The Syrian army on Tuesday told the U.S.-backed terrorist group YPG, the Syrian wing of the PKK, to withdraw from an area east of Aleppo.
An army statement, accompanied by a map, declared a large area a “closed military zone” and called all armed groups in the said area to withdraw from the east of the Euphrates River.
The army declared two neighborhoods of Aleppo as a “closed military zone” last week amid clashes with the YPG and subsequently, launched operations to weed out YPG forces. The operation was a success in repelling the YPG from the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods of Aleppo.
Also on Tuesday, the YPG detonated a strategic bridge in the northern countryside of Aleppo, Syrian media reported. Alikhbariyah TV said that the bridge was blown up in Am Teenah village, north of Aleppo city.
According to the broadcaster, the bombed bridge separates the YPG-controlled areas from those held by the Syrian government.
The YPG controls several areas east of the Euphrates and was accused of dragging its feet to implement a March 2025 deal with Damascus for integration into the post-Assad Syrian army. The group hopes to keep its self-styled autonomy east of the Euphrates alive, while the new Damascus administration seeks a centralized, unified Syria.
The Syrian army on Monday called the deployment of armed groups by the YPG in the eastern Aleppo province a "dangerous escalation," warning that any action by these groups would be met with "a violent response."
"We are conducting a direct and immediate assessment of the situation on the ground," the army's Operations Command said in a statement on Monday. The command said that intelligence showed that these new reinforcements include fighters from the PKK and remnants of the former regime.
"We will not stand idly by in the face of this dangerous escalation," the command warned.
A military source told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) that new reinforcements of the Syrian army have arrived at deployment points in Deir Hafer and Maskanah in the eastern Aleppo countryside.
Since last Tuesday, the YPG shelled residential neighborhoods, civilian facilities and Syrian army positions in Aleppo, killing 24 people, wounding nearly 130, and displacing about 165,000 residents from the Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud districts, according to official figures.
In April 2025, Syrian authorities signed an agreement with the YPG concerning the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods, stipulating that both districts would be considered administrative parts of the city of Aleppo while respecting their local particularities.
The agreement also included provisions to ban armed manifestations, restrict weapons to internal security forces and require the withdrawal of YPG forces to areas east of the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria.
But authorities said that in the months since, the YPG has not shown any efforts to meet the terms of the agreements.
The Syrian government has intensified efforts to maintain security across the country since the ouster of the Assad regime in December 2024, after 24 years in power.
