangible results. Diplomats warn that failure to integrate the YPG into Syria’s army risks further violence.
Türkiye supports efforts aimed at strengthening security and stability, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told al-Sharaa over the phone on Thursday night, the Syrian Presidency said.
Earlier, Ankara warned the YPG’s insistence on autonomy in Syria was an obstacle to Syria’s stability and called on it to abandon the campaign of terrorism and separatist activities.